Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1922-03-27
@lQ1l A&MAOTcAINSON

LhSdI utSll.- ~ runs cast anu WeSL
and slightly. tihed from north to
south. To the north the land slopes
pleasantly upward in pasture and
orchards, and here was the site Of
the Penny Green Garden Home De-
velopment Scheme. Beyond the site,
considerable area, stands North
repps, the seat of Lord Tybar. Lord
Tybar sold the Development site to
the developers, and, as he signed the
deed of conveyance, remarked in his
airy way, '''Ah, nothing like exercise,
gentlemen. That's made every one
of my ancestors turn in his grave. 7"
The developers Uttered respectfully
as BELTS men who had landed good
thing.
Westward of Penny Green is
Chovensbury; behind Tidborough the
sun rises.
Penny. Green like Rome, had not
been built in day, The houses of
the Penny Green Garden Home, on
the other hand, were being run up
in as near to day as enthusiastic
developers, feverish contractors ivy
ing one with another) and impatient
tenants could encompass. Nor was
Penny Green built for day. The
houses had been built not only by
people who intended to live in them,
and proposed to be roomy and well
cupboarded and stoutly beamed and
floored in them, but who, not fore
seeing restless and railwayed genera
tions, built them to endure for the
children of their children's children
and for children yet beyond. Sabre's
house was of grey stone and it pre-
sented over the doorway the date OF
1867.
Nearly two hundred and fifty
years" Mabel had once said.
"And | bet, Sabre had replied,
Sits never been better kept or run
than you run it now, Mabel
The tribute was well deserved.
Mabel, who was in many ways
model woman, was pre-eminently a
model housewife. "Crawshaws" was
spotlessly kept and perfectly admin
istered.
The only room in the house which
Sabre did not like was the sitting
room on the ground floor; and it was
his own room, furnished and deco
rated by Mabel for his own particu-
lar use and comfort. But she called
it his "den," and Sabre loathed and
detested the word den as applied to
a room a man specially inhabits. 1t
implied to him a masculine untidi-
ness, and he was intensely orderly
and hated untidiness. 1t implied
customs and manners of what he
called boarding house idea" the
idea that a man must have an un-
tidily comfortable apartment into
which he can retire ald envelop him
self in tobacco smoke, and where he
"can have his own things aiOund
him" and "haye his pipes and his pic
lures about him" and where he can
wear 'an old shooting jacket and
slipper" and he loathed and detest-
ed all these phrases and the ideas
they connoted. He had no cold shoot
ing jacket and he would have given
it to the gardener if he had; and he
detested wearing slippers and never
did wear slippers; it was his habit to
put on his boots after his bath and to
keep them on till he put on shoes
when changing for dinner. Above all,
he loathed and detested the vision
which the word "den" always con-
jured up to him. This was vision of
the door of a typical den being
htF fa ~ e.,
saying in mincing voice, this is
George in his den," and of boarding
house females peering over the wifc's
shoulder and smiling fatuousIy at the
denizen who, is an old shooting
jacket and slippers, grinned yacuous-
ly back at them. To Mark this was
a horrible and unspeakable vision.
The matter Of the den and another
matter, touching the servants, came
up between them in the very earliest
days of their married life. Mabel
had been busy settling things" and
she took him round the house with
delicious pride and happiness. Mark,
sharing both, had his arm linked in
hers. When they came to the fourth
sitting room Mabel announced gaily,
And this is your den"
Mark gave mock groan. "Oh,
lord, not den!"
eyes, of course, den. Why ever
not??"
81 absolutely can't stick den." He
glanced about. "Who on earths left
those fearful old slippers there?p
They're pair of fathers. ] took
them specially for you for this room.
You haven't got any slippers like
that"
IL gazed upon the heels down
trodden by her heavy father. He did
not much like her heavy father. ''No,
4 haven't" he said, and thought
grimly, THANK God!.'
III
Mabel opened the kitchen door.
The masters come to see how nice
the kitchen looks"
Two maids in black dresses and an
extraordinary amount of stiffly
starched aprons, and caps and
streamers rose awkwardly and
bobbed awkward Iittla howe flna