Evening star., 1921-04-24
<kCAY. those old boys that used
to write the fables-ain't it
curious how they nearly
ALWAYS had their done

always had their dope
straight?'
1t was my highly improper friend.
Scandalous Doolan. who put the ques-
tion. thereby starting the conversa-
tion OF on an entirely new tack.
Until this, nothing whatever had been
said about fables or the authors of
fables. As / recall, the talk at the
moment dealt with the habits Of
whales--he whales and she whales.
We had been speaking of whales in
the first place. and whales had sug-
gested ships. and ships suggested ice
tergs. and icebergs suggested soda
fountains. and soda fountains sug-
gested frothy things. and frothy
dogs suggested hot weather. and hot
weather suggested light underwear.
and light underwear suggested heav.:
underwear. and heavy underwear sug-
piorers suggested walruses. and wal
rIses suggested whales. So here We
were back again on whales. breezing
along beautifully. when Scandalous'
mind suddenly jibed and went about
Had 1t been any one else who inter-
rupted. am quite sure l should have
felt a momentary sense of pique. A
whale is one of the best things to
talk about that / know Of In regard
10 whales and their peculiarities you
can make almost any assertion with
out fear of successful contradiction.
Nobody knows any more about the
subject than you do You are nor
hampered by facts. If some one men,
tions the blubber of the whale and
you chirp up and say it can be noticed
for miles on a still day when the
large but emotional creature has been
moved to tears by some great sorrow
coming into his life, everybody else
Is bound to accept the statement. Fer
after all. how few among us really
know whether distressed whale sotS
aloud or does so under it's breath?
And who. with any certainty. can tell
whether a mother whale matches her
egg like a hen or leaves it on the
sheltered bosom of ford to be
the midnight sun? The possibilities
of the proposition for purposes Of in
formal discussion. pro and con. are
apparent at a glance.
y + X
DERSONALLY I would give it first
rank. The weather helps out
amazingly when you are meeting peo-
pie for the first time, because there
10 nearly always more or less weather
going on somewhere, and practically
everybody has ideas about it Break
fast also is a wonderfully first-aid
topic to bring up in a mixed company.
Try 1t yourself the next time the con-
versation seems to luIl. Just speak
up in an offhand kind of way and
say you never care much about
breakfast, that a slice of toast and a
cup of weak tea start you off prop
erly for doing a hard days work. You
will be surprised to see how the con
Nersation livens up and how eagerly
all present join in. The lady on your
left feels you should know she al
ways takes two Jumps of sugar and
nearly half cream. because she SIM
ply cannot abide hot milk. no matter
what the doctors say. The gentleman
ION your right will be moved to con-
, fess he likes his eggs boiled exactly
three minutes. no more and no less.
Buckwheat cakes find a champion.
and oatmeal rarely lacks a warm de-
fender. Weather for strangers, but
bear these in mind and you will
never be at = loss for pleasant ways
OF spending the long winter evenings
which are now upon US. But the
greater of these is whales. We had
hardly skinned the subject of whales
when Mr.. Doolan leaped headlong into
fables
Nevertheless / gave him leeway by
waiting in silence for what was to
follow Through long acquaintance
sizes. which are many and unique For
a brief space. after his interrupting
remark. there was silence. 1 held my
tongue and he peered contemplativelyi
glowing tip and with the bottom Of
his glass made little patterns of rings |
upon the marble top Of the table. |
Anon he resumed:
Nov. rrinstanee. speakin' Of
fables. you take that one about the
graashopper and the ant It's been . \
14yofite OF mtne ever since I hrst
heard it From what I've been able
to gather, that particular fable was
first pulled by an old guy named E.
name with one p or two? Anyway,
it's no matter. BY all accounts he
WAS foreigner and most foreigners
have funny monakers, anyway. Even
il he was a wop. he must've been
considerable of a deep thinker-that
old boy. The party that first brings
this fable to my attention tells me E
Sopp lived three or four thousands
years ago. Naturally, i couldn't stand
for that. says to this party. Quit
your kiddin,,' l says to him: this is
You can't go behind them returns.
/ says. And Of course he didn't have
any comeback because ! had the dg-
ures on him. Just the same. i Judge
the old bird dated clear back to be-
IOFc tue year VI tue Dik " In0 III Ire
land. and that's plenty far enough
back for me.
"But speakin' of this fable, the
Erasshopper went pikin' about all
summer wearin' snappy clothes for
varsity hoppers and havin' the time of
his life. Easy come and easy 60
that was his motto. Every time he
got a dollar he spent a dollar and fif-
teen cents of it right away. He
couldn't break five without develop
in some new friends. But all this
time the ant is workin' like a bird
dog. hivin' it up and saltin' it down.
Pretty soon the heated term is over
and fall has come and went. and now
the crool winter Is upon US and the
grasshopper finds hisself as busted
as ha'nt. Bein' out of money, it's a
cineh he Is out of friends too. When
your riches start to fly away. there's
qnite a few that ketch the sound of
them restless rustlin' wings almost
as soon as you do-Ive noticed that
myself. and I'm no member of the
cause they've been cuddlin' up so
close to you that they can hear the
warnin' with such cute acuteness.
"VELL anyway the gra'shopper
starts down the big road. He's
1impin' on both feet, fallen arches havin'
come on him just as soon as he de-
prived his insteps of the constant sup
port OF the bar rail. His hair is stickin'
out through the top Of his straw hat.
and the chill wind OF December is rat
tin his white duck pants. He comes
by the ants house and sees the smoke
pourin' out Of the chimney. The ant is
settin at the front window smokin the
best cigar that any amount of money
up to ten cents will buy and readin'