New Britain herald., 1926-12-13
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WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE

To the home of Prof and Mollie Elwell in Camdenville. Ind, one night in October of 1898, comes Martha Dalton, nurse, bearing with her woman who had fainted on the Chicago-Indianapolis train or which Martha had been travel ing.
 Prof Elwell is an artist. He has a son, Jim, aged 5. Prof and Mollie take the stranger in and late that night twin girls are born to the woman who dies without revealing her identity. Her attire had indi- cated her to be a person of refine- ment and wealth.
 The story then moves forward to June of 1916. The allies are de- manding that the United States get in the war. and in Prof FL wells workshop the reader is in- troduced 10 Jim Elwell, now p, and his fathers partner, and to the twin girls, who have been adopted by the Elwells. They are now Y and one of them has been named Margaret and nicknamed
 Rusty; the other named Elizabeth, is nicknamed Betty.
 To Jim the girls are just pals, although they are growing to beautiful womanhood. Jim is hur- riedly summoned one Saturday afternoon by Betty, who reports tough is lettering outside the back fence, addressing insulting
 remarks to the two girls, Jim runs to the rescue, hurling a challenge.
 NOW BEGIN THE STORY CHAPTER III Rusty and Betty standing to- gether, looked at each other and , their eyes grew bigger.
 Little girls" gasped Betty, Now l WHAT do you think of that? He's | gettin' worse every day.' The man in the alley had stepped | back some three feet as Jim ap-
 preached. He heard Jim's remarks | with a grin.
 An who the hell do you think ] you are?" he asked coolly. An the
 little girls you're talkins about -
 where are they? D'yuh mean them
 two queens over there with the
 Goldilocks hair? Little girls like so
 much-say, they're grand ladies, bucko. I'm tellin' yuh, see, and I'm
 watcha might call a connysoor of
 feminine pulcreetood, l am! l know ! class when I see it. |. Jim, gritting his teeth, notified him that he would show him some class that he knew nothing about and jumped the fence.
 But in less than ten seconds Jim | Elwell realized perfectly that he was
 up against proposition that had toughness spelled all over it. Things | weren't running true to prescribed | form. The fellow was only a shade | larger than himself--a matter of
 only a few pounds-but something
 was wrong. It occurred to Jim that | when he lashed out with his fist he should have connected somewhere. 1 But he didn't. His little playmate merely ducked in-and in the language of commercialized fighting l --socked him in the eye. Jim was going 10 get tossed around a bit, he knew that, and right before his admirers, too. For this bum" he had tackled handled his fists in way that Jim, pretty handy with his own. had never seen before And the strangers wallops seemed to explode when they landed. Within a minute Jim's right eye closed and a red stream was pouring from his nose. But he bored in, for Jim was no quitter and he was mad clear through.
 A swift uppercut that came all the way up from the hip caught Jim FL we'll on the point of the jaw and spun him around twice. But he wasn't through yet. He was still on his feet. he told himself, and
 Then something happened. His one seeing eye caught the flash of bright object. He heard a dull smack like wood striking bone and the face in front of him. the face that was grinning and dancing about dropped from his line of vision. He looked down. His mist touched gaze took in the form of his late adversary stretched out still on the ground.
 AS he stared in astonishment at what he saw, Jim's rolling glance stopped on the bright object that he had glimpsed as it flashed through the air. It was a white striped cro- uuet ball. He looked up and around and across the fence.
 Rusty and Betty stood there, their hands gripping the top board. their lips parted and their eyes wide in fascinated stare. And then, all of a sudden, the truth hit Jim with a jolt that made him gasp.
 It was not for nothing, he reflect cd that he had trained those kid pals of his In the way he thought kid pals should go. It was just as well that he had taught them how to throw q baseball. Rutsy, especial ly, could nave lnaue d plS ltdS Sucl look serious when she put it across the plate.
 It was all clear 10 Jim now. Ob- yiously the two had observed how the trend of battle was going against them. So Rusty had jumped into action with a croquet ball. She had contributed something of her own 10 the battle.
 A gasping grunt came from tn ground beside Jim Elwell. He looked down again and beheld the van ouished stranger struggling to sit ting position. In one hand he held the croquet ball. Slowly his head lifted and he looked at Jim. Then his gaze shifted to the girls on the other side of the fence. The eXpres- sion in his eyes was still little un- certain and befuddled but his mouth tegan to spread in a good-natured grin, and with that ease Of acton that marks the trained athlete he
 rose to his feet and held out his hand.