Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1921-11-26
By
Booth
Harrington
Oopyright, iDa1
By the Bell syndicate, Inc.

the ancient carriage-house doors, open
Ing unon a driveway through ting
yard) had recently been made eiIec-
tive MS an instrument Of exciusion'
A long and heavy plank leaned against
the wall, near by, ready to be SCI ~
hook-shaped iron supports fasteneu -
the inner sides Of the doors; ana
when the doors were closed, with TINS
great plank Ia place, q person insiae
the building might seem entitled g
count upon the enjoyment q privacy
except In case of earthquake, tornado
or fire. In fact, the size Of the PLANK
and the substantial quality OF the IRON
fastenings, could be looked upon.
from a certain viewpoint, as heart.
felt compliment to the energy and per-
sistence of Florence Atwater.
Herbert had been In no compn'
mentary frame Of mind, however
when he devised the instructions, nor
was he now In such frame OF MIND.
He was deeply pessimistic In regard
to his future. and also embarrassed ~
anticipation Of some explanations y
would be necessary 70 make 20 MS
partner. He strongly hoped THAT
Henry's regular af.er-school appear.
ance at the newspaper building would
precede Florence's, because these ex-
plantations required both deliberat'on
and tact. and he was convinced that
1t would be almost impossible to make
them at all If Florence got there first.
He understood that he was unfor-
tunately within her power; and he
saw that IL would be dangerous to
place In operation for her exclusion
from the building this new mechanism
contrived with such hopeful care, and
al d cost of two dollars and twenty
1--WE cents. or nine annual subscrlp-
tions to the Oriole out OF a present
total OF thirty-two. What he wished
Henry to believe was that for some
good reason, which Herbert had not
vet been able to invent, 1t would be
better to show Florence little pO-
likeness. He had desperate hope
that he might find some diplomatic
way to prevail on Henry to be as SUBJ
servient TO Florence as she had
seemed to demand, and he WAS deter
mined to touch any extremity OF un-
yeracity rather than permit the de-
tails Of his answer In Truth to come
10 his partners knowledge Henry
Rooter was not Wallie Torhin; but In
possession of material such as this
he could easily make himself intoler-
able. Here was strange human
thing, strange vet common TO most
minds broodng I'm fenr OF publicity
We seldom realize that the people
whose derIsion we fear may have been
as imprudent as we have been.
Therefore, 1t was fiji d Hurried state
Of mind that Herbert waited; and
| when his friend appeared. over the
fence, his perturbation was not de.
creased. He even failed to notice the
unusual gravity of Henry's mnnner.
"Hello, Henry; thought wouldn't
start in work till you got here. didn't
want TO haf to come all the way
downstairs again to open the door
and hist our good ole plank up
| again."
II see,' said Henry. glancing ner-
vously at their good ole plank. "Well,
| | guess Florence'll never get In this
good ole door--that Is, II we don't
let her, or something"
This final clause would have sur
prIsed Herbert If he had been less pre-
occupied with his troubles. "You bet
she won'tw he said mechanically
"She couldn't ever get In here again
IL the family didn't go intafering
around and give me the dickens and
everything, because they think--thcy
say they do. anyhow--they say they
think--they think"
He paused, Disgusting little choke
as a cough OF scorn for the family's
/ thinking.
"What did you say your family
thinkT Henry asked absently.
"Well, they say we ought TO let her
have share In our newspaper"
Again he paused, afraid to continue
lest his hypocrisy appear so barefaced
as to lead toward suspicion and dis
covery We'll, maybe we ought" he
said, his eyes guiltily upon his toe.
which slowly scuffed the ground Il
don't say we ought, and don't say
we oughtn't."
He expected at least a burst Of out.
ragged protest from his partner, who.
on the contrary, pleasantly astonished
him. swell, that's the way look at
IT," Henry said II don't say we ought
and / don't say we oughtn't"
And he, likewise, stared at the toe
Of his own right shoe, which was also
scuffing the ground. Herbert felt n
little better; this subdivision Of bis
difficulties seemed TO be working out
with surprising ease.