Evening star., 1925-08-30


Tough. isn't it," Jimmie said, his
gaze on them as they went.
Yes" the girl said. They don't
realize it, though" She, too. was
looking after them, and there was a
wistfulness in her glance which struck
deep into Jimmie's heart. Are you
going over there?" she asked him,
After a while" Instinctively he
SHE'D away from meeting the reality
of a neighbor's death.
After the dance, 1 suppose" She
said it without rancor, but he felt the
blood flowing faster into his cheeks.
II wouldn't go to the Dances he
said, defeAslvely, "if some people
know would let me come and see
them"
do you mean me?" she demanded,
in surprise.
81 don't know anybody else I ever
said it to-
"why?" She frowned in puzzled
wonder. "It's nothing to me If you
go to those dances"
"Then why do you dodge me as if
I had smallpox
AZ don't"
you do"
'I'll tell you why she said, turn
ing to him again that considering look.
IT'S because I'm not sure what you're
going to re."
ITO be-"
Yes, to be. Just now you're Jim
nlie Braden, nice kid I've grown up
with here in Burning Bush, but run
a little bit wild. You know you have,
Jimmie. You run around with the
boys of the Double Y. and bring in
hooch from Canada, and make d game
of beating the law, and you dance
at the Purple Parrot, and you get
in fights with the XII outfit, and you
are in every kind of trouble that's
brewing. Most of it you make, at
that"
Go on" he said, grimly.
IF you don't change-and change
soon-you'II be like Tom Corliss and
Jed Whitney and all the rest of them
young voice grew solemn in it's ear
nestnesS.
''Oh. go on. Lefty he tried to
laugh. It's not as bad as that"
You brought this on yourself. Oh,
it's because there's so much in you
that could make big man that I'm
saying this"
Then there is a little hope for me?"
he teaSed her.
off from his tone rather than from
the words.
Yes. it is
It's for you to do"
You sound so much like my
mother" he grinned at her. that
something tells me you'll"
He laughed as she rose suddenly and
went after the children into the kitch-
en-. The youngsters came in to him
then, cookies clutched in their hands,
childish terror at a grief they could
,le,- SAT- III,
eyes. Little Ben climbed up on jim
mics knee.
Tell US the story about the tim
ber wolf" he pleaded.
Tell US about Cinderella" begged
Jessie, standing beside him.
II need a fairy godmother of my
own," he told her. Il want some one
to change me into a good young man
who teaches Sunday school on Satur
day nights, and who asks old Jed
Whitney to share his last ice cream
soda" There came no sound from
the kitchen, but his mothers voice,
and he plunged into the story of the
timber wolf. That's more my style"
he assured Jessie.
y y **
LIE had finished the narrative, en-
- broidered with a dozen touches
of local color. when his mother came
into the room. Where's Letty?" he
asked her.
''She went out the kitchen way"
she said as she took the children
TN have to put Ben in your room" ="
she told him.
That's all right"
Don't wake him when you come
in
I'm not coming back tonight he
said, and wondered if she would find
in Letty'S going the reason for his
decision. She said nothing, however,
and he bade the children good night
ere he set forth toward the Purple
Parrot.
Dancing was in swing when he
reached the place, but he failed to
enter into the fun with his usual zest.
The boys from the Double Y outfit,
his old cronies, rallied him on his lack
Of enthusiasm, and girl after girl
sought to interest him. but in vain.
He was seeing the fire in Letty's
eyes and the flush in her cheeks. and
beginning to question himself on the
rightness of her judgment.
BY midnight he was finding the
Purple Parrot curiously dull. BY the
old rules of his game he would have
started to liven up the institution, but
that night he seemed to lack incen-
tive toward devising deviltry. I'm
heralded. he slipped out between
dances, and sauntered up the street
toward his mothers house, not re-
membering till he was almost there
that he had volunteered his room to
little Ben Staley.
The thought of the child reminded
him of another obligation, and he
turned in toward the Staley house,
where a log light burned. AS he
hesitated at the door Ben Staley
spoke to him from the dark porch.
sit down out here with me, Jimmie, -
he said, almost pleadingly, and Braden
slipped into one Of the rocking chairs
on the veranda.
The two men smoked in silence for
little while. Then Staley spoke.
"a mans asking a lot of woman to
come out into new country" he said
slowly.
Some Of them like it, Jimmie
tried to console him.
Not all of them. My wife didn't.
She was always hankering for Iowa.
Called it Gods country. I never saw
it that way. This is my kind of
land" In the gloom his big arm shot
out in a gesture of ownership. Il
came into it when l was a boy, same
as your father did. There wasn't a