The Elk Mountain pilot., 1920-07-08
MAY TRIES
BEING A HICK
By WILL T. AMEs


t@ 1859. by Mcclure Newspaper syndicats.)
Among the girls of Manhattan island
there is tradition, immutable as the
laws Of the Medes and the Persians,
mat never yet save through the opera
uon OF extreme violence and utterly
against her own will did one Of the sis
terbood leave the city and go to the
country to live. Wherefore, when May
Dart, expert board operator in the Bry-
ant exchange, informed her friends,
Gladys Stein and Ethel Manning, that
she was quitting the job that night and
going to, Stonyport. away on in the
wiids Of Connecticut, to live. they ST.
multaneously gaped at her incredu-
lously. and with one voice cried:
"Going to the countreel To stay |!
Gonna live with the squirrels and be a
hick! For gawdsake. May, hawdja get
that wayr"
"Aw, just thought I'd like to do
something different" replied May, nom
chalantly. Which was not the whole
truth.
Doctor MacKintry. who had prac-
ticed in the Ninth ward more years
than May was old, and who had known
her parents-eased their successive
tuberculous departures out Of the
world, in fact-had cajoled. command
ed. bullied and finally thoroughly
frightened May into getting away from
New York before. as he phrased 1t,
New York got her.
And SO 1t came to pass that May.
having been given a highly compliment
tary Recommendation by her chief, af-
ter a conference with that kindly off,
cial. had APP led for a place in the
Stonyport telephone central and had
been enthusiastically accepted. You're
going in time" said MacKintry. IF
you come back in less than a year I'll
throw you on the dock"
Stonyport fiuttered between the con-
dition Of big village and the status Of
small city. It called itself the lat
ter. and Its most sophisticated society
women smoked cigarettes sometimes in
the grills of the big Massapeag hotel.
But its people still term the railroad
station the depot" and tradition and
politics between them had SO far sue
ceeded in preserving the bucolic insti-
tuition of q volunteer fire department.
May, as an hereditary cockney, ex-
perienced a sense of obligation to look
upon Stonyport with amused tolerance; ;
an attitude in which she persisted.
though she soon perceived that a tele-
phone station was a telephone station,
whether In New York or New England.
and that the limousines on State street
looked about as costly as the ones on
Forty-second.
The Stonyport air. however, was
fresher and cleaner than the carbon
lied mixture that serves New York.
and the big. airy three-windowed room
overlooking 4 vista Of gardens. Of
which May was the exclusive mistress,
furnished q staggering contrast to the
tiny cell. smelling Of gas. from which
she had looked out on the dreary rear
walls Of Bank street.
Also. because there was no Gladys
and no Ethel and NO Bryant Exchange
Dancing club. and no long list Of the
aters and no Coney-no anything, 1t
seemed. May got more sleep. and
sounder. than she had ever known In
her twenty-four years. So she knew
Doctor MacKintry for the wise old owl
that he was-but she wasn't having q
good time and again she voted Stony
port a Jay town.
II was Inevitable. Of course. that the
coming Of Fred Faxon into the life of
the girl at this lonely stage Of II
should be epochal. Logical enough in
any event inevitable when he was big
and good-looking and had been through
the thick Of the hell in France and had
come back to laugh over 1t and tell
funny stories about 1t by the hour.
He was the nephew Of Mays nne
old landlady-that's how their ac-
Quaintance came about-and he was
Just starting in business, q shining
model delicatessen shop. He had had
to start on a shoestring. he confided
to May. and his ''wop" landlord would
only give him a miserly two years
lease. "But fellow learned to take
chances over there. II he didn't learn
anything else" Perhaps 1t was be-
less hazardous-his prospects in life
better-that May caught Faxon look
ing at her so wistfully every now and
then.
The Stonyport post of the American
Legion was giving a ball. for the en-
hancement of its building fund-a big
affair In the armory. May. resplendent
in the selfsame black and gold party
gown that had almost made enemies Of
Gladys and Ethel at the Bryant clubs
reception six weeks before. regally de-
scended the stairs to find Faxon. in his
service uniform. waiting in gasping ad-
miration in the hall. a.l.-
"You look wonderful" he exclaimed.
Are you all ready? We're not going
to he a minute too early"
"As soon as put on my wrap" May