The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1924-11-07
Jessica's Come
Uppance
By H. LOUIS RAYBoLD

111 49, Htot -
world might go rushing by without
but 1t did not interest her In the least
Times changed, but not for grand
mother. And Jessica, for whom Their
was no intervening generation, wal
frequently hard put to It for her goot
times and innocent girlish desires
Both Jessica's parents had been killed
In a steamer collision, and her fathers
mother had taken the ~curly-headet
little girl and brought her up accord
ing to the standards of forty year:
ago..
"Oh, Gram, please let me have my
dress three inches shorter. at leastT
she begged at the time Of her senior
high school ball. "Gram" yielded an
inch, but no more, and did that with
her usual old-fashioned admonition,
"Look out, my dear. Girls that go con
trary to their elders always get their
come-uppance!"
"Come-uppance !" How Jessica came
to hate that homely world And yet
love for her grandmother and a very
real appreciation of all she had been
to her through the motherless years
often checked on her lips the quick re-
mo~nstrances.
And a little extra money all her
own would mean so much. Yet she
could foresee the tussle with her
grandmother which such a suggestion
would entail.
Yet, in the end, Jessica had her own
way. Something happened to one OF
the companies with which their frugal
investments were placed and their in
come was temporarily curtailed. Even
her grandmother could see that any
salary Jessica might bring in, however
small, would help bridge the gap, and
she could not ask the healthy, eager
girl to pinch and do without-as she
in her day would have done-rather
than join the ranks of wage-earners.
"Only remember. my child, that you
are a lady. Be modest and m%aldenly.
Otherwise. you will surely get your"
but Jessica, overwhelmed at being at
last allowed to follow her inclinations,
was too overjoyed to mind the loathed
warning.
Each day now she departed for
work full of happy anticipation. and
every evening returned contented and
cheerful. Unframed, she had no Sc
cured any remarkable job. yet n hat
suited her-that of clerk in a book
shop-and daily it became more inter
esting.
Especially after Cowles Dayton APP
peared on the scene. That breezy
young reporter, with a keen nose for
news and a tongue ready with the
latest slang and smart journalese, was
a bosom friend Of the book store pro-
prietor. And after he met Jessica, 1t
did not seem to bother him If, when
he dropped in at the noon hour, his
bosom friend was out for lunch and
only Jessica and a long-legged boy Of
all work remained.
There came a day when Jessica sus-
although Cowles had as yet
said nothing, that he was beginning to
care for her, and her great problem
up of how to get her grand
used to him. She feared that,
however warned III advance, his ten
dency to call a spade a spade. or to
revert to the language of short cuts
md telling phrases would hide his
really fine qualities, from her grand
However, from time to time, she
casually mentioned Cowles, and even
ct her grandmother know that she
actually lunched with him, al
'hough she %forebore to mention that
he meal had been unchaperoned ex-
,ept by the eyes of the world in gen.
raj as 1t f~oregathers at a popular eat
ng place.
Then occurred the theater fire, ere
ting a crisis in the lives of at least
wo people. Jessica and Cowles were
n their way home from Rigoletto
vhen the fire trucks dashed by as
hey were about to hail a taxi.
simultaneously the two looked at
ne another.
81 ought to cover it," murmured
Lets CO." said Jessica.
The blaze proved to be a de
tructive and spectacular one, COM
letely destroying a large moving pic
IRE place. Time slipped by unheed-
d. and when at last only smoldering
haired walls remained, Jessica was
70 find that the small hours
{ the morning were well upon them.
rantically she hoped that her grand
lother would have gone to bed long
go.
shell be worried to death - she
I'D Cowles as the speeding taxi bore
lem homewards.
II suppose" and he regarded Jes-
whimsically, that In your
-andmother's day a gentleman who
a lady out all night would be
to marry herr"
Jessica looked startled. "Oh-I-
Imagine So" she said.
"Then,' and he reached for her
md, "the very least we can do to
Itisfy the old lady is to become en-
lged. How about IT, little girl,
I have loved for a long. long