Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-26

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- of us for three years, and taking into
account how much we favor each other it'd be
natural enough il you wasn't to be just sure
which one of us it was. Coming on me sud-
denly this way. sitting by mountain shack
"a hundred miles from nowhere, you might
weilve hesitated. But there's the point: You
never did. No, there you come around the cor
ner give me one look, hold out your hand as
If before you thought, and, why, good heav-
ensi Hullo Lester!' says you. Where's
J0l1n?" s ate--.r
And all the while, me joint
' Well, then. YOU say where's Lester? WELL
Testers all right. Look here, know you, and
I'd trust you with my last cent. Only you
know how things 60. And they might still
get Lester for that spose. The laws that
way. The law would never take into account
that no fatal harm ever come to no one through
it Gas 1t turns out-oh, yes, I've heard)-no
moren it'd take into account that Lester is
well-different. No. let's leave Lester where he
is, If it's all the same to you.
But your taking me for him. without so much
rs CULVER; that's the queer thing. You never
mistook in the old days. nor any one else
why, anybody in town could've said in wink
this ones Lester or this ones John. How
could they? You know better'n I do. And
yet they do say that no matter how much
twins favor each other, yet if you're used to
'em there's something different
only look here. can say it where an
~ other couldn't You know es well as I do
that there was difference between Lester and
me. As boy 7 was strongern Lester. II
there was kite in tree, was the one to
climb the tree. II we had to go anywhere aft
er dark, went first. Or when it came to max
ing living was the one to undertake It,
Mind I amt complaining. was glad to do It.
You never knew why Lester was scared OF
lightning did you? But you knew he was. Yes,
for remember twas you and Tom Lake come
with me that night the herring factory was
struck and we found Lester damned SO tight
under the wood-shed floor, to home We had to
pry of plank TO get him clear.
Course, always knew he scared OF
lightning Many and manys the night been
walked by O tempest to find Lester in bed with
me, and the touch OF him cold as ice. re-
member seeing him there by the flashes, sit
ting bolt up and his eyes staring open. And
every time 1t come he'd beg me to look-look
all around-look. Look at what? Couldn't say.
Only look. 'D'ye see anything John? Not
anything t all?"
He made me feel queer enough can tell
you, with that high pitched, unnatural voice.
Well, one time he told me. 1t was Sunday
afternoon, and we was lying on the beach
looking at the clouds. Once In a long while 1t
come like that. It's hard to explain. don't
knows you'd understand anyway: you never was
born twin with another. But sometimes, when
everything was dead quiet and nobody else
about and nothing TO do, O funny kind OF
dreamy softness-lk used to come over US: It
was s If all want to do was to take hold OF
Testers hand and lay there and kind O. forget.
And il I had secret or If Lester had secret
did you ever see the mist coming on the
ground Of an early norning-that easy? ON,
sdoggone 1t, don't know how tot just sounds
foolish. But anyway
Well anyway, Lester told me why he was
scared of lightning. It wasn't he was
scared OF, being struck. No. he says he even
wish sometimes he could be. 1t was something
else, As far. as he could make out 1t must've
been some dream he'd had, several times, ne
thought likely He was in the dark. trying 10
go somewheres, creeping on his hands and
knees There come q stroke of lightning that
run right down through his body like an ice
cold flame. And just them right before MIN
on the ground, he seen the face OF woman.
He seen her there where he could've toucne0
her with his hand, and her eyes was wide open,
staring at him-dead-dead as door nail.
HE wasn't himself; you'll just have to under
~ stand that. Maybe it's the electricity in
che air Maybe it's something else I've read
something in a book since was here, ana I've
got to thinking maybe twas something come
down to him-something our ma might possibly
have got scared by before me and Lester was
born. That happens.
But in that case youW say, why wasn't
burned with the same iron? Well, there you
are. I been reading, and all that business IS
queer enough, If you only knew it. You can
only say that when me and Lester divided
l,p that was one of the things that went into
his share And what share! Dear mel
When he came running to me in the tempest
that eYening-you know the evening mean
and tell me what had happened (what he
thought had happened), it seemed to me the
world had ended for us two. don't need to
spx, ,rar IL anaia that "crirne" of I,AStar's Won