Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-22

Denton. patting the pretty head
against him. frowned. too. Eleanor
Denton Wept on and on and on. She
wept in the elevator. wept while
nurses. trying their best jokes. helped
her to bed. wept terribly when Philip
Denton finally. his lips drawn and
white, loosened her arms from about
his neck and at the doctors order de-
pIrted for his two temporarily moth
erless children. She wept and trem-
b,ed and in panic fear covered away
from the nurses comforting pats.
from the reassuring words Of two or
three convalescents lowering sympa-
tj . .cally i'm the corridor.
eleanor Denton was afraid, alb
ject,y, insanely afraid with a fear
she was unable to explain to herself
or to any one. Down the years she
only knew. in a nasal croak sounded
the voice of her mothers neighbor
relating with zest the narrowing de-
tails of an operation on her cousins
wife's stepsister.
"Opration. OPERATION, Don't mem
ton that to anybody in our family.
You know Gussie Temple? Well!
Yehus, the doctors left a sponge n
pair Of scissors n l dunno what
else in her insides. The poor thing
suffered somethin' TERRIBLE" Here
followed pictures worse than any
thing in Fox Book OF Martyrs. But
tn poor things outa her mis'ry at
last" And so. on and on.
You'd be a lot better off IL you
could just be calm and cheerful" the
head nurse said, looking in when she
had come from supper to visit the
rooms before going for the night.
Gas if didn't want and didn't try
a Oh
whispered to herself, sopping at the
salty river flowing into her mouth
as if 1t were a Caspian Sea.
| They left her for a space quite
alone. She was not serious" case.
Suddenly she realized that she was
very hot, that she could hardly
breathe. She stopped sobbing to
wonder, to listen. How silent, how
strange the place was. A YOU"
woman, a girl merely. in blue o.
with white cap and apron came
ming into her room. She sprS
the window, closed 1t, locked /
her hand pressed against her
ran out again. other hurryine
steps, low voice and now and
other windows being fastened
the elevator going swiftly up and
down. Eleanor raised herself and
pulled aside the curtain at the win
dow close beside her bed. 1t looked
toward the south and east. How
queer the color of the sky and the
air. how still the air. And yet those
little gray fiannels, chasing each
other as If in play across the prairie
between the hospital and the town.
How wicked. eerie, menacing-
"Oh, gee, I'm scared! Oh, gee I'm
scared
| 1t was the very young woman In
blue again, rushing into her room, her
face white, her Irish blue-black eyes
wide. She came trembling close 10
Eleanors bedside, Eleanor put ner
hand out on the crisp blue sleeve. She
smiled at the white face:
sit won't help to get scared" she
found herself saying. ITS sort OF IN
teresting, don't you Think"
At last a crash and rumble. DUST
| flew into her room from the han.
Bricks banged on the floor. Wen, Wnae
nextp Was the whole building going?
In a second would she be covered by
tons of steel and brick and mortar ana
wooden beams? Involuntary she
glanced at the window. She saw pricks
60 whirling by, a great flock or DlacS
Shingles, boards, crafty dancing Weh'
what next? -.
| Nothing. NOLIlNS UuS Ne-AAsA-
| length. a sky swiftly cleared OF CLOUDS,
ono star and then another poisoning
ont the forget me -nots OF the Angels,
and the call of a meadowlark wltnout
the hospitaI. Within the hospital, hys-
| terical laughter, sobs of relief, the COM
| forting voices of the nurses. The very,
| very Young nurse came again IhIo
/ F,Jeanor's room. She gasped and rum
Med her hair, danced a little ana IN
The newt second was the calm, pulse
| feeling, medicine-giving "ef1cient per pei.
son she was being educated 10 Pc An ne
cyclone was over. 1t had plCheu III
the chimney Of the hospital. puInpsu a
il down through the sRyhentS VL 80 -.
top floor and gone gayIy on up ii'o 'No
sky. -v, ,,,t,ita
| Eleanor lay on in the narrow wnlte
room. listening dreamily, smiling now
and again when she thought OF the
very Young nurse, glancing out upon
tbe neacef1II fields under the opal-green
wide clear sky. Cars were coming
swiftly out from the town. There
was a sweet accustonedness ABOUT
A voice. a low, deep. beloved voice,
and a tall form in the door.
Darling! Darling" Phllip Deh'o or
was whispering in his wl1e ear;
| came as SOOIl DIS SOuA0 o.
TO stay with the children. THANK Goo
you are safer a., 1904.
He knelt beside the bed, his eyes
staring incredulously.
| Eleanor Denton was laughing:
You silly boy! Did you think was
scared? I wasn't. 1 wasn't! DO you
hear? It doesn't do bit Of good to %
scared. Phil, there's the funniest
thing and I've never told you-
She told him then about the sponge
and the scissors and the awful things
she had heard when she was SICK anu
listened outside the parlor window.
| "M-m-mh. I'm happy, Phil" sne
said at last, clasping her hands hign
in the air above her. TITS fun to race
things. It's fun to be In a hospitaI.
But I'll be out in 10 days as good as
new. I'll never be afraid OF anything
again!" 80
| Philip Denton on his way back 10
his children whistled as he started ms
car. his eyes lifted to a certain win
dow where a hand waved gayly ana
face smiled at him, a face as calm as
the sky when great wind has swept
it clear Of clouds. In his ears stiii
sounded a voice.
! "I'Il never be afraid Of anything
I again.
| And
"So's your old man. elegantly and
| enonhatically he responded.