The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-04
AND IMOGENE
By ROE FULKERSON

That is the very most beautiful
 thing in the world!" exclaimed Imo-
 gene with enthusiasm as she looked
 lovingly at an orchid Andrew had
 brought her. Don't you think so?"
 she asked
 lazily at his cigarette, q have seen a
 lot of better looking things than
 that in my life.
 The first thing l remember that seemed the most beautiful thing in the world was when I was quite a small boy. I was always fond of hunting and I had never had any gun except single barreled shotgun l
 had bought for myself, and it was
 muzzle-loader, at that. On my fif-
 teenth birthday my dad bought me a
 double barreled breech- loader tha,
 was without doubt the most beauti- full thing I had ever seen up to that time. When he gave 1t to me it was SO beautiful that instead of thank l ing him for it I simply sat down and
 bawled like a calf that had been
 taken away from it's mother. Later | in life l saw things better looking
 than that gun.
 The next most beautiful thing as l now recall was when I was about 1 Is l went into the mountains on a camping trip and there at the foot of a waterfall, bordered with laurel
 and tall whispering pines, tossed
 fly into an amber pool and yanked out my first brook trout. As the i Sun hit its many colored and polka
 dotted sides, I was sure it was the
 most beautiful thing I had ever sesn.
 put l was to see yet more beautiful things in later life.
 .sI remAmher opa pioht u,t,.,. moon was as big as a tobacco hoes- | head, stood on bridge with an
 lS-year-old girl and told her l loved her and asked her if she would marry me. She looked up in my face and by the light of that big moon l saw her shining eyes as she said she would and then l was sure that her
 face was the most beautiful thing in the universe, and dear. you certainly
 were some chicken in those days; but later in life I saw things yet more
 beautiful than that face. You, of course, know I was born inland and
 up to the time we were married I had never seen the sea Then that June we were married, on our wed : ding trip you know we went to the
 ocean and there for the first time I saw something which actually came up To all my expectations. The rail road. blue sea merging into the blue sky. the white sails and the white clouds, the tilting gulls, the white crested waves; 1 just wanted to open my arms and take it all to my breast, and although grown up, the same l lump which had risen in my throat when l was presented with the gun came again and I wanted to cry. But since ten l have found that there were even more beautiful things. "Yod know when we first came here We were trying to stretch a shoestring into a lanyard. You know that early in our married life we had to split dollar three ways to get along. Once during that time I went
 on a trip by boat with some men from wnom 1 expected to get busi-
 ness an1 like a fool got into a poker game with them Once when there was vastly more money on the ta- ble than I could afford to lose. stuck around with three aces. Half dozen times l was raised till I
 could hardly keep my feet on the floor. In the draw, two of the men playing against me refused to draw cards. so pulled right down to mine
 and caught the Ace of clubs! Honey.
 could have kissed that card I | thought it was the prettiest thing in the world and thought so for a long time afterwards, but I have learned better.
 You know about that time we bought this house on the why pay
 rent plan and l gave the man q wheelbarrow full of notes and one
 day several life times after that I got the last one back. paid. Then
 knew I had seen the very prettiest
 thing in the world! It's a cancelled note. and-''
 But Imosene had indignantly left the room.