The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1919-12-26

and nearly all seemed harsied By
something impending. though here and
there a woman with bundles would be
laughing to q compan.on about some
adventure of the department store. OF
perhaps an escape from the charging
traffic of the streets-and not infre-
quently a girl. or a free-and-easy
young matron. found time to throw an
encouraging look TO George.
He took no note OF these. and. leav-
Ing the crowded sidewalks turned
north into National avenue. and pres
emily reached the quieter but no less
begrimed region of smaller shops and
old-fashioned houses. Those latter had
been the homes of his boyhood play
mates. old friends of his grandfather
had lived here-i1 this alley he had
fought with two boys at the same
time, and whipped them: in that front
yard he had been su .cessfuliy teased
into temporary insanity by Sunday
school class of pinky little girls On
that sagging porch laughing woman
had fed him and other boys with
doughnuts and gingerbread; yonder he
saw the staggered relics of the iron
picket fence he had made his white
pony jump, on dare, and In the
shabby. stone-faced house behind the
fence he had gone to children's p4r-
ties. and, when he was a little older
he had danced there often, and fallen
in love with Mary Sharon. and kissed
her. apparently by force, under the
stairs in the hail. The double front
doors, of meaninglessly carved walnut.
once so glossily vanished. had been
painted smoke gray. but the smoke
CRIME showed repulsively. even on the
smoke gray; and over the doors a
smoked sign proclaimed the place to
be Stag hotel"
This was the last walk home" he
was ever to take by the route he was
now following: up National avenue to
Anderson addition and the two big
ole houses at the foot Of Anderson
boulevard; for tonight would be the
last night that he and Fanny were TO
spend in the house which the Major
had forgotten to deed TO Isabel To-
morrow they were to "Enoye out and
George was to begin his work in Bron-
sons office He had not come TO this.
collapse without q fierce struggle-but
the struggle was inward, and the roll
ing world was not agitated by II.
and rolled calmly on. For of ali the
ideals of life" which the world, in its
rolling. inconsiderately fiattens out to
nothingness, the least likely to retain
fe 6pnpndS
upon inheriting money. George Am
berson, in spite of his record OF fali-
ures in business, had spoken shrewdly
when he realized at last that money.
like life, was like quicksilver in
nest of cracks" And his nephew had
the awakening experience of seeing
the great ANDERSON estate vanishing
into such neSt-in a twinkling; 1t
seemed, now that it was indeed so ut
terly vanished.
On this last h0meward walk of his,
when George reached the entrance to
Anderson addition-that is, when he
came to where the entrance had for
merly been-he gave little start.
and halted for moment to stare.
This was the first time he bad no.
uceQ CnaI the stone pillars. IldIhi1is
the entrance, had been removed. Then
he realized that for a long time he had
been conscious of a queerness about
this corner without being aware of
what made the difference. National
avenue met Anderson boulevard here
a. an obtuse angle. and the removal of
the pillars made the boulevard seem
cross street of no overpowering i'm
enthusiastically 1t did not seem to
be boulevard!
George walked by the Mansion hur-
riedly, and came home to his mothers
house for the last time.
Emptiness was there, too, and the
closing of the door resounded through
bare rooms for downstairs there was
no furniture In the house except 4
kitchen table in the dining room. which
Fanny had kept 'for dinner" she said.
though as she was TO cook and serve
that meal herself George had his
doubts about her name for it. Upstairs,
she had retained her own furniture,
and George had been living In his
mothers room. having sent everything