Carroll County democrat. (Huntingdon, Tenn.) 188?-1971, 1921-04-29
A Grub Worm and
Butterflies
By A. MARIA CRAWFORD.

o. 1921. BY Mcclure Newspaper syndicate.l
Jane had not wanted to 60 to the
big house party given by her beautiful
and rich young cousin at Chestnut
Lodge, a luxuriously furnished place
In the Chilhowee mountains. Jane
knew well enough that she would fit
into the crowd Alma would invite
about as successfully as a square peg
in round hole, for while Alma had
been finishing her education at Sc
leet school for fashionable young
girls Jane had been earning a liveli-
hood for herself and her widowed
mother by the unromantic route of
stenography.
She did not give herself any airs
and call herself Mr.. Mathews private
secretary, although her duties EN-
braced everything from Office boy to
general manager Of the big marble
quarry, of which Mr.. Mathews was
president. The war had hit the mar
bic industry a pretty hard blow and
Jane had generously given her youth
full strength, energy and enthusiasm
to keeping down expenses until the
quarry began to pay again. Labor
was high.
A man operating derrick demand
ed $3.50 per day, and even the water
boy, a half-witted lad of thirteen,
drew $3.50. Machinery, long idle, had
rusted and had to be replaced. But
the market had suddenly opened with
a bang and Jane dreamed wonderful
dreams of helping poor old Mr. Math-
ews get back Oh his feet in the finan-
cial world. 1t was a sort Of debt of
gratitude.
Mrs. Mathews had been the very
first person to go to their aid when
James father had died suddenly,
leaving his widow and daughter only
modest little home and no means with
which to keep it. 1t had been Mrs.
Mathews who suggested business col
lege and a place later in her husbands
Office.
When the invitation to visit her
pretty, frivolous cousin in the noun
talns had come, Mrs. Mathews had
Joined with James mother In urging
the girl to go.
She had not been in the house more
than six hours before she realized
with a real pang of heart hunger that
she was an outsider and that all the
cousinly tact in the world could not
make her enjoy herself. A grub worm
has nothing in common with a but
terfly. The small talk Of the girls
consisted of Clothes boredom and
gossip. The men frankly made love
to all the girls and were too free,
Jane thought, with their carefully
manicured hands.
Jane never knew how she managed
to get through those first trying days.
She was perfectly miserable and she
tried to hide it. Alma insisted on
lending her exquisite dresses and jew
els, too, but Jane demurred at the
idea Of borrowed finery. So she wore
the simple, inexpensive things and re
garded herself as a drab-colored
grub worm among brilliantly hued
Saturday morning came and the en-
tire party motored down to the sta
ton to meet several men who had
been lured from business by the hunt
Ing Annals game preserve offered
When the train pulled in everybody
over everybody else. Jane
alone remained an outsider. And
then a big jolly fellow, whose brown
hair was already streaked becoming
" with gray, came up to her, cap in
hand.
"They are too busy to notice that
we do not know each other" he said
Il am Phil Marsden."
He managed to sit beside her on
The way to the lodge and for the first
lime since her arrival, Jane felt her
self one of the party. "Alma told me
Ill about you" he said, land l have
been keen ever since then to know
you. I do admire a girl who can |
hold her own against all odds"
Jane felt real relief at that. He |
knew then that she did not belong to
hat, crowd. She was not sailing I'M
Ter false colors. She laughed so heart
ly at one Of his stories later that
Bob Sanders raised his eyebrows and
inquired in his drawing fashion, "Oh
say, Miss Jane, you're positively
ovely when you laugh. Why haven't
you done 1t before?"
Phil asked her to walk around the /
axe before luncheon and 1t was with
/ fas! beating heart that Jane pre-
jared to dress for her first real en-
there. She had laid out a
title blue serge so skillfully embroid-
red by her own nimble fingers that
looked as If 1t might be anybody's
expensive model She was just get
ing into 1t with rather trembling
lands when the bright sun of her
happiness was promptly obscured by
he remark of the sophisticated little
mink who was rooming with her.
II knew that Phil would be nice to
gu. He's engaged to Alma, you
now, and Of course he wants to
make a good impression on his new