The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-27
The Ordeal

Vn0 UFO6al
 luT NEVER knew your equal, Ss Madge!" declared Norman
 Blake admiringly as with lightning flashing all about them, thun- der banging at their heels, they ran to shelter from the storm that had caught them on the trail. II don't be- lieye you're afraid of anything"
 "Y-e-s, I'm scared stiff of two things" panted the girl, as he threw open the roadside cabins door. "Worms and-your mother"
 He bubbled over with boyish laugh | ter. ,.
 Relieve me. my mothers no worm y
 The room they had entered was like dusky pocket-with bulging black shadows of table, couch, bench, cup board, their identity revealed as sheets of lightning swept aside the darkness. By the same aid they found the ire place, wood, matches.
 If only we'd brought some marsh mallows to toast?" laughed Madge be- tween crashes of thunder as they drew up the bench to the fire they had lighted.
 Norman gave her keen glance. It was not bravado. She actually was not afraid. She was just what he had written his mother she was. The i'm est little sport in the world.
 sNorry," she said with sudden sober ness as they sat drying off before the blazing logs, what is your mother like?"
 What is she like?" he repeated, his brow puckered. Why, she isn't like. She's just mother"
 He poked into place a toppled over log. -
 "Let me see'-he went back to her question. "Mummie's tall and slender -straight as an arrow-but not bit ramroddy. Her hairs dark and she aI- ways wears it the same way-in kind of soft, baggy wad on the top ot her head. Her eyes are blue and she has a lot of color, And no matter Ii she wearing only a simple tub dress, she has a patrician look. l tell her it's the Van Arden peeping out through the sage brush"
 Wan Arden!"
 "Yep, mummie was a Van Arden-a swell-up-and-bust old Philadelphia fam, iIv-before dad married her and brought her out west. She took to the wild and woolly in lots of ways. Loves to go gypsying in our little old auto and to dress and do as she darn pleases disregardless of styles and conventions, but every now and again the Van Ar den rubs through"
 And it's the Van Arden that's go- ing to pass judgment on poor pleblan me '" shakily laughed Madge. "A glri with the name of Jones, worse luck '!
 You needn't let that worry you, he said eagerly. We can chuck the Jones overheard in short order. By getting married before mum comes on' Now, straight off the bat. At Centers, on our way back to the hotel: It would be great! Jones eliminated and our marriage sprung on mummle as a surprise when she alights from the train. Mother, permit me to intro, duce my wife, Mrs. Norman Blake. Say, will you do it, Madge?
 The eagernesS in his voice was thor oughly boyish, but all of mans fervor was in the look he gave her.
 The girls face kindled. A runaway marriage was just the thing to appeal to her audacious spirit. But she shook her head.
 "Tm not Van Arden, but that's not my idea of playing the game. I'm aw' fully afraid your mother won't approve or me. put II Idce the HuSiC III 'hS open. I'll not hide behind any one Not even a husband"
 But if mummie hadn't taken sud den notion to visit Aunt Lou we would have been married before she saw you anyhow" he argued. "so what's the diff?"
 "The diff of your mothers sudden notion to visit your Aunt Lou," she laughed. My dear little child, it isn't your Aunt Lou that your mothers