Evening star., 1925-11-08

! his bank, and then If the bank in Chi
cago paid it he'd give me the money.
| So / said all right and gave him the
check. He deposited it in his bank at
Lurton, and the bank in Chicago paid
IT all right, and then he handed me
| over the money-taking out his $25
| commission. The check itself was all
right; but the man that drew 1t claim
ed 1t had been stolen and the indorse-
ment was forged. So soon's 1t got
around to him he made his bank in
Chicago throw it out, and the bank in
Chicago come back on the bank at
Lurton and the Lurton bank come
back on old Tom, and old Tom got out
a warrant for me. / don't know
whether the Endorsement was really
forged or not. l cashed 1t for a fellah
myself, and didn't charge him any
S25 commission. either"
CHE listened to that explanation
- with some mental reservations, re-
membering that disregard for the
truth had been counted among his
youthful failings. Even her mild and
tolerant father had once declared that
Dick Pixley was the doggonedest liar
that ever stood in shoe leather. But
he saved her the bother of harboring
a suspicion by adding genially:
Toms two-tWenty-five in my fist. l
beat 1t out of town. and I amt figur
ing on going back very soon. I was
kind of philanthropist. I thought
most likely when old Tom found out
what had been done to him he'd die in
fit. Then nv native town would
be rid of him, and Jimmy would get
the store. How is Jimmy nowadays"
"Oh, he's all right; the same as
something about her manner - the
faintest forced note in her voice, a
movement of the hands. a quick
glance seaward-that arrested him.
He reelected that Jimmy Weems, son
of old Tightwad Tom. would be about
twenty-three now, and she about
twenty-one. With that arresting sug
gestion or speculation in his mind,
| he coolly took stock of her anew.
She had always been a pretty kid,
with brown eyes. dusky rose cheeks.
| and dark, curly hair-slim and
straight and round. She was wearing
a very simple dress-sort of brown,
if one could call it anything-and an
unornamented brown straw hat. The
shoes had been BACKED a good many
times. He knew mighty well that
as pretty a girl as she was would
wear prettier clothes If she had them
=. =. And Jimmy Weems. With that
quick. seaward look there seemed to
be a slight sagging of her shoulders.
| little droop at the corners of her
cherry lips.
Very good-naturedly. but from q
height, he observed, "Jimmy's a good
boy. Only trouble is he let's his father
bully the life out of him. "Jimmy'll
stick along in that little hardware
store till old Tom drops off at the
age of ntnety-two. Then Jimmyll
buy him a new set of false teeth and
take his wife and four children up to
Kalamazoo to the district fair-up in
the morning. back in the evening
Then he'll settle down to selling tacks
and fiyswatters till he's ninety-two
A little motion ran through her
body, like shiver or shrinking from
a blow; her hands came together in
her lap. But he did not wish to make
her unhappy, and his tone Immediately
became warm with human interest:
But what you doing down here, Ell
| sic? Who's with you?"
| For moment she seemed inviting
| him to guess the riddle: then answer
/ ed plumply, "Nobodys with me. / ran
away" She told him how it hap
pened.
He already knew the background
for example. that story-and-a-half
brown house with an L on Oak street
/ in Lurton in which she had always
lived. All her life her father had been
head clerk in Albright's dry goods
store, where was only one other clerk;
always a threadbare, round shoul-
dered, harried figure. 1t even seemed
to her that his struggling mustache
had always been streaked with gray.
She had very early imbibed the idea
that he had no gumption. Her mother
overf1owed with gumption. But what
could woman do? Nothing, 1t seem
ed, save eXpend her energy on an in
effectual husband and a generally un-
satisfactory daughter Elsie taught
the ungraded one-room school at
Bragg's Corners, and at twenty got
an appointment to the public school
in the village.
THE Willets boy was nasty, sneaky
spoiled brat with a doting block
head for a mother. He had a special
genius for discovering ways to irri-
tate her. A spit ball. blown through
tin tube, hit her in the ear. She
didn't see it done. but beyond question
| 1t was the Willetts boy. With never
a word she yanked him out of his
| seat, waltzed him up to the platform
and turned him over her knee.
There was a final scene in the prin-
cipal's office, with Mr.. Willetts gaping
at her through gold-bowed spectacles
: like an outraged owl and Mrs. Willetts
pink with indignation, compressed her
lips. The teacher was dismissed in dis
grace, corporal punishment being
strictly forbidden in the public school.
Her mother was voluble about the dis
grace: her father could only, in secret.
pat her shoulder. But she found that
her capacity for explosion was by no