, 1923-01-28
cHAprrR xx1v-contlnued

- 4fA71aA1 "a 0AoBGf otld III
closed that In a sealed envelope
addressed to DR.. BretherIck. After the
letter was mailed she wished she had
never sent It. 1t could only carry
her dismaY into her lonely mothers
soul. But 1t was as impossible to
recall as a scream hot into the air.
The last OF her money went 10
a the doctors bill. and she was a
sick pauper. She resumed her mo-
nal work gradually as her strength
returned. but her distaste for it grew
to loathinE. The Reddicks, her am
ployers, were kind to her. but they
were master n mistress. and their
own lives were hard.
She was weak n woebegone, at
the bottom OF the cliff of life. Sho
had never climbed very far. but she
had fallen far enough to give both
soul and body an almost fatal shock.
She was ashamed OF her past, and
her future was as dismal as the des-
ert and as full Of cactus. She was a
drudge in a poor family in a scorch.
ed settlement abandoned by all that
could get away.
The only interiors she could see
were a young widow named Dack
and her ~5-year-old boy, Terry. Mrs.
Dack took in washing. During tho
winter she was overworked: during
the summer she was undernourished.
She did the heaviest laundry for
h Reddicks and when she called
for It she usually brought her boy
along for lack of some one to leave
him with. The child hao the infan.
tile genius for improving the world
by imagination, and made n brilliant
adventure of the errand. He owned
a rickety express wagon left behind
by some visitor child: and it gave
Terry ali the upllft of a fiery chariot.
His mother would set the bundle OF
wash IN the ~wagonette. and immedl,
ateIy It became a magnificent truck,
IN automobile, or an airship, and
the hoy a team Of horses, a motor,
CT a winged aviator, as his whim
pleased.
His mother caught a little cheer
from Terry's i~nexhaustible rapture,
ard Mem seeing them move along
the road to their shack. felt such
rity for them that she gained a llttlo
dignity from the emotion. since pity
is a Communicating mood.
Her sympathy was quickened, per-
haps. by the Illustration of her own
motherhood. Nature had begun to.
prepare her spirit us well as her
flesh for maternal offices. and
where in oblivion was a ha.f-com-
pleted little child doomed to perish
before 1t was born. That tiny orphan
walled in the porches of Mems heart,
complaining that its destiny, begun
In romantic shame. was ended in un.
romantic catastrophe. Furnished of
love. Mem fed upon the Widows boy.
II hurt Mem to see how sorry "a
future Terry Dack could expect. The
CHILDREN of the InCians were less
unlucky, because. like the h chill
dren of negroes they entered a world
that made them no promises.
But every American white child
has a chance at wealth n the
presidency of the United States as
his inalienable birthright- Yet Terry
Dack began with no inheritance but
handicaps.
He would have no opportunity IN
Palm Springs for anything but the
humblest future. He would grow up
to a few scraps of public-school edu-
cation. His father was already dead
and his mother only half alive. She
had been a pretty thing once. and
she loved to tell Mem OF her life on a
ranch near Whitewater. As a little
girl she hao owned her own horse
and ridden II. As q young sage
hem she had been the belle of ranch
picnics and parties. h had mar
ried a glorious young cattleman.
whose father went broke because his
herd of cattle was smothered in a
sandstorm. The son had soon after
been torn to pieces by the teeth OF
a vicious horse he had tried to break
to the saddle.
Then all the Joy md velocity had
gone out of Mrs. Dack's life and she
had become h bent slave of a wash
board, her arms forever elbow deep
In suds.
The boy Terry was of the Ariel
breed. His fancy girdled the earth
in forty minutes. The world was a
stage to him; an old boot as effec-
tive as Cinderella's glass slipper tho
ciothesline was a private telephone
wire.
He mimlcked birds and animals
and often covered his mother WITH
terror and amused chasrin by imi
tating her clients with skin.
He had an eye for mannerisms OF
walk or posture. His vision owned
n Photographic detail. his a a phon'
ographio skill for record n repet
ton.
Ignorant and young as he was no
could medley sketclA the emphatic
features Of tho people he c%artooneo'
but in the outline there was always
a likeness that made his mother or
Mem Org out tho name Of the subject
--.aFH4W $3.50