South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1920-11-04

7 tell you-the last time. Oh. you
VIII understand"
The household seemed to consist
Of only Bell and his wife and a ser
want or two. / was introduced to
Mrs. Bell at supper.
AT drst sight she seemed 10 be
handsome woman, but I soon per
celved that her charm had been
spoiled An uncontrolled petulanCe
i thought. and emotional egOtism
an absence OF pOisc and a habitual
dlssatisfac had marred her
womanhOod. During the meal, she
showed that false gayety. spurious
kindliness aud rcactiOnary s0ftness
that mark the woman addicted TO
tantrums. Withal. she was Wom-
an who might be attractive 10 many
men.
After supper, Bell and I took our
chairs outside. set them on the
grass i'm the moonlight and smoked.
The fun moon is a witch In her
light. truthful men dig up for you
nuggets Of purer gold; while liars
squeeze out brighter colors from the
tubes Of their invention / saw BOTS
broad. slow smile come out upon his
face and linger there
II reckon you think George and
me are a funny kind Of friends" he
said THE fact is we never lid
take much interest in each others
company. But his idea and mine Of
what a friend should be, was aIwayz;
synonymous and we lived up 20 It,
strict all these years Now, I'll
give YOU an idea OF what our idea
is.
"A man don't need but one
friend. The fellow who drinks your
liquor and hangs around you, slap
ping YOU on the back and taking up
your time, telling you how much he
likes YOU, amt a friend even il you
did play marbles with him. As
long as YOU don't need a friend one
of that kind may answer. But a
friend, TO my mind. is one you car.
deal with ON a strict reciprocity
basis like me and George have al
ways done
A good many years ago, him and
me was connected in a mum Der Of
ways. We put our capital together
and run a line OF freight wagons in
New Mexico, and we mined some
and gamblcd a few And then, we
got into trouble Of one or two kinds:
and j reckon that got US on a bet
ter understandable basis than any
thing else did, unless il was the fact
that we never had much personal
use for each others ways George
is the vainest man I ever see, and
the biggest brag. He could blow
the biggest Eeyser in the Yosemite
valley back into its hole with one
whisper. ] am a quiet man, and
fond of StudiousncSs and thought.
The more we used TO see each other.
personally, the less we seemed to
like TO be together If he ever had
slapped me on the back and snivell-
f ed over me like I've seen men do
10 what they called their friends
know I'd have had "a rough and
tumble with him on the spot Same
way with George. He hated my
ways as bad as I did his. When we
were mining. we lived in separate
tents, so as not 20 intrude our OBJ
noNiousness on each other.
But after "a long time. we be-
gun to know each OF us could de-
pend on the other when we were in
"a pincn, up TO his last dollar. word
Of honor or perjury, bullet, or drop
of blood we had in the world We
never spoke of il TO each other. be
cause that would have spoiled it,.
But we tried IL out. time after time.
until we came 10 know. I've grab
bed my hat and jumped a freight
and rode 200 Males TO identity him
when he was about to be hung by
mistake. in Idaho, for n train rob
Der. Once. / laid sick OF typhoid
in tent i'm Texas. without a dollar
Or a change of clothes. and sent for
+ George in Boise City. He came on
the next train. The first thing he
did before speaking TO me. was to
hang up a little looking glass on the
side Of the tent and curl his nous
tache and rub some hair dye on his
head. His hair is naturally a light
reddish. Then he save me tho
most scientific Cussing I ever had
and took off his coat
II YOU wasn't a Moses-raeek lit
tie Mary's lamb. YOU wouldn't have
been took down this way says ne.
Haven't you got gumptiOn enough