The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1931-12-16
CHAPTER IA

pY the time that Ann was earning
S25 q week and Cecily SIC 81
week, Grand had retired from the
real-estate business. i
Grand owned nothing now except
the family house and the land upon
which It stood. These, no stated.
he would sell at the same time that
he sold his wife and his grand.
daughters. He made speeches
about it. His son and his sons
children had been born there.
(They hadn't, at all: but Grand's
memory at "a was failing.) It had
stood through the years, in stress
and storm, an ever ready haven for
him and his-that sort Of thing.
Rosalie. getting wind Of the fact.
some way or other, that there were
such things as mortgages. had once
suggested during a trying month
that they borrow a mortgage-or
whatever one did with a mortgage
-on the home place. Grand, sens.
ing perhaps the inalienable right Of
mortgages to melodrama, produced
quantities Of m%elodrama, and Rosa.
lie wept some, through her promise
never to mention such q thing
again..
There was n pressing need At
the time for a mortgage. Part OF
the $41 a week had to be put aside
for what Cecily called the every.
Fancy Educational Fund" (Mother,
sometimes for a joke. had called
the baby "very-Fancy": Grand and
Rosalie had not approved). but the
taxes were lower. since the new
appraisal. and q slick shoemaker
down the street put on half Soles
and even small patches SO that they
scarcely showed. Grand rarely
borrowed 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 =
humble way. At any rate. the cost
of fitting up his workshop In one
Of the spare bedrooms was just
under the amount Ann had planned
to spend on her winter coat.
Grand was not ~puttering. Grand
was hard at work on his model for
airplane wings that should fold and
unfold as a birds wings fold and
unfold, There is q fortune In It,"
he said, implying. however, that he
held a low opinion Of persons who
cared for fortunes. "Ah. yes-an
unlimited fortune"
EOR some pesky reason the
plague-taken pulleys that were
to manipulate the wings would not
work. always. with the required
degree Of exactitude. It did not
matter greatly. because their per.
versity gave Grand an opportunity
to get to work in earnest on his
collapsible fire escape. and this car.
ried straight on and naturally to
something new in elevators-a
s~pace-saving device which no one.
perhaps not even Grand, entirely
understood.
Sectional doors came next. The
principle was involved. but the
point was that two or three inches
OF . door could be opened. while
the remainder Of the door stood
firmly closed. Failure Of the doors
was tragedy. for with them Grand
wearied Of things folding and col
lapsible, and in the spring Of the
year 1929 turned his attention Il
radio development The electri,
bills mounted high, and the tribes
that Grand needed for his expert
ments were ruinously priced.
It was in May. 1929-odd Of AM
TO remember the date-that Phi
told her for the first time. fatl,
and with no softening diminutive
that she was q fool.
"You." he elaborated. pretend {.
despise your grandparents sent
mentality. You are - sentimenta
- they are. every bit-both 20,