New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-01-16

~~s>~~~s VAN &1Sv
"Has hs any pollywogs?"
mo. Listen, Jimsy. He hasn't
any pollywogs, but he's got some
thing Daddy wants, some work he
wants to do; and he sent for Daddy
and oh, such lots depend on it, Jim,
Jams, just lots and lots of things
like"-she CROPPED for words-"like
automobiles"-
ITO 60 for pollywogs?"
eyes, to go for pollywogs."
He stared at her, entranced.
"Does the gov'nor-man like
Daddy?"
CT hope So" There was lit !
catch in her voice. "He just must
Jim-Jamsw
you're burnih' that cake! hi
told her practically, and she came
down to earth.
1t was half an hour later that she
surveyed the house.
GIVE given it lick and prom.
ise," she told Jim Junior. "It isn't
what the neighbors would call rea1
housekeeping, you know; but with
the garden and this weather.
She looked wistfully outdoors.
"Tum on!" said the Spanking i'm.
periously, and she succumbed.
"Hang the dishesv' she declared
gayly. ".We'll put them in the larg-
est dishpan and wash 'em tonight
after it's dark. No use wasting this
glorious sunshineW And together
they raced out into the garden.
u y
IT WAS a lovely garden, the kind
you dream about, a tangled will
derness of vines and flowers, with a
thousand little hidden beauty spots
where one might come upon a fairy
unawares. And in the very center a
tree that was living temple. 1t
was mulberry, with twisted
trunk and great limbs that ran out
in broad parallel curves, making a
score of comfortable seats high
above the grass beneath.
cit was really the tree we rented"
Babs had explained on one occa-
sion; "the house was just, thrown
in" It wasn't much of a house,
either, just a tumble Of rooms
thrown together at crazy angles
But the Martins had papered it in
he delightful days after their COM
ing to the university to join the
faculty group on the hill and be-
fore JiN,Jam's arrival. Papered it
with matrix, begged from a nearby
newspaper Office. And if James
Senior limited that Babs had driven
most of the tacks with the frivolous
heel of her frivolous slipper she
was apt to retort with the unde-
niable truth that he had mixed the
paint in their only stew kettle, and
the family meals were thereafter
for a considerable period favored
with turpentine.
Once in the garden, the three
made for the tree and established
themselves in their accustomed
places, Babs in a broad fork of the
branches, some ten feet from the
ground, James Junior swarming
from limb to limb, and the Spank
ling in her pen, home manufac-
tured affair which waB the seven
days. wonder of the neighborhood.
1t was composed Of Stats and chick
en- wire, and was not unlike mon
key cage; but she allowed herself to
be shut in it without a tremor and,
swinging with the movement of the
tree, was as content as bird in its
nest.
In her hands Babs carried stock
ing bag; but she soon dropped it to
the ground. There was always to-
morrow, when things like that might
be done; now so many more impor-
tant affairs claimed her attention.
James Junior, for instance, with his
irsistent demands upon her time, and
the Spanking, who wanted to be
rocked in her nest. Then there was
a birds nest to be investigated, and
the fairies had left marvellous cob
web-lace curtain in the jade-green
depths of the tree, and there were
so many things to explore.
And in the mean time letter Law
in the neat red box before the gate.
and within the house the telephone
was jangling, while at the other end
of the wire James Senior was hold
ing his head.
II know she's therel" he was OK
planning to the operator. "She Just
must be!'
Contrary to her won't, the opera
tor smiled back at him. 1t was easy
to smile at James Senior, he was so
xyo,,po Ga ,.lJs. ..1 l.