Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-15

about them, these tight trim men, rather short
of breath, buttoned so snugly into their shining
shoes and their tailored clothes, with their
necks bullying in a fold of fat above the back
of their white linen collar. He knew that he
would never be like them. 1t wasn't his square,
toe shoes that made the difference, his gray
hat or his baggy trousers 1t was something
inside him-someth.ng he lacked, he thought.
1t never occurred to him that it was something
he possessed that they did not
HIS ruddy color began to fade. He took to
haunting department store kitchenware
sections He would come home with new
kind of cream whipper, or patent device for
the bathroom. He would tinker happily with
this, driving nail, adjusting screw. At such
times he was even known to begin to whistle
some scrap of doleful tune such he used
to hum. But he would change quickly to some
thing lively. The price of butter, eggs, milk,
cream and the like Mortified his Wisconsin cold
storage sensibilities He used often to do down
to Fulton Market before daylight and walk
about among the stalls and shops, piled with
tons of food of all kinds. He would talk to the
marketmen, and the buyers and the grocers,
and come away feeling almost happy for time.
Then, one day, with sort OF shock, he re-
membered farmer he had known back home
in Winnebago. He knew the farmers for miles
around, naturally, in his business. For his
familys sake he had moved into town, ruddy
rufous- bearded, dumping fellow, intelligent,
kindly. They had sold the farm with a fine
profit and had taken boxlike house OH Frank
lin street. He had nothing to do but enjoy
himself. You saw him out on the porch early,
very early Summer mornings.
You saw him ambling about the yard, poking
at weed here, plant there. terrible lone
illness was upon him; loneliness for the soil
he had deserted. And slowly, resistleSsly, the
hi, ;fe
its green tendrils, down, down, until he ceased
to struggle and lay there clasped gently to her
breast, the mistress he had thought to desert
and who had him again at last, and forever.
Il don't know what allied him. his widow
had said, weeping. He just seemed 10 kind
of pine away ~.
1t was one morning in April-one soft, gold
en- April morning-when this memory had
struck Hosey Brewster. He had been down at
Fulton Market. Something about the place
the dewy fresh vegetables, the crates of eggs,
the butter the cheese-had brought such y
surge of inconsistencies to him as to amount 10
an actual nausea. Riding uptown in the SUBJ
way he had caught glimpse of himself in a
slot-machine mirror. His face was pale and
somehow shrunken. He looked at his hands.
The skin hung loose where the little pads of
fat had pumped them out
He thought, then, of the red-faced farmer
who used to come dumping into the cold
oIOa dSC WdlSAlOuoc III Ills UlS UOOIS anu his
buffalo coat. great fear swept over him and
left him weak and sick.
The chill grandeur of the studio building
foyer stabbed him. The glittering lift made
him dizzy, somehow, this morning. He shouldn't
have gone out without some breakfast perhaps.
He walked down the tagged corridor SOFTLY
turned the key ever so cautiously She might
still be sleeping. He turned the knob, gently;
tiptoed in and, turning, fell over a heavy wood
en- object that lay directly in his path in the
dim little hall
barked shin. A good round OATH
"HoSey! What's the matter? WHAT"
She came running to him. She led him into
the bright front room.
What was that thing? box or something,
right there in front of the door. What the"
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Hosey. You sometimes
have breakfast downtown I didn't know"
Something in her voice-he stopped rubbing
the injured shin to look up at her Then he
Strengthened slowly, his mouth ludicrously open.
Her head was bound in white towel Her
skirt was pinned back. Her sleeves were rolled
up. Chairs, tables, rugs, ornaments were hud-
died in a promiscuous heap. Mrs. Hosea C.
Brewster was cleaning house.
Milly!' he began, sternly. "And that's Just
the thing you came here to get away from. If
Pinky-"
Truth-blinding, white-hot truth-burst in
upon him. Mother" he said-and he stood
up, suddenly robust, virie, alert-'mother, let's
go home.'
Mechanically she began to unpin the Topped
back skirt.
"When?"
Now"
But, Hosey! Pnky this flat = until
June"
Nov! Unless you want to stay. Unless you
like it here in this-this make-believe double
barreed, duplex do-funny of studio thing
Let's go home, mother. Let's go homeland
breathe"
TN Wisconsin you are likely to find snow in
April-Snow or sluSh. The Brewsters found
hoth OF fl,oir f.....