Omaha daily bee., 1921-05-29
MISS SUNSHINE

most plainly that the best lunch that the
Ecu could manage would suit the ocaision. As
TO the best wine which is light Pouilly, very
agreeabe-indeed, I less certain. l tackled
the question tmdly.
"Oh. yes" responded Mr.. Stanley; "Tn try
the wine of this country, sure. And guess I'm
in safe hands with YOU.
Again Mrs. Stanley interpreted him.
He's like JIM he wants to try everything
OF course" she went on, ''at home we wouldn't
ever think of taking anything. Neither did
Jim"
I encountered Jm's fathers eye. 1t wavered
amably for a moment l was somehow, not
about Jim 1 began to see him hand
some gallant, gay, ready for lifes dangers and
sacrifices but also for its pleasures-a happy
lad who, like many others. came across the
Atlantic if for game. l hope he had en-
joyed Belcotreaux and the light wine OF the
country and even the Cabaret Mondain. But I
that 1 was committed, if necessary, to a
mans conspiracy in face of his mothers sweet
Ohio beliefs and tender small town prejudces.
"Jim wrote u.s. she prattled on, that it
was the custom of the country and that he
drank a little wine and liked it. So we do. Not
that like it very much. I'm afraid"
The little Pouilly like liquid amber In
glasses. l raised mine.
1T isn't wrong is it," l asked, 'for US to
drink--to him?
"How could it be?" she smiled. And in her
lightly raised. delicatey touched glass there
wrought the miracle which, perhaps. it was, un-
consciously meant to. Jim was there with us.
In the market place of Belcotreaux outside the
plane trees twinkled their leaves in a light
breeze and an aged peasant woman disciplined
young and recacitrant pig which she
leading 10y cord attached to its left hind leg.
an agreeable sight, appreciated to its full by
the inhabitants of Belcotreaux. And in our
suni clean, sparsely furnished sale manger
a couple of smiling, plain, overworked watt
buSy It brav uHa
you thought of what has passed and very
French. And somehow it seemed to me that
cheerful Yankee ghost sat with there where
he must often have sat, chatting the plain mid
dle-aged mattresses who were doubtless in love
with him. teaching them slang from home and
singing them the songs from Broadway Would
he not now be drinking our health as we had
drunk his in the little amber Poully? Would
he not have slapped me heartily the back
and told me to see that dad and mother had
the finest little old time that Belcotreaux could
offer? Did he not do so now?
We sat in the sun outside for while with
coffee. AS l imagined Jim would have sug-
gested with a dig at my ribs went slow with
the folks" and said nothing about liquors. But
l lit cigaret, with their permission, of course
1T seems to me-" remarked Mrs. Stanley,
that all America has changed about cigarets.
We used to think them awfully wicked. But
now, since all the boys over here liked them so,
they seem all right, don't they?"
Mamma thinks anything the boys did over
here is all right" her husband suggested lightly.
Yes, do AT any rate, anything Jim did"
1t was a speech L was to mediate upon later;
at the moment | noted 1t with a smile.
They were tracing Jim backwards, meaning
to end near Brest, where he had landed.
I've been looking that city up in the guide
book" said Mr.. Stanley, producing the usual
red-eovered volume. "It says a lot about this
Brest," he went on, but nothing about the
mud, and the mud is about all Jim wrote
about"
Jm's mother smiled slowly and from the bag
she carried she drew forth her guide-book.
His letters she announced softly.
They had been bound together by the local
binder at home. not too we'll, perhaps. But
there American flag, blowing in an evil
IDENTIFY very stiff hurricane inaid in colored
leather upon the cloth cover.
ITS her baedeker."
Her Bible" l yentured.
II don't think you ought to say that" she
murmured. 'I sometimes wonder if I'm wicked
enough to think more of this book than the
other" she went on half to herself.
I daresay there is to this, but
did not know it.
II expect you are pretty wicked" was all
could find to say. Then, Gould one know any
thing Of what he said about Belcotreaux?". 7
yentured.
One could. Indeed heard more than II
would be worth while-reproducing here even II
had the book with the flag to copy from. Jms
gifts were not for writing, they were doubtless
had been into st. Rochs and my Phillips
de Champagne picture, and preached theory
oddly enough, pretty sound as art criticism,
that it funny that fellow named after
such lively wine should paint such a sober
picture.
He had-this was an absurd coincidence
admired in the market place old lady strug-
Cling with young porker just had that
pleasant morning. He had kind word to say
for the small brimming river Tre, though the
~ oJd rly ichc i'm,
crazy" He knew the Ecu de France and all
the cafes-this was quite obvious-and, most
intimately of all OF them the Cabaret Mondain.
Some cabaret" he denominated (which 1t
wass as well knew.
You'd laugh" wrote Jim, 'if you the
dump where l generally spend my evenings.
Gee, even back In Lanesville we'd never stand
for it, and they say the French are the Kings
of Pleasure when they haven't got a. war on
their hands. Still, it's place to CO. And
there are two pretty girls-mostly one
who is sorry for US fellows who far away
from home. And we do get lonely. Believe me.
mother, miss"
Jims mother stopped reading aloud here.
There are unimportant passages in boys let
ter's home which do not seem unimportant to
the recipients. She closed the book and then
turned to smilingly.
wen go to this cabaret tonight-shall me ?'
well, shall we?" I answered. ~ wonder. 1t
isn't just the kind of place where ordinarily
lades-' was foundering on, when her
voice, now very clear indeed, interrupted me.
II don't mind going anywhere where my boy
went"
"Oh" I murmured in confusion, its only
that the songs sometimes But, of course,
you wouldn't understand the songs and"
What / would understand" she explained
she now had to explain things to both her