New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-09-05

named star for herr"
1T was the way some ole poem
began. Newland Sanders wrote it.
Florence found it under Aunt Ju-
las sofa cushions and read it all
through, but l wouldn't wade
through all that tooty-tooty for a
million dollars, and l told her to put
it back before Aunt Julia noticed.
Well, about every day he writes
her fresh one, and then in the
evening he stays later than the
other callers, and reads 'em to her
and you ought to hear grandpa
when he gets to talkin' about it,"
"He's perfectly right" said Noble.
Perfectly! What does he say when
he talks about it, Herbert?"
ooh, he says all this and that;
and then he kind Of mutters around,
and you can't tell just what all the
words are exactly, so't he can deny
it if any O. the family accuses him
Of swearing or anything" And Her
bert added casually: "He was kind
Of going on like that about you,
night before last"
"About me! Why, what could he
say about me?''
"Oh- all this and that"
"But what did he find to say?"
"Well, he heard her tellin' you
how you oughtn't to smoke so many
cigarettes and all about how it was
KILN you, and you sayin' you
guessed it wouldn't matter if you
did die, and Aunt Julia, saying 'Oh,
you don't mean that and all this
and such and so on, you know. He
can hear anything on the porch
pretty good from the library; and
Florence told me about that, besides,
because she was sittin' in the grass
and all. She told Greatuncle Joe
and Aunt Hattie about it, too"
my heavens" Noble gasped, as
for the first time he realized to
what trumpeting publicity that SEEM
ingly hushed and moonlit bower,
sacred to Julia, had been given
, over. He gulped, flushed, repeated
my heavens!" twice; and then was
able to add, with feeble imitation
of lightness: II suppose your grand
father understood it was just a sort
Of joke, didn't he?"
"No," said Herbert, and continued
in a friendly way, for he was fiat
tered by Mobiles interest in his re-
marks, and began to feel liking
for him. "No. He said Aunt Julia
only talked like that because she
couldn't think of anything else to
say, and it was wearin' him out. He
said all the good it did was to make
you smoke more to make her think
how reckless you were; but the worst
part of it was, he'd be the only one
to suffer, because it blows all
through the house and he's got to
sit in it. He said he just could stand
the smell of some kinds of cigarettes,
but if you burnt any more O yours
on his porch he was goin' to ask
your father to raise your salary for
collectin' real estate rents, soft you'd
feel able to buy some real tobacco,
or corn silk, anyway. He"--
But the flushed listener felt that
he had heard as much as he was
called upon to bear; and he inter-
rupted, in voice almost out of con-
troll, to say that he must be "getting
on downtown" His young friend,
diverted from bugs, showed the
greatest willingness to continue the
narrative indefinitely, evidently be-
ing in possession of copious mate
rial; but Noble, unostentatiously
dropping cigarette he had been
preparing to light, and stepping on
it, turned to depart. An after
thought detained him. "Where was
it she lost her earring?"
"Who"
"Your Aunt Julia"
"Why, I didn't say she lost any
earring" Herbert returned. 81 said
she always was losin' 'em; | didn't
say she did"
"Then you didn't meant
"No," said Herbert. II haven't
heard of her losin' anything at all,
lately" Here he added: "Well,
grandpa kept goin' on about you; he
told her Well, so long," And
gazed after the departing Mr.. Dill
in some surprise at the abruptness
of the latter's taking. Then,
wondering how the back of Mobiles
neck could have got itself so fiery
sunburnt, Herbert returned to his
researches in the grass.
*
TIME peaceful street, shady and
fragrant with summer, was so
quiet that the footballs of the
CT n N1h1o