Evening star., 1923-02-25
Her Ambition Was to Know the
World and All the Different
Kinds of People to Be Found.
If [ SHOULD EVER TRAVEL

Fun. There's more fun in twenty
five a week in pay envelope than in
forty thousand down a dry we'll"
Maxine was fifteen now. "I wish
We could live with father in Okla
homa. l think it's wrong not to-"
Mllly Pardee was beginning to think
SO, foo. Especially since her hus-
bands letters had grown rarer as the
checks they contained had grown
larger On his occasional trips back to
Chicago he said nothing of their join
ing him out there. In sudden fright
and resolve Milly Pardee sold the
furnishings of the four-room fiat,
packed the peripatetic linen and sill
yer. and joined surprised and rathe r
markedly unenthusiastic husband in
Okoochee. Oklahoma.
The first thing Maxine said az they
! rode Tin a tax) to the hotel. was:
But the streets are paved" Then.
But it's all electric lighted. with
cluster lights And. in final and
| utter disgust. why. there's a movie
sign that says. The Perils Of Paul
inc That was showing in Chicago
just the night before we left"
Milly Pardee smiled grimly, pal
estine's paved. too" she observed
And they're probably running that
same reel there next week
\ NI1LLY PARDEE and her husband
Pardee rented two-story frame
house with the understanding that
| the rent was to be considered as pay
ment made toward Anal purchase.
Milly Pardee was happier than she
had been in all her welded life. In a
burst of temporary prosperity. Sam
Pardee paid five thousand dollars
down on the house and lot. That left
/ Il bare thousand to pay. There were
three good meals day. Milly Pardee
belonged to the Okoochee Woman's
Thursday Club. All the women in
Okoochee seemed to have come from
st. Louis. Colum bus, Omaha, Cleve-
! land, Kansas City, and they spoke Of
these as Back East. When they came
calling they left cards. punctiliously
They played bridge. observing all the
| newest rulings.
Maxine graduated in white. with a
sash. Mrs. Pardee began 10 talk Of
buying an automobile. The town was
full of them. There were the f1ivvers
and lower middle-c cars owned by
small merchants. natives (any one
boasting twelve years residence) and
unsuccessful adventures of the Sam
Do 1na
big. high-powered scouting cars driv-
en- by steely-eyed, wiry, cold bloode ed
young men from Pennsylvania and
New York. These young men had no
women-foIk with them. Held confer
ences in smoke-f1lled rooms at the
Okmulgee Hotel.
The main business street was called
Broadway. and the curb on either
side was hidden by lines of cars
drawn up slantwise. No farmer wag-
ons. A small town with all the airs
of a big one; with none OF the charm
ing informality of the old southern
small town: none Of the engaging
ruggedness Of the established middle
western town; none of the faded gen.
tlllty OF the ola New England tow II.
Milly Pardee loved it. She belong
ed. She was chairman of this COM
mittee and secretary of that. Milly
Pardee was happy.
Sam Pardee was not. He began, sud-
denly, to talk Of Mexico. Frankly, he
was bored. For the first time in his
life he owned a house-or nearly.
There was eleven hundred dollars In
the bank. Roast on Sunday. Bath
room shelf to be nailed Sunday morn
ing. Y. NJ. c. A. Rotary Club, Knights
of Columbus, Kiwanis. Boy Scouts.
Gosh said Sam Pardee, this
towns no good"
Milly Pardee took a last stand. Sam
Pardee, I'm through traipsing up and