Evening star., 1924-07-27

excavations at fu-
catan w h e n
snIas came a shower through the
screen.
You understand, of course, that
when it rains while the sun is snln-
ing Old Nick is beating. his wife, but
for this time he was innocent, for the
reason that the District, instead OF
Jupiter PluviuS, was on the JOB.
1t was job that called for white
tree doctor and three colored laborers,
all of them on truck, mysterious
with coils and tanks. and with long
billed hose for each of them to spray
every branch of every tree as the
wagon slowed along. 1t was pun
gent something that rocketed up ike
silver mist. wet enough to drench the
leaves with a tonic deadly to cater
pillars, bNt so health-glV1ng 10 the
trees as to insure Washington'S repu-
tation as the sylvan paradise OF the
land.
And if you love trees because they
shade you from the heat, and because
they hutter their leaves in the sum-
mer winds, and because they remind
YOU. somehow, of those mansions not
made by hands, you will take back
any little objections you may have
had to paying out your good money
the last time taxes came around
and
knowing what the tree doctor is
doing to the woozy villains that have
already cobwebbed some limbs OF
your own beloved Mrs. Sycamore at
the gate (Which her name is Martha
IGlIen). YOU say to yourself, because
you feel that way:
God bless the District"
Then you rejoin Harold Philips at
Yucatan.
WHATEVER his mothers intention
" may be, he is rearing himself tc
be a soldier. A woman came across
him in the green-sray dusk of q
Northeast park-a crumb of a kid in
some older boys out-grown cowboy
suit on picket duty with a fence pale
for a gun. There was no other child
around, so the guard must have felt
that his duty demanded extra vigi-
Iance-you never know what enemy
may be lurking behind trees OIL
crawling in the long grassland by
the rapt tenSeness of him you could
tell that the order had been given to
let no one but Americans on guard
tonight.
There he marched, up and down, in
the silent twilight-left, right; right
left; SO many steps forward; then the
military twirl: then SO many steps
backward; then do it all over again
And in the soul of him the valorous
something that makes a soldier fol
low wherever a flag leads the way.
1t was so comically splendid that q
loiterer watched from a little dis
tance-far enough to be out of dan
ger of the lone picket's challenge
and presently there came tearing VI
to him a small girl with long, grass
hopper legs. who must have brought
him the news of sudden armistice
for he changed his fence pale from q
a StrAdd1aC
1T, galloped off beside her to a posi-
BILE supper.
A NYBODY find a wrist watch? A
woman was telling another abou
it as they lunched the other day in E
grill. 1t Was gift, and
Have you asked st. Anthony te
find it for you2"
The girl who put the question was
as dead in earnest as if the sain
we're an active member on the police
force, but the loser of the watch
shook her head.
think of him at the time, and now il
is too late. | inquired all around ano
We'll. ask him, anyhow-go on
ask him.
But it was over a month ago.
We'll, it won't hurt to give him
chance, and if it is best for you tt
have that watch he will get it back
for you. all right. He's found lot!
of things for me-"
'All right will"
DO it now, before you forget. StoI
sugaring those black berries and say
Dear st. Anthony, please find m,
wrist watch Was it gold or silver p
The loser of the watch owned t.
platinum.
Well, say. Dear st. Anthony
watch Now, say it,
So the loser laid her spoon on tn.
saucer and asked dear St. Anthem,
please to find her platinum wris
watch.
And what will I have to do fo,
him if he finds it for me?"
oh, he isn't particular. Just 81
it's a good deed for some one else
Let me know if you get it, won
you?"
And when the girl who believed s,
buoyantly in her patron saint hat
skipped off her way the woman VIII,
had lost her watch said to hersel
as she was going through the Smith
sonian Park-and not to herself
either:
"Confidentially. dear ST. Anthony
1 don't think you can find it, bu
that's all right. I deserve to hav
lost that watch, because / knew tn
catch needed fixing. Still, if anybod,
believed in me as that girl believe
for her sake"
And the present question is, Wha
iii wv - ~