Evening star., 1919-03-16


ert, aged ten, is four feet and seven
inches tall, and that the farmers are
Tapping the sugar water trees pre-
paratory to making moiasses.
That isn't a very long paragraph.
but 1t tells me much about the spring
social activities in western Indiana
And, I suppose, 1t IN much the same
In every other rural community where
you folks. for It IL seldom. indeed.
that one finds any one hero in WASH
Angton who did not come from the
country.
~
Anyhow, all three of those ele-
ments 1 have mentioned-sister's new
dress the height Of the boy and the
r-maklng-bring before me as
clearly as II 1t were cameo carving
bring before me the springs social
activities in three different lines-the
woman folks. the young boys and
girls and the general community.
Let US consider. first. the dress. 1t
has been a long winter and pretty
cold. And there has been mucn nu
and mighty few social engagements.
Folks have kept close to nome Dus
things viii pick up apa now tns h,nhwaYs ,na1 avs
are becoming decent places to travei
ON. The attendance at church wlll
pick up. Now and then the mothers
VIII find time to go over to the ols-
trict schools and see the teacaer aa ..,nD ~
--soors' spell their offspring have not
tlynaynited the schoolhouse or been
otherwise unruly. And. also. perhaps,
lust to see how 1t Is to go to schooi
again. never yet have seen
mother who did not make excuses
about going to school a-visiting, like
a grown man makes excuses LOT
taking his boy and himself to the
circus. Then there is much more
going to town to do. In snort, ios
more running around. Hehce, %
course, new dress becomes neces-
sity.
But now we come to a more serious
subtect-that, of the social activities
Of the young folks.
strongly suspected the last time l
saw Robert that he was about to cast
his hat into the social arena. ne
blushed terribly and told his father TO
SAY nothing" when I asked him IN
casual way about the young girls IN
school.
And so he Is four feet and seven
inches tall. Great guns! OF course. he
Is gyrating among the ladies. NO boy,
] should say. ever gets ABOVE 1our
feet six inches without getting a real,
honest goodness case on some gal.
Why, come to think Of It, this spring,
come some thirty years ago, ! was
just four feet seven inches myselt,
and then.
/ got through the winter, all right.
but when spring came my fancy d1d
not idly turn to thoughts Of love. 1t
turned to thoughts of love rampant,
rip-roaring, snorSng like, so to speak.
and I certainly did burst forth as a
gay youth.
got flying start on Saint Valen-
tines day. We had had warm day
or two before the fatal 14th and
] was all het up to let the lady
a certain taffy-haired miss-know all
about what was ailing me as related
chased the gaudiest. giddiest valen-
tine that cents would buy. 1t
surely was a cuckoo. 1t had more
lace on it than the curtains of our
front parlor windows, and verse
that would have knocked the ordinary
gal dead right in her tracks.
For two hours after affixed one
cent postage stamp on the letter.
hung around the post office. waiting
for the young lady to appear. and then
she came. ! reckon 1 was something
like Pendennis. You remember he
wrote. in "At the Church Porch"
something about waiting for a gal to
appear. "She's come, she's here, she's
past" or something like that. Any
how. l waited and was all full of po-
etry.
Unfortunately. the valentine did not
make hit with the young lady In
fact. she cast it into q public waste
basket. And 1t was more than an hour
before the post Office lobby clear
ed sufficiently for me to rescue the
said valentine. SO that prying eyes
never would see my writing on It.
or course. / was heartbrsken, but
the worst was yet to come. 1t seem
ed that another young man all full
OF amorous notions like me had. ex-
pended as much as SO cents on very
de luxe valentine for the young
woman. and she, believing that had
purchased this wonderful creation,
sent his valentine back to me.
All Of this was terribly discourag-
ing, of course. yet I bore up and
throughout the spring made very vio-
lent love to the young lady. That is
to say. when I saw her coming l
always crossed the street to avoid
meeting her, when l passed near her
house I always turned a few hand
springs. and whenever thought that
che would be any place where I
could see her without her seeing me,
] would go there. And once | almost
got close enough to her to touch the
end Of her hair, which she wore In
long braid down her back