The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1923-07-13
A Five-and-Ten
Episode
By WILL T. AMES


About the only person in the five
and ten store" who had any use for
Lou Landers was Bobby Mckay, the
window dresser.
'Lissun, pet" said Name Sloan to
the kaatZ girl, who helped her at the
candy counter, shes got blimp bean,
that one, cause she's had two years In
Commercial High. Geei Bess Niver
lives on the same block with her, out
In Greendale, n she says old man
Landers amt had days work since
April. And look at her shoes The
likes of that, swelling herself
whatcha know I"
Amt it JUST" agreed the Kaatz
girl, ringing up a dime.
If LOUIS rebellious discomfort with
a lot that compelled her to spend her
entire vacation in the five-and-ten
made her far less than popular with
the other girls, it had the opposite eff
feet on Bobby Mckay.
"She amt any more like this bunch
OF flaps than money is like the Heinies'
marks" he decided 1t pleased him
nightly TO see her hold herself aloof
SO much so that when he discovered
the superior Miss Landers was bring
ing her lunch and was crossing over
to the common opposite to eat it in the
shade of one of the old elms, instead
of patOnizing the store restaurant,
Bobby promptly did likewise; though
he had to have the lunch put up at
the Greeks, being an unattached,
furnished room young man.
AT first Bobby's device succeeded adj
mirably. The window trimmer of
five-and-ten may, by contrast with the
ruck of the personnel, be of consider
able interest to a lonely, discouraged
girl who feels herself above her job,
her surroundings and her involuntary
business companionships. For a fort
night of consistently fine days the
two ate their lunches in company, and
In company experienced the gripping
of mutual magnetism.
Then, all at once, Lou woke I'D. Here
she was, doing the same thing exactly
that her mother had done, in spite of
all her desperate determination to do
nothing Of the kind Hadn't her moth
er, at seventeen, fallen head over heels
In love with brisk young mechanic
and married him on joint capital of
thirty-five dollars?
And hadn't they pulled the devil by
the tall, so to speak, ever since-never
getting ahead more than q few dollars
and every once In a while being fiat
broke, like now? And hadn't she
sworn a long, solemn oath to herself
never II get caught in that kind of a
mess herself?
1t wasn't that Lou had aspirations
toward limousines and sables; envy
of the rich never entered her head.
But she had learned the lesson of her
parents higgledy-piggledy existence,
and she didn't propose to live her own
life with just about one payday be-
tween her and restitution.
That's why she was so keen after
the commercial course which she felt
sure would make her future reason
ably secure. She wouldn't have to mar
ry the first happy-go-lucky that came
along ands start housekeeping on the
installment plan If she could finish
school and earn decent salary.
And here she was, she repeated, get
ting moony over boy who-she had
his own word for it-had had to quit
school because he hadn't nickel to 90
on with and become a fve-and-ten-
cent window trimmer instead of the
electrical engineer he had planned TO
be. If she let these mornings 90 on
as they had been, pretty soon Bobby
was going to think of marriage and so
would she! And that would be the end
of every chance in the world for both
of them.
So that very noon, when Bobby, all
broad smiles, lay in wait for her near
the door, Lou told him fiat that she
didn't want him to go across to the
common with her that day.
But, what have 1 dcne?" protested
the dismayed Bobby.
Not a thing, Bobby" Lou answered,
"but I'd rather not
Bobby was twenty. Bobby was in
love. Bobby half suspected the truth.
Naturally Bobby sulked and proposed
TO show his independence. So he
sauntered over to the common by him
self, rather grandly ignoring Lou, and
sat himself down on the next bench
but one to hers, to eat his lunch, lust
by way of showing how little differ
ence girl more or less made in his
young life.
Also he picked up a newspaper that
some predecessor had left behind and
buried himself in it as he abstractedly |
ate his sandwiches. He pretended not
to look at Lou and Lou actually didn't |
look at him-for quite a while. When |
she did, she witnessed an extraordi- |
nary thing. Bobby was on his feet
anxiously looking first in one direction, |
then another, all about the common |
and the adjacent street, obviously seek |
ing some one-and obviously it wasn't !
PEAK is AN Elk