The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1922-03-30
FIGURES
BY ROSE BAKALAR
. l9ss by Mcclure Newspaper syndicate

@, 1892, by Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate
1t was the first of August The
dlngy little Boston Office tucked away
In corner Of the third floor Of the
Sumner building was sulfocating, Wilt
ing like rose In TOO hot house, Rita
bookkeeper, stenographer salesgrl and
telephone operator combined, ut pres
ent filling the first and most important
of her varied calings toiled up the
monot0nouS, seemingly endless, numer-
Teal 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
terrupted by the entrance Of a inicky
customer Next, The switchboard
claimed her attention. And between
times she hunted for that 30 c9nts
Nooutime, 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 IT, on the door, and left for lunch.
On the street She shifted the sizzling
dust-ladcn atmosphere and heartily
wished II We're closing time, so that She
could go home. Home on the little hill,
shaded By The trees, meant cool, fresh,
heatl-giying air.
She directed her steps TO pie-plus-
lce-cream dining place. Those deiest-
able figures, successfully put out Of
sight, persisted in dancing contnu-
Gus tormentlng jig within Rlta's vision.
Al the counter She shut her eyes for
a moment, as II TO Danish those abom-
Unable numbered prosecutors She
mnst-will-f forget figures, at least
during her short stay away from Them.
Unfortunately male "jinx' near by
grunted, "Yup' I'm FIGURING on the
mortgage to help me out
Rita gulped her coffee and left hast
ny, Couldn't she ever forget the word
FIGURE even for momentl She
stopped 70 admire some hats in n win
dow, hoping thereby to drive the az
urcd invaders from out her mind, when
an enthusiastic feminine voice Jared
her senses with. Aren't the FIGURES
on that hat perfectly ducky"
Was there no getting away from that
devillsh FIGURE? She hurried 10 The
Charles River promenade. faint
breeze played tag with a.little brown
curl that had escaped from beneath
her chic little hat. She took a deep
breath as She seated herself An here
was renl solace.
The glorious deep is too vast, too
grand to be measured and bound by
petty limited numbers, 3" She murmured
poetlcally.
Her relaxation, mental and physical,
was complete. But peace was muir
dered IN its prime when she caught the
words, Yah, He cut swell FlGGEli
at the dance and" Rita fed She
waited to hear no more for obvious
reasons
On her way to the office she caught
Snatches Of conversation. Il seemed
as If the whole world We're talking ia
figures I'm FIGURIN' lis goin' Ia
ruin" FIGURES cannot lie"
"FTGURATIVEIN speaking "lt
sure was n FIGURE A cloth ," Every,
whore JOY. sorrow. diverse things and
people were spoken of in harsh, calcu.
latIug terms
That night her dream world was
FIGURES. MouStrouS oueeyed eley
ems sialked stlffly about elowcriu.
savegely Enormous mouthed, roly
poly zerocs, gaping. weIrdly employing
rollickiug methods Of locumollou, rc
lculeSsly pursued her Curved and
curled giant Fights, twisting and writh
ing the fantastic contortiuuS attempted
10 strangle her She aWokc ga>piug
FOR breath sleep vanished that night
At the breakfast table. n reply q,
her mothers SOLICITORS query as to tho
cause of the black circles under Oh,
eyes, Rita burst into tears After
somewhat recovering her compoSure
she vchcmcntly confessed: 81 couldu'
sleep all night on account Of thai
bookkeeping Those figures will drive
me crazy, Al day long everybody
eyerytime, everywhere It's FIGURES
FIGURES. FIGURES, And ut nigh
It's worse can't leave my job he
cause It's hard to get another and
can't afford 10 loaf OH she walled
~ don't know what to do
"Why don't you marry Joe| chide,
her mother. He's been after YOU fo
the last two years. and you keep put
Ing him of because you got sill.
notion Of financial independence
You're ~ now and lt'l take most
! lifetime TO get rs much as Joe is get
tmg 4 girl is different, Meanwhile
you'd be wasting your whole lfc'
happiness
That evening private conference
was held and satisfactorily settled t
all parties concerned
Some years later we ind Rita dill
gently cutyalng her back yard gar
den She figured how many row
could be laid out in that little plot an
the amount of seed that would he re
Qured. In local magazine she ha
won first prize FOR sending in the hes
planned housekeeping budget Five
| ,.o,,.,ul trn,,,,,,, ,,.,s tl,, ,,rida 90 bi