The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-12-30

Grand told MT Carmichael that same afternoon, "Modern girls ---l upon my soul they seem money mad. Not that am criticizing my granddaughters. Better girls never lived to bless a mans declining years. Better at heart, that is." And when MT Carmichael had sug- gested that the girls with tnelr salaries might be able to help out a trifle at home, Grand had waved gestures and declared:
 "Not a penny, my friend. Not one penny. Their little chicken feed is theirs, to spend as they like. Their own, for little glrlish luxuries and extravagances. l hope they are extravagant with their poor little moneys. It will make mo feel easier about permit. ting them to enter the world of commerce., rub shoulders, us t were, with the herd. At the timc of my sons passing gladly under took tho cure, the support. the education of his little brood, shall always so care for them. shall always support them." And Grand believed 1t, as he said it; he sincerely believed it.
 
 By the time that Ann was earn- Ing S25 a week and Cecily SlG e week, Grand had retired from the real-estate business. Had, us he told Rosalie and the girls, decided to leave the game to the young stres, the lads--unlicked cubs - fresh from college, who were will ing to step on the other fellows fingers to gain footholds of their own. He could compete with them; yes. He would not stoop to do so; no. He would now and at last de- vote himself to tho field wherein he knew h;s real talents lay-thc field of inventions.
 "ln wager you $10,000,' said Grand to Ann, though neither or them that day had 10000 cents in the world, "that at the end of one year shall have more to show Tor my efforts than l would have after 10 years of this miserable land hawking."
 This seemed possible, It had been more, thun d year now since Grand had made even n small denl In real os,atc. The reason. not vls- ible either to Ann or to Grand w;Ss that for tho past several years Grand had been dlsposing of the remnants of his own land holdings at prices so low that he could find buyers for. them with no difficulty. other landowners were unwilling 10 make these sacrifices; or, 1T prodded by necessity, they made them for themselves without Grand's aid.
 Grand owned nothing now ex- cept the family hOuge and the land upon which 1t stood. These, he stated, he would sell at tho same time that he sold his wife and his granddaughters. He made speeches about it. Ills son and his sons children had been born there. (They hadn't, at all; but Brands memory at "A was failing). It had stood through the years, m stress and storm, an ever ready haven for him and. his--that sort of thing. Rosalie, getting wind or the fact, some way or other, that there were such things as mort gages, had once suggested during n trying month that they borrow | mortgage--or whatever one dia with mortgage--on the nome place. Grand, sensing perhaps tne inalienable right of mortgages 10 melodrama. produced quantities or melodrama, and Rosalie wept some, through her promise never to mention such thing again.
 There was no pressing need at the time for a mortgage. Fart or the $41 a week had to be put aside for what Cecily called the very Fancy Educational Fund (Mother. sometimes for joke, had called the baby "Very- Fancy; Grand anu Rosalie had not approved)' put the taxes were lower. since the new appraisal. and a slick shoemaker down the street put on half soles and even small patches so that thev scarcely showed. Grand rarely narrowed more than a dollar or two at a time. It always had to be change, small change, that he needed. ..
 He began his new venture in a humble way. At any rate, the cost of fitting up his workship in one of the spare bedrooms was just under the amount Ann had plan ned 10 spend on her winter coat. (Cecily had bought her coat winter before last, so 1t was Ann's turn) But the old coat was made to serve and as Ann told Philip Ecroyd (Phii and Ann had been engaged only two years in 1924: Phil was graduated from law school that same summer), it saved on car fare and lunch money. and Grand was happier puttering around at hoase.
 tirand was not pntterng. Grand was hard at work on hls mode! for airplane wings that should fold and unfold. There is ior' tune in it." he said. implying, however. that he held n low opin- ion of persons who cared for for- tunes. "Ah. yes--an unlimited for' tune"
 For some pesky reason the plague.tnken puileya that were toa manipulate the wings would nos work. always. with me rea"'rso