Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1922-07-21

the sgIarion OF MS shoulders be
trayed him.
90 Oh and Taught Wen, so we
stayed there quite while, but before
we left she got kind of more like every.
gay, you know, the way people do. It
was half-past nIne when we walked
BACK to town. and I was eommencin'
TO feel kind Of hungry. so / asked her
II she wasn't, and she sort of laughed
ana seemed TO be ashamed of It. as il
II was a disgrace or something, but
she said she guessed she was. so I
ieIt her by that hedge OF lilacs near
me observatory and went on over to
me Terra and the frult store. ana got
some stuffed eggs and olives and half
a-dozen peanut butter sandwiches and
box o strawberrieS-kind OF girl.
foo'i' you know-and went on back
there and we are the stuff up. So
then she said she was afraid she'd
taken me away from my dinner and
inade me lot Of trouble. and so on.
ana she was sorry, and she told me
goodnight"
what did you say then?"
Moth Oh, shut upi Sc then she
skipped out to her Derm. and / came
on home"
sey?"
1 haven't seen her next" said Ram.
sey. Il haven't seen her at all-not to
speak to. / saw her on Main street
twice since then, but both times she
was with some other girls, and they
were across the street. and / couldn't
tell If she was loollin' at mel kind of
thought not l thought it might look
sort O. nutty to bow to her if she
wasn't, so l didn't"
And you didn't tell her You wouldn't
be one of the ones to help her with her
pocifism and and-war stuff and all
thatT'
mo. / started to, but Shut upi"
Fred sat up, giggling. $50 she thinks
you viii help her. You didn't say any
thing at all, and she. must think that
means. Sine converted you. Why didn't
you speak up?"
"Well, l wouldn't argue with her"
said Ramsey, Then, after a silence, he
seemed to be in need of sympathetic
comprehension. at was kind O. funny
though, wasn't it?" he said, appealing
ly.
what WASP"
'The whole business"
what whole bus"
"Oh, get out Her stoppin' me, and
me goin' pokin' along with her, and
her-well, her crying and everything,
and me being around with her while
she felt so upset, / mean. 1t seems
well, it does seem all kind o. funny to
me-"
"Why does it?" Fred inquired, pre-
serving his gravity. "Why should 1t
seem funny TO youT
81 don't mean funny like something's
funny you laugh at" Ramsey explained
laboriously. 81 mean funny like some
| thing that's out of the way, and you
wonder how it ever happened to hap-
j pen. mean 1t seems funny I'd ever
be slrtin' there on a bench with that
| ole girl / never spoke to in my life or
had anything TO do with, and talkin'
about the United States goin' to war.
What we were talkin' about, why that
seems just as funny as the rest of 1t.
Lookin' back to our class picnic, FIR
instance, second year of high school,
that day jumped In the creek after
Well, you know, it was when / started
maxim a fool Of myself over girl.
Thank goodness, / got that out O. my
system; 1t makes me just sick to look
back on those days and think of the
| fool things I did, and all l thought
about that girl. Why, She Well, I've
got cid enough to see now she was
just about as ordinary girl as there
ever was, and If / saw her now
wouldn't even think she was pretty !:
I'd prob'ly think she was sort Of loud
lookin'. Well, what's passed is past,
and 1t isn't either here nor there.
What / started to say was this: that
the way it begins to look to me, II
looks as If nobody can tell in this life
a darn thing about what's goin' to hap
pen, and the things that do happen are
the very ones you'd swear were the
last that could. mean-you look back
to that day Of the picnlc-my but l
was a rube then-well, mean you look
back to that day, and what do you
suppose I'd have thought then If some
body'd told me the time would ever
come when I'd be way off here at col
lege sittin' on bench with Dora Yo-
cum-with Dora Yocum, in the first
pIace-and her crying and both OF us
talking about the United States goin'
to war with Germany Don't it seem
pretty funny to you, Fred, too2"
"But as near as can make out"
Fred said, that isn't what happened"
"Why isn't it,"
"You say and both Of US talking
and so on. AS near as / can make out,
you didn't say anything at all"
''Well, / didnt-much," Ramsey ad-
mitted, and returned to his pot with
almost pathetic persistence. But
doesn't it seem kind o. funny to you,
Fred?"