The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-12-12
The Story of Julia Page
 By Kathleen Norris

and was expecting a fifth Two of the older children. stupid locking nt- tie blondes, with colds in their noses, and dirt showing under the fair halr, were playing in the dooryard of the | shabby cottage now. The gate hung | loose, the ground was worn bare by | children's feet and dug into holes where children had burrowed, and boxes.
 Emeline was genuinely shocked by 1 the evidences of actual want inside. May was a thin, bent. sickly looking woman now, her graying hair hang ing in a loose coil over her cotton wrapper. Floors everywhere were bareS few chairs were here and there, a few beds running over with thin bedding, a table in the kitclien was covered with scattered dishes, some dirty and some clean Ashes drifted out of the kitchen stove, and in the sink was a great tin dish pan full of cool, greasy water. The oldest child, a f1ve-year-old girl, had followed these dazzling visitors in, and now mounted a box and attackeds
 this dishpan with pathetic energy
 The two younger children sat on the
 floor, alphabetically staring. May
 made only a few smiling apologies.
 They "could see how she was," she said, limping to chair into which
 she dropped with a sigh of relief They had had a "fierce' time since
 Ed-Ed was the husband father had lOSI n1S lOD a year ago. lie nad
 not been able to get anything per manent since. Ed had been there just a minute ago, she said-and in- deed the odor of tobacco was still been having a good deal of stomach trouble of late, and the children 1 made him nervous, and he had gone
 out for walk Poor May, smiling life, drew her frstborn to her knees, brushed back the chi1d's silky, pale | hair with bony, trembling fingers, and l prophesied that things would be easier when mammals gir1ieS got to
 work: Evelyn was going to be a dress
 maker, and Marguerite an actress.
 'She can say a piece out of the | Third Reader real cute-the children
 next door taught her. said May, but
 Marguerite would not be exploited; | she dug her blonde head into her | mothers shoulder in a panic of shy
 ness; and shortly afterward the l Pages went away Uncle George
 gave each child a dime. Julia kissed 1 her little cousins goodbye, and Eme- l line felt a sick spasm of pity and | shame as May bade the children l self. Emeline drew her sister to the
 door. and pressed two silver dollars, l all she happened to have with her, | into her hand.
 May said, ashamed and turning ] crimson, but instantly she took the ! money. We've had an awful hard time-or I wouldnt!' said she. tears coming to her eyes.
 "Oh, that's all right!' Emeline said | uncomfortably, as she ran down the steps. Her heart burned with sym | pathy for poor May, who had been so pretty and so cleverI Emeline ] could not understand the change!
 May had graduated from High school | with honors; she had held a good po- | sition as bookkeeper in a grocery | before her marriage, but, like Eme- | line, for the real business of life SEe had had no preparation at all. Her
 own oldest child could have manag- | ed the family finances and catered to
 sensitive stomachs with as much sys- | tenn and intelligence as May.
 On the boat Emeline spoke of her l little money gift to her sister, and | George reused himself from a deep 1 study to approve and to reimburse | her. They did not speak again of | moving to the country, and went
 straight from the boat to a French l table d'hOte dinner, where Julia, en- i chanted at finding herself warm and near food after the long cold adven- lures of the day, stuffeed herself on l sardines and sour bread, soup and
 salad. and shrimDs and fried chicken, | and drank tumblers of claret and sugar and ice water.
 (COntinued Tomorrow.)