New Britain herald., 1926-12-11

would If they had been, in fact, his sisters?
 No use to ask him: they're still his kid pals How can d boy Of twenty-two be that way with two such glorious girls? I'll have to talk with Mollie on this"
 But still he remained seated, lost in the hay mists of the summer noon. He was dreaming summer noon dream, living again through the days that had passed. On the lens of his mind he saw the years pile up one by one and the gradual change take place in the growth of the twins. Across that lens fitted pictures of the two as they looked at different periods in the seventeen years since that night in October when they had come into the world.
 They were children playing with Jim about the house and yard. Then came their school days and Jim's graduation six years before. Then the twins own graduation in the previous June. Then came the wis ualization of the girls at the age of seventeen, their birthday celebrated by visit of the little family of five to Chicago, where they had gone to the opera and seen Mary Garden and heard her sing. From that time on, he recalled, these two girls, brought so early and so strangely into the lives of Mollie, Jim and himself, had been dreaming their dreams and talking of the day when they, too, might see their names flaming in the white lights of fame.
 Rusty-Margaret saw her self as a dancer of classical parts, a delineator of legends. Betty-Eliza- beth-who dreamed of singing be- fore the crowned heads of Europe when the war was over, of course. And who would consent to being a movie queen.
 And so it was that Prof Elwell, himself a dreamer of artistic dreams, missed his dinner on that day in June of the year 1916....
 
 Life as a parade of years and a succession of incidents. And little happenings age us just as much as time does. It was that way with the twins and Jim Elwell.
 Betty Elwell jerked open the screen door opening onto the porch oF tho I;t+la (',p,d opvillo ,nttooa ono Saturday afternoon and came rush ing into the sitting room where Prof and Mollie were talking. Her hair was flying in glittering spread of coppery floss. Her cheeks were flaming and her eyes glowed.
 The door banged behind her and she drew up in front Of Prof and Mollie panting and greatly excited.
 "Where's Jim? I've got some thing to tell him-quick"
 Prof and Mollie Elwell stared in amazement.
 Quick" repeated this flame of frenzied excitement. i've got some thing to tell him that won't watt"
 Jim, his mother managed to gasp, was out in the woodshed. She be- lieved he was shining his shoes. But what in heavens name is the mat ter? Whats happened to-
 But the Flame was blazing its way through dining room and litch- en, the sheen of coppery hair trail- ing out in its wake like the spark blown tail of a fiery collet. Nellie turned to Prof. an inquiring look in her eyes, but his smile treasured her and she remained in her chair.
 Jim Elwell, all fixed up in his Palm Beach pants, his nine-dollar shirt, soft collar and fancy liecktie, with one tan shoe only half polish ed, was struck breast-on by the on rushing comet and knocked halfway across the woodshed.
 He protested that he was not In the mood for playing new and strange games. There was a time for all things and
 But the comet went with him, holding him in its burning clutch. It was saying things with a tongue that worked like forked lightning. She might calm herself, Jim advised, trying to keep his feet, and finally the tumbling words began to drop into formation that carried a vague hint of what it was all about.
 Quick, Jim - c'mon! Cmout'n punch his nose for us! He got fresh with Betty an me! We were out in the back yard under the trees dryin' our hair. He came along by the alley fence. He's higger'n you are' that made no difference to Jim he told her, beginning to roll up his sleeve "an' he started maxim smart cracks at us. Betty told him to go on about his business or he'd get thrashed. He said our whole family an all our friends couldn't lick him an he'd go on when he got good an ready! So Betty is tryin' to keep him busy till I got ycu!"
 Jim needed no further enlighten- ment. Some bum had got smart with his kid pals That was enough. Lead me to i'm"