Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1929-07-26
Continued from page i

smart little delivery automobile
with the words "TALLMAN, THE
FLORIST" painted upon it in gold
letters, was starting away from the
curb. Lights twinkled in the shop
beyond it, and tall white Easter
lilies and potted rose bushes filled
the windows.
Its too bad people can't order
their Easter hats from us by tele-
phone, the way they can phone for
tiAeir Easter Towers" the girl went
on, her eyebrows drawn together in
a little frown. isn't it a shame
that they can't, Mrs. N'qyberry?"
There was not a sound from Mrs.
Mayberry, whose eyes were dream
lily following the florists little au-
tomobile down the street.
Its a shame, isn't it, Mrs. May
berry?"
Still there vas no answer
Mrs. Mayberry, you're not listen
ing to me-"
Mrs. Mayberry came out Of her
dreary day dream then. she laugh
ed.
Good heavens Chatty, if I lis
tened to you every time you opened
your mouth" she said, my ear
drums would have been worn out
ages ago!"
"Chatty" was Charlotte Chatter
toms nickname, and no word in the
English language could have de-
scribed her half so we'll as that lit
tie nickname did.
For Chatty was a born talker.
She chartered like a babbling
brook from the time she got OFT Of
bed in the morning until she got
back into it at night. 1t was as
natural for her to be talking most
of the time . it was for Mrs. May
berry to be still.
That was probably the reason they
got along so well together !.
Chatty talked and talked and talk
ed, and sometimes Mrs. Mayberry
listened to her.
Day in and day out, for nearly
three years, they had worked side
by side without a 'ngle quarrel of
tany kind.
For 10 hours daily they trimmed
hats and waited on the people who
came to buy them. They swept and
busted the little shop, With its pref
ty gray furniture, its moss-green
carpet and its flattering roSe-Shaded
lights. Every day at noon they sat
down together for lunch at che end
of the long work table at the back
of the shop.
Here Chatty had come, at even
teen, a week after she was gradu-
ated from Central high school, in
answer to the GIRL WANTED"
sign in Mrs. Mayberry'S front show
window. And here she had been
ever since, learning to steam hats
and shape them, to stretch and trim
and sell them.
She felt as if she were Mrs. May
berry'S partner now, instead Of her
$18-a-week assistant. She worried
when the hats did not sell, and she
crossed her fingers when they did
sell. She unlocked the shop every
morning, and locked it up at night
after Mrs. Mayberry had gone home
And the shop was the most
exciting thing in her life.
AS a matter of fact, there was
nothing else IN life for Chatty but
home and her family.
KQme was a four-room flat on the
second floor Of a shabby red brick
apartment building, far out on Lip
ton avenue. And Chatty'S family
was her hard working mother and
14-year-old brother, Putnam, who
never had been called anything but
"Pud."
Between the four-room flat and
Mrs. Mayberry'S hat store ran the
quiet stream of Chatty'S life at this
time. There was nothing else for
her. Nothing.
1t was a very dull existence for a
girl of 20. A girl whose smooth
bands Of honey-colored hair and
big gray-green eyes and white skin
made her a pretty girl.
You ought to have a sweetheart,
Chatty," Mrs. Mayberry, who never
spoke unless she meant what she
said, would tai her sometimes. "Ev-
cry girl your age should be meet
ing young men and going around
with them. That's only natural. I
was married when I was twenty
and it's a crying shame for you
to be shut up here, where you never
see anyone but a lot of women who
want to try on hats!"
But Chatty would shake her head
firmly.
I'm not thinking Of men, Mrs.
Mayberry." she would say sharply.
Not me! And I'm not thinking
Of marriage. either. if it's all the
same to you. I'm perfectly happy
just as / am"
That was lies from the truth,
of course.
For like every other normal young
woman under the sun. Chatty had
begun to think a great deal about
young men and aboIt meeting some
Of them. She had begun to long
for the things that every girl longs
for, sooner or later.
She found herself wishing lately
that there was someone who would
be waiting outside the shop for her
at the end of the long day
someone who would tuck his hand
under her arm and pull her close to
him IS they walked home through
the spring twilight someone
wac would call her up and make
dates" with her tc take her driv-
ing or dancing, and who would hold