Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-03

u,
She was not only member of the high schools
literary society but vice president as well and
presided when the president of the organiza-
ton, Lon Brown, son of the principal of the
high school, was obliged to be absent. She
had fine executive quality and once or twice
it had been Sibbe's privilege to sit in at one
Of these sessions and see her young daughter,
pert slim, alert and intelligent conduct the
affairs of this cultural organization with man
ner and precision.
SOMETIMES the literary society, or the dra-
matte club of which Lottie was also a
member, met in the modest little home, where
Sibbie took great pains to serve excellent re-
freshments. There was girl named Edda
May, of wealthy parents, who had come to be
a great chum of Lotties. Sometimes they
practiced their dramatics together, while Sibbie
held the book and prompted them. Lottie and
Edda were bound for the same college Once
too, Lottie was chosen to play Juliet opposite
Lon Browns Romeo in the school production
of that play, and it seemed to Sibbie, sitting
there beholding that no fulflIment could be
finer than this vicarious one that was hers.
Compared to the joys of beholding In this
girl of hers the fruition of her own stunted
and blunted desires, the years of struggle grief
and despair were as naught.
In a way, Sibbie used to argue with herself
1t was a blessed dispensation that she had been
too silly and Ignorant a girl to realize the in
calculable advantages of an education. Other
wise, she might never have realized thus keenIy
how essential were the cultural attributes she
desired so passionately in her daughter.
The world was filled with women who had
suddenly found themselves in the routine nut
of homes, without having had time to equip
themselves for life; women without the capac-
ity to desire the better things. Sibbie had been
4anIN
of foreign languages, of art were closed to her,
because she had never prepared her mind to
understand or love them
There came to be something horrible to Sibbie
In the news that this and that young girl of
Lottie's acquaintance had married.
Too soon, too soon, was what her heart tolled
when tidings such as these came to her. These
young girls, just out of high school, had not
time to prepare themselves for the better
things; the banquet-things of nfe's table.
When Lottie was 10. she was graduated with
honors from her high school
There were three months between her and
the time she was to enter college; months that
were heart-hurting and terrible to Sibbie In
many ways, as the time of her separation from
this child approached, and yet months that
were lit with the flame of fulhIlment.
To add to the excitement and the fine quality
OF her anticipationS, Lottie won q travelling
scholarship Of two months in Europe on the
strength Of an essay she wrote for a local news
paper 1t came out of clear sky, because
S1bbie had not even known that her daughter
had entered the competition. Two months in
Europe! Two months among the art galleries
the palaces and the capitals of England, France.
Germany and Italy Why, that in itself was
enough to give girl running start IN a cul-
tural life that was imitless in its possibilities.
MORE than that think what it would do to
tn ntfia
arduous activities of her graduation, out of the
apathy which had come over her of late
But as matter of fact, the effect was Just
the contrary. Like flower dropping of its
own weight, Lottie somehow failed to respond
to the incredible good fortune that had befallen
her and for some reason all the old enthusiasm
about her entrance into college had flowed out
OF her, leaving her wan and hStleSs girl who
was puz2ling to her mother
After all, it was impossible to account for a
lassitude so deeply rooted as Lottie's merely
by the strenuous activities attending her gradu-
alton. Something fundamental was to be reck-
oned with in Lottie.
1t all became startling clear, just one week
before she was to sail for Europe She eIoped
with Lon Brown.
The effect upon her mother the subsequent
happy setting-up of the two young people into
q small homestead, and the resultant years of
good fortune and tribulation happiness and
heartache, are precisely what would be ex-
pected Sibbie, with the uncomfortable re-
siliency of the human being, recovered from
the shock of her disappointment and learned
to accept IN good faith the really pleasant
destiny that had overtaken her daughter Lon
was good fellow, Industrious ambitious and
capable. Their first child was born on Lottie's
birthday.
She is six years old now, her name is Sibbie
The nest-egg toward her college education has
already been started in the savings bank
(Copyright, 1920