Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1922-03-09
FIGURES
BY ROSE 6AkAl.AR


In corner of the third floor of the
Sumner building was suffocating. Wilt
Ing like rose in u too hot house, Rita.
bookkeeper. stenographer, salesgirl and
telephone operator combined, at pres
ent filling the first and most important
of her varied callings, toiled up the
monotonous, seemingly endless, numer-
ical columns.
The accounts receivable trial bal
ance was 30 cents out of the way. The
other balance sheets were not yet
touched. A stack of charges had to be
reckoned bills made out and mailed
Her weariSome mental ascent was in
ferrupted by the entrance of n finicky
customer Next, the switchboard
claimed her attention. And between
times she hunted for that 80 cents.
Noontime, her mind In figured
whirl, nerves on edge, utterly disgust.
ed with life and herself In particular.
she slammed the books on the disagree
Ing sum, stuck notice Of "Will Return
at l. on the door, and left for lunch.
On the street she shifted the sizzling
uust-laden atmosphere and heartily
wished 1t were closing time, so that she
could go home. Home on the little hill,
shaded by the trees, meant cool, fresh,
health-giving air.
She directed her steps 10 ple-pus-
ace-cream dining place. Those detest-
Rble figures, successfully put out of
sight, persisted in dancing a continu-
GUS tormenting jig within Rita's vision.
AT the counter she shut her eyes for
IA moment as if to Danish those abom-
Unable numbered prosecutors. She
must-will-forget figures, at least
during her short stay away from them
Unfortunately male link" near by
grunted "Yup! Pm FIGURING on the
mortgage to help me out"
Rita gulped her coffee and left hast
lily. Couldn't she ever forget the word
FIGURE even for Il moment? She
stopped to admire some hats in win
Dow, hoping thereby to drive the fig
ured invaders from out her mind, when
an enthusiastic feminine voice Jared
her senses with, Aren't the FIGURES
on tial nat perfectly duckyl
Was there no getting away from that
devilish FIGURE? She hurried to the
Charles River promenade A faint
breeze played tag with little brown
curl that had escaped from beneath
her chic little hat She took a deep
breath as she seated herself, All here
was real solace.
THE glorious deep is too vast, too
grand to be measured and bound by
petty limited numbers" she murmured
POLITICALLY.
Her relaxation, mental ana physical,
was complete, But peace was muir
dered in its prime when she caught the
words, Yah He cut II swell FIGGER
ut the dance and Rita fed She
waited to hear no more for obvious
reasons
On her way Ia the office she caught
snatches of conversation, 1t seemed
as If the whole world were talking In
figures "Tm FIGURIN' it's goin' to
rain" FIGURES cannot lie"
'FIGURATIVELY speaking" ut
sure was FIGURE A cloth!" Every
where JOY sorrow, diverse things and
people were spoken Of In harsh, calcu-
Eating terms
That night her dream world was
FIGURES. Monstrous one-eyed elev-
ans stalked stiffly about, glowering
savegely. Enormous mouthed, roly-
poly zerOes. gaping, welrdly employing
rollicklng methods Of locomotiOn, re
lenHessly pursued her Curved and
cured giant Fights, twisting and with
Ing the fantastic contortlons attempted
TO strangle her She awoke, gasping
for breath. Sleep vanished that night,
At the breakfast table, in reply TO
her mothers solicitous query as to the
cause of the black circles under the
eyes. Rita burst into tears. After
somewhat recovering her composure,
she vehemently confessed; II couldn't
sleep all night on account of that
bookkeeping. Those figures Will drive
me crazy. AL day long everybody
everytlme. everywhere it's FIGURES,
FIGURES, FIGURES And at night
it's worse. ! can't leave my Job be
cause it's hard TO get another and l
cant afford to loaf Oh, she walled,
81 don't know what TO do"
"Why dna't you marry Joer chided
her mother. Hes been after you for
the Inst two years, and you keep put
ing him off because you got a silly
notion of financial independence.
You're "a now and it'll take most
lifetime to get as much as Joe is get
ting. A girl Is different Meanwhile
you'd be wasting your whole lifes
happiness"
That evening private conference
was held and satisfactorily settled to
all parties concerned
Some years later we find Rita dili'
gently cultyating her back yard gar
den. She figured how many rows
could be laid out In that little plot ana
the amount of seed that would be re-
ouired. In local magazine she had
won first prize for sending In the best
planned housekeeping budget. Five
year-old Tommy was the pride of his
mother. He could "fgger' like
In hfc hanI