Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1920-08-19
PRINCE AND PUPPY
sy cHRlsTlNE HAYES.

This greeting was shouted In Sing
song and reached Victoria Reed full
I've seconds before the Irvine did.
.He has the cunnlngeat little nosel"
AZ always with Zaidee when exciteS
the last word came in q clear and
astonishing high ''g."
"But his skins too loose" ceuddef
Dorothy. sadly.
"Oh. that's all right" laughed Aunfis
Vic. adding, az Dorothy's dark eyes
still doubted, "He'll grow to at It: you
wait and see"
When Victoria had Kissed the twins
and petted the puppy and rescued the
skirt of her new tweed suit from his
undiscriminating teeth. she inquired:
where's your motherr
"Gone to party. She left note
for you. It's on the hall table,"
eco get it, zaidee." Dorothy sug
gested. Victoria opened the note care
lessly. which read:
"Sorry I can't be here. dear. Make
yourself at home. Ollie win give you
some lunch. See you soon. NJ. C.'s
In town."
Victoria gave little breathless, In
voluntary, "Oh" and her face grew
as white as q healthy coat of tan
would let It.
What's the matterl" chorused the
twins.
mot thing, sugar angels" replied
their appallingly untruthful aunt, Tex
cept I'm az hungry as q couple Of
bears"
III she was SO awful hungry" Zai-
dee wanted to know, when the adored
young aunt had gone to change ner
dress, IF she was so awful hungry,
Dots, why didn't she eat anything3"
But that, 80 far as Dots was con-
cerned, seemed destined to remain Q
mystery.
Meanwhile. Victoria. donning ruff
ded blue wolfe, hummed a popular
song. That didn't seem to go SO very
well, but she caught herself singing
something she had not meant to sing
and stopped abruptly. 1t seemed she
couldn't get away from Mark Crane
IL she tried; even his silly song pos
sessed her.
oh, we'll, she shrugged. his being IN
the same town needn't make any differ
ance to her. She hoped, of course,
that she wouldn't meet him. but II she
did-well, what of that? She wouldn't
admit she was sorry until Mark gave
In. and she knew Mark well enough to
thok hn r,1x
in till she showed that she was sorry.
So there 1t was-a vicious circle.
She didn't care, anyway. Not a BIZ.
She cried little then and there Just
to prove It.
"She does weigh more than two
sQuirrels!" Shrill alteration from be-
low interrupted the current of her
thoughts. Left to themselves In the
heat Of debate, the twins were apt to
scratch and pull each others hair with
. fury calculated to set the neighbors
| a-speculating on the Darwinian theory.
Victoria hurried down.
"Don't you weigh more than two
squirrels, Auntie Wet" demanded Zai-
dee. passionately.
"Well," reasoned Dorothy, I'VE ask
ed mother how much she weighed and
she said as much as horse and two
squirrels and monkey. and you can
see for yourself that n mother
weighs"
Victoria laughed helplessly at her
plump sisters subterfuge to keep the
entire neighborhood from knowing her
exact weight.
| "Where's the puppy1" she asked.
This diversion proved more than sue.
cessful, for the puppy WIS in fact,
missing.
"And only yesterday" Zaidee mourn
ed. The chewed up my little live duck"
Her aunt stared aghast. swell, any
way" she qualified, II pretended II
was alive"
After futile search. It developed
that Rus, the grocer's boy, had seen q
small yellow dog-"Yes'm, down the
street little ways" So Auntie Vic,
with doleful twin clinging to each
hand, set out in the direction indicated,
| They came upon the puppy sitting in
front Of dry goods store Cooking sor-
ry" as Dorothy put 1t. ooh, look r
she shrieked, delightedly, "he's waving
his ear at usv"
He gave them an unquestionab]J en-
thusiastic reception, and as Victoria
stopped to pat him, his awkward, Gag
er paw caught In the slender gold chain
about her neck. The chain broke and
the locket It had suspended spun into
the gutter.
"Permit me-" It was Mark Crane
who stood, stifi1y courteous, holding
out her locket to her. A bit of paper
escaped from 1t and fiuttered to the
sidewalk. \ AS Mark stopped to recover
that also, he read on it in Victoria's
handwriting, "Prince of Dreams" In
picking it up he shamelessly Tipped 1t
over with his nail-the photographed
face was his owni
'Th-thank you." said Victoria, in a
voice not much louder than the one
with which conscience is credited.
Their eyes met, and Mark grinned-
little-boy grin, haunting. complacent.
but very. very happy. 1t was as II he
had said number Of things-things
| like "Ya-a-h! you had to give I'M" and
II knew you couldn't get along without
me. Smarty!" Which. had Victoria
loved him less, would have been suffi-
cient kindling for supplementary
| quarrel.
But, loving him. she knew the grin
held much of wistfulness, and that
there was significance In the propri-