The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1925-12-04

Hear him read Come to me.
Spoofl"
She turned to me fairly again. She
had withdrawn her hands from mine
and was crushing little crusts of snow
between her mittens Now she dropped
the snow, shook her hands free of its
powdery residue, then linked them
about her knee. For a long moment
she held me under her eyes without
blinking.
$50 you saw that, did your"
"Jean-1'm sorry. apologize.
saw it by accident couldn't help
that. l could have helped speaking
about it. l apologize"
Then her eyes dropped. ''It was
very foolish" she murmured. You
have right to be amused"
"But Pm not amused" l protested.
"And Pm not sure it is really foolish.
At any rate, I'll confess something.
Jean; when / found it l tried to write
a poem-to you-but l couldn't. The
only rhymes / could think of were Jean
and beam"
Splendid! Oh, Frank, I'm begin
ming to be afraid-to hope-that /
didn't quite know you, after all. Fancy
you trying to write poetry-and about
me! Let's write verse now. I'll help
you."
She whipped mitten from her hand
and sat with her fingers lightly drum
ming on her lips, summoning the muse.
You'll have to write it," said. "Pll
sign it."
All right !" she exclaimed at length,
and turning to the huge drift behind
us she traced on its hard surface with
her forefnger this inscription:
If you will only be my wife,
No matter what the past has been
I'll take a broader view of life
And try to keep you guessing, Jean.
"Oh, you used my rhymes!" l ex-
claimed. "But isn't that last line
slangy?" l said, when we had it well
laughed over and / had added at the
side an idealistic sketch Of jeans face
under a bridal veil. My drawing
rather lost its point in the fact that l
had to explain what it was.
mo, not slang-poetfc license. That's
a great advantage poets have; any
thing that isn't quite good English can
always be called poetic license. Now
sign it,"
l signed it in bold, printed letters,
and then we fell into silence.
whats the answer, Jean?" l said
at length.
"Oh, Frank, 1 can't give you an an
swer-not now. That may have been
slang, about keeping me guessing, but
it goes long way down in ones ma
ture. If you woul6 only read, and
study, and think, and learn to appre-
ciate beautiful things"
"Oh, Jean, do! / appreciate you
Rather clever, Frank, but that isn't
just what mean. / mean like Spool !;
we might as well be frank about it,
I've seen him watch the sunset in the
pond; watch the colors change and
blend and run in little ripples with a
touch of breeze as though the water
had been stirred with feather; I've
seen him sit for hours watching the
ambers and saffrons and champagnes
of the prairie sunset, and"
"And that's why he got so little
blowing DONE"
"Stop it, And he knows every
flower on the prairies, and all you
know is pigweed, and he takes note OF
little things, like when l worked a
new strip of lace into the yoke of my
dress, and when put dash of scarlet
ribbon IN my hat he said it gave me-
Just the touch of color that one needed
on the prairies and it was no wonder
that the Red Indians loved color, and
how much wiser, in some things, they
were than we, and"
HE was spoofng you. JEAN"
HE wasn't"
"Then he was making love to you"
Perhaps. But it was very nice.
You never noticed my lace or my rib
bon. You didn't even notice this cap
| have on today; l made it out of an
old muff, all myself, and just said to
myself. 4 wonder If Frank will notice
it, but you didn't"
"I did, too. / saw it first thing, and
| thought how nice it looked on you .
"Spoof would have said how nice /
looked under It,"
"Oh, d-n Spoof!"
"Spoofs an artist, Frank. You're
not"
Nor yet a poet. But / reckon I'll
make a good farmer"
"We thrashed out the OK question a
while ago. Let's keep on new ground
Every we'll. Here's some new ground
When did Spool tell you all these
things? l understood he hadn't come
into the house all the time we were
away"
"He didn't either-hardly. But he
used to come over regularly to see that
everything was all right about the
place and to have his 'bawth,' and he
had the handsomest bathing suit
white and yellow trimmings Mar
jorie and l fixed up bathing suits, too
and we used to go in"
Together"
"Of course. Only Marjorie only went
in once or twice; she said she was
afraid of the frogs. Marjorie
| is knowing girl"
my own sister! And she would
| conspire. -. :" I crunched clumI
of crust viciously under my heel.
"Well, seeing that you have con
fessed, suppose / should own up
too," said, after silence. Il never
told you that there was girl ou
where 1 worked this summer"
mo? What was she likeT' Jean!
voice was steady, but caught new
note In 1t. 1t augured well for my frs