Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-12
WORLD FAMOUS STORIES
A BACHELORS REVERY
BY DONALD G. MITCHELL

nose long ago: and that lip-it is very
strange, you think, that you ever thought
it pretty And then. to come to break
fast with her hair looking as it does
and you not so much as daring to say:
/ Peggy, do brush your hair!"
! Perhaps Peggy is pretty enough-only
shrewiSh. No matter for cold coffee;
you should have been up before. What
sad, thin, poorly cooked chops. to eat
with your rolls! She thinks they are
very good, and wonders how you can
set such an example to your children
! The butter is nauseating. She has no
other, and hopes you'll not raise a
storm about butter a little turned.
| Again, Peggy is rich enough, well
enough, mild enough, only she doesn't
care a fig for you. She has married
you because father or grandfather
thought the match eligible, and be-
cause she didn't wish to diSoblige them.
Besides, she didn't positively hate
| you. and thought you were respectable
enough young person; she has told you
so repeatedly at dinner. She wonders
you like to read poetry; she wishes you
would buy her good cook book. and
insists upon your making your will at
the birth of the first baby.
She thinks Captain So-and-So a
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS leIIOW, dIlu WloIIco yUu
would trim up little, were it only for
appearances sake!
You need not hurry up from the
office so early at night; she. bless her
dear heart! does not feel lonely You
read to her a love tale: she interrupts
the pathetic parts with directions tC
her Seamstress. You read of marriages:
she signs. and asks if Captain So-and-
So has left town! She hates to be
mewed up in a cottage or between
brick walls; she does so love the
Springs!
But again, Peggy loves you; at least
she SWearS it, with her hand on THE
Sorrows of Young Werther." She has
pinmoney which she spends for literary
magazines. She is not bad looking
save a bit too much of forehead MOI
is she sluttish, unless a negligee till
o'clock and ink-Stain on the forefingel
be sluttiSh.
You never fancied, when you saw hel
buried in three-volume novel, that i,
was anything more than a girliSl
Vagary. But to be bored eternally
about divine Dante is too bad, anC
your copy of rare book Is all be-
thumbed and dog'S-eared, and spotted
With baby Cruel Even your Seneca
another treasured volume, is all sWeaty
with handling. She adores La Fon.
tame, reads BalZac with a kind o.
artist scowl, and will not let Greek
alone.
You hint at broken rest and al
aching head at breakfast, and she viii
fling you scrap of Anthology, in liel
OF the camphor bottle, or chant some
Greek tragic chorus that is all Greel
to you.
The nurse is getting dinner; you ar,
holding the baby; Peggy Is reading
Bruyere.
: Well. I am bachelor, and I had beer
: thinking all these thoughts before m,
own fireside, alone. where I had Jus
, built fire. But the wood was green
and at first showed no disposition II
) blaze. It smoked furiously. Smoke
thought I, always goes before blaze
7 and so does doubt go before decision
and my revery, from that very starting
point, shipped into such shape as yol
= have been reading.
All through my meditations the fir,
smoked thick as pitch, and pulled on
little clouds over the chimney-piece.
gave the fOre-stick a kick at tn
thought of Peggy, baby and Bruyere.
Suddenly the flame t1ickered bluel
athWart the SmOke-caught at a tWi
below-rolled round the messy oak
stick-twined among the cracking tree
limbs-mounted-li up the whole bod
of smoke, and blazed out cheerily an
bright.
Doubt vanished with the Smoke an
Hope began with Flame. Perhaps mar
Iriage was not such a dreary, forlor
prospect for a bachelor, after all
Strange how CHEEKY fire will warn
and encourage you!