The Topeka state journal., 1922-03-03
EOening Story
Pretty Girls.

The State Bank of Remington had
just installed a machine which obvi-
ated hum an adding and subtracting-
one which totaled at column of figures
in neat little typewriter letters, much
to the astonishment of the elder men
of the Village, who declared that "It
can't be done.'' The company who
made the machine suggested that they
send some one~up to their school for
two or three weeks to learn how to
operate the machine efficiently. And,
of course, there was no one but Ed
Collins to go. Ed Collins was the only
one who worked in the bank except
the presid ent./
Ed Collins was delighted at the
prospect of going. He rushed right
down Main street as fast as he could
to tell Anna about it. He felt con-
fident that she would be quite as de-
lighted as he. But she wasn't. She
was sweeping the front porch, which
was already speckless. Her hair was
in a soft coil at the back of her head
and there were slight puffs over each
ear. Her crisp blue apron had a perky
bow of white lawn holding it together
at the back, and her cheeks were pink
from the exercise of sweeping. Alto
gether she was a pretty Sight-pink
and blue and creamy skin topped by
golden hair. She was not beautiful.
There were at least half a dozen girls
prettier in Remington than she, but
some way or other Anna and Ed had
always gone together as the folks
in Remington said.
Ed was thinking about all of this as
he sat in the living room Of his aunt's
tiny flat on the next Saturday morn
ing. He had applied himself to the
work at the school and had learned
all that he needed to know for the
bank work and was ready to start
home again. When his aunt had sug-
gested staying in the city until Sunday
night he had eagerly accepted the in
vitation, for he wanted to look about
a little. He had been dumfounded
when he had first seen the vast num-
bers of pretty girls that lived in the
city. He had heard vaguely that city
girls were lockers" as the Reming-
ton boys said, but these girls in this
neighborhood were absolutely stun
ming.
There was one upstairs that he had
seen several times-fn his short stay,
and he had wished that his aunt would
introduce them. This girl was a
pretty blonde, whose hair was always
waved and dressed in the latest way
Her skin was marvelous-a. pink and
white puHctuated by soft red lips.
She had never looked at him directly,
but he had felt that she knew he was
there. She was a fairly young girl,
probably not more than seventeen.
That she was yet in high school he
knew. for he saw her carrying books
II.
Ed, there's the postman. Run
down and get the mail for me-" called
his aunt from the back of the flat
Ed felt annoyed at her use of the
third person. 1t made him seem such
a kid. Couldn't women ever realize
that fellow was man by the time
he was working md earning a living?
He rose and moved toward the front
door. There was another little tinkle
of the bell as he opened the front
Il
figure wrapped in a dressing gown of
blue velvet ahead of him He was
about to step back and wait until she
had returned to her 'apartm but
to sign for" made him continue his
descent.
He saw now by the golden hair that
it was the girl from upstairs who wore
the blue gown. She was trailing down
slowly. Her mothers voice from above
ca me:
Belle. was that the post?"
Belle! What a wonderful name!
How fitting. Ed had had enough
French in the Remington high school
to recall that Belle translates into
the English word pretty. He ambled
downstairs a little quicker. The idea
flashed into his mind that Belle was
a far more attractive name than was
Anna.
There's two cents due on this let
ter, miss" said the postman, with his
eyes on the pile of letters in his hand.
We'll. by gosh!" came the high
voice of the girl, who seemed to be
angry from her tone, why didn't YOU
say so before I leaped way down
here ?"
Ed grinned as he thought of the
languorous deseent which she charac-
terized 'Ieaping.' Small towns
might be slow, but-Belle had turned
to go back for the required two cents.
Her front hair was done up in some
remarkable way in metal xavers.
Cold cream had been lavishly smeared
on her face and still lay there waiting
to be rubbed or washed off No yes
tige of color marked her face neither
the lips, which were a. mere pale pink