Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1920-12-03
Aladdin's Lamp
Bv ULMAR
IA 100. western Newspaper Unionl

ran down to the river n at the llIIIe
inlet one morning Ned came across an
old house boat. 1t lay in shallow wa
ter, the hold had been STAYED in put
it's cabin was intact, although the
deck had been stripped of everything
Of value.
at has been abandoned" Ned told
his sister Airline, "and it's ours, isn't
it? I have a famous idea. I'm going
to get our crowd of boys to haul IL
clear ashore, prop it up, paint n re-
pair it and we'll use it as a sort OF
river club house."
The young friends of Ned Burton en-
tered with a vim and spirit into the
project. Within a few days they had
the old craft hauled free of the water
line and set solidly on the sandy SOIL.
1t was a pretty spot, lined with trees
and bushes, and for two weeks there
was constant work on the interior OF
the cabin. Airline assisted in this.
She welded a paint brush quite as eff
fectively as her brother and pieced
some old carpeting in the home gar
ret u ludhG d rug " lhC W. HOOA'
She coaxed some old pieces of broker
furniture from her mother, looped
some curtains at the windows and
felt almost as much interested in this
shore palace as Ned himself.
Airline came into the cabin one after
noon to find Ned seated at it's table
with the parts of a hanging lamp be-
fore him. 1t had been a gorgeous ar
ticle in its primitive ~perfectness. 1t
had a globe with dangling crystals,
pulled up and down on a chain, and
pulleys, and promised to become the
principal ornament of the now coy
and neat appearing cabin.
"Why, where did you get it, Ned?'
she questioned in wonderment.
pushed way back in that cubby
hole behind the closet" explained Ned.
1.-THE chain is broken and the globe
has a piece out of it. It's a famous
lamp and holds lots of oil. I'll bet it
makes a great light" and he rubbed
briskly at the furnished metal. "Say,
it reminds me of Aladdin's lamp.
Maybe this is going to mend all
bad luck"
They had known bad luck, or called it
that, in the past. Crops had been
poor, an uninsured barn on the home
place had burned down with some farm
machinery it contained, and Ned had
to stay away from school to help out.
There were no parties or village fes-
Aa-.A:e- e.. olou-io- ArI;1o &6n+ xrnor
but she cheerfully did her share of the
work and hoped for better times.
The lamp was set in place, every
thing ready for a celebration OF the
event arranged, and Airline was alone
in the cabin tidying it up for the ex-
pected guests who were to arrive in an
hour. Ned had gone after them. Her
work completed. Airline sat looking
over a portfolio that Ned had found
in the woods the day previous. He
had come across it under a tree where
some one had camped, for there was
evidence of this fact in scattered food
and the ashes of a fire. Ned had
brought the article to Airline, explain
ing all this.
The portfolio was made of fine leath-
err and was apparently costly, and
there in gilt letters on it's exterior the
initials v. D. Inside were some 30
pencil sketches, and one of them was
that of Airline standing at the well Of
the old home. She was pleased, yet
mystiied at this, and more so at sew
eral roughly penciled sketches in
which the same face and figure were
~canvases."
"The portfolio belongs to some art
list on his summering jaunt," decided
Airline. "He must have been near the
house when l did not see him, and
made that hurried sketch of me. Why
has he been using it as a model for
more ambitious pictures? Certainly I
have no such beauty and grace as
these exacting artists require for their
%canvases."
Just at that moment, although she
was W Of it, some one was
viewing her through the open cabin
window, attributing to her indeed just
those characteristics of perfection. She
made a perfect picture for painter,
poet or lover at that moment. The
bright light fell across her fair golden
hair. setting it all a glimmer with
radiance, her unique environment
served to brighten the effect of her
daintiness and loveliness by contrast
with her somewhat unusual surround
ings. 1t was the eye of a painter that
took all this in, that of Vane Darrell, and
he reveled in the fascinating element
of the cen
She was his girl of the well whom
he had sketched from a covert. near
the house a week agone in his casual
summering stroll. The impression of
that moment was lasting with him,
and now it was intensified with glad
ness as he recognized his sketch port