The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1930-04-18
BeQqarS Can Choose

over her. He had always smiled
charmingly. When he was child she
thought it was because he was lame
that he smiled so sweetly, but now,
he was free from any impeachment that
she could see.
Ernestine recalled the carpenters
wagon at the stone carriage block of
her mothers house. 1t was a bright
green wagon, with a green and yellow
striped umbrella over the drivers seat.
Old Peter Todd, who worked for papa,
had got down from this high seat and
turned to help his son. He-Peter-
had come to repanel the dining room
for mamma. AS the boys mother
wasn't well, he explained, he'd had to
bring him. Ernestine had at once ex-
tricated the tall thin boy, with metal
brace on one foot, from behind his
father. He liked her. Silent with
every one else, he was gay and friend
ly with Ernestine. He had come with
his father every day that summer,
and they had played together from
morning till night. How kind man.
ma had been to him! Ernestine won
dered if mamma would be as kind
now?
She had never had SO nice a play
mate. Perched perilOusly on the high
wagon seat, she had gone home with
him and his father. The tiny house
in which he lived had seemed to her
like the little house on the plains in
the story Of The Wonderful Wizard of
or. He had given Ernestine a pine
single with a ripping American flag
painted on it; and, after she came
back from the lake in August, he had
brought her the bird book, a duplicate
of one of his own that she had ad-
mired.
And she had never seen him again
nor thanked him!
"What charming place, Will" she
exclaimed, as they came out on an
upper floor and into the room with the
walls crowded with brass and metal
relief work. Crowded, small, dark
tables were set with colored linen run
ners. At every table there were
women smoking, and throughout the
room sprinkling of men who looked
strange to Ernestine. They had for
eign sophisticated air. They were not
at all like papa or Loring.
They ordered pastry and coffee and
sat leaning forward on their elbows
looking at each other, smiling, remem-
berfng.
'But how about your brace?" she
asked him. "Were you able to discard
it at thirteen, as you expected"
Sooner. But walking without it
was a staggering business for year
or so, can tell. I'll never be golf
champion, and the American army had
to go to France without me, but I'm
well, really. / never think of 1t any
more. It's such darned interesting
old world to kick around in, without
wanting to play tennis. 1 work on
the Sun, and often go home after two
in the morning. I come over here
sometimes, when it's quiet except for
a few cars. The streets echo, and the
strangest feeling of unreality comes
over me-"
"What do you do, Will, on the Sum-"
His eyes. shone. His voice thrilled
with enthusiasm and excitement.
II work in the art department" he
told her, and the way he put it, it was
a "brag," superlative announcement.
"I've been there over a year now, and,
Ernestine, I'm crazy about it. Lord,
it's wonderful, the feeling you get on
a paper. I've made some fine friends.
John Poole is friend of mine, and
good one, too"
Every one in Chicago knew John
Poole, whose comic strip in the Sun
was as much feature of Chicago life
as the beauty of the Blackstone reared
against a winter sky.
"Why, Will, how fine! But what do
you draw?"
He hitched his chair little nearer
to hers in his eagerness.
did you ever see, in newspaper,
the little curlicues around half-tone
that's photograph-deco to
make the picture, which may be odd
in shape, fit into the type? 1 do those
things, and lettering, and sometimes
a spread" He sent a waitress for
paper, and showed her what he did.
II get twenty-five dollars a week
for it," he boosted. "And I'd do it
for nothing, If they didn't pay me.
The fellows are real guys, and we've
got a regular boss. This is my day
off, and here am downtown, and 60
ing over there, pretty soon. l can't
stay away. If you'll go with me, I'll
drag you around the plant, and show
you the big presses, and introduce you
the Mr.. Poole, and the fellows in the
art room"