The Washington times., 1932-08-26
CHAPTER 5

I gardens, watering lawns, vi
just sitting on front steps be-
cause it was such a balmy, sum-
merry night, all had a friendly
greeting as Val and her aunt
went by.
Everybody liked Aunt Julia.
Everybody knew how good she
had been to her folks, support
ing her mother after her father
died, then nursing the bed-rid'
den old lady for years.
The way she had shaved at
her dressmaking to pay the
taxes and insurance Catch her
handsome brother helping anyE
and then when she did get the
insurance after the old lady
died, and she could have had a
! little freedom, didn't her brother
! have to die. and his wife send
! her the child to raise?
But they liked Val, too. A
good girl.
! wal and I have great old
! times together" Miss Macfar-
lane was accustomed to boast,
! innocently knitting Val to the
heart. I'VE go to the movies
every Friday, and get our ice
! cream sodas afterwards. Walls
like me, not one to run after
the boys"
Millie Her Ideal
Val didn't want to be like
Aunt Julia. She wanted to be
like Mile. beautiful and be-
loved. And she hung her head
when Aunt Julia boosted, be-
cause, though she looked like
Mile, she was beginning to
worry that she was going to
turn out an old maid like her
aunt.
whats this about your 60
ing out every Friday night with
Miss Macfarlane? Aren't the
boys good enough for you?"
SNUG Mrs. Clarkson had leaned
over the fence to ask just the
other day.
Mrs. Clarkson was swarthy
and squat, with two chins and
coarse, oily hair that she had
marcelled until it looked like
greasy, corrugated black iron,
and she was always posing and
teasing Val about being poy-shy.
And then she had poked a
pudgy finger in the shrinking
Walls ribs and chuckled: Maybe
you're one of those deep ones!
Maybe she pulls the wool over
her aunt's eyes, I said to Mr..
ClarkSon, I said, when he was
telling me about what she said.
But I said, Maybe she's wait
ing for Joey Carey aha!
THAT'S it! Don't blush so,
you'll burn up. And say, don't
let his mother know it-that's
ALL"
Gossip Tres Val
That's the worst of growing
up in one neighborhood where
everybody knows everybody else,
and Aunt Julia so funny about
some things.
When Val was younger Mrs.
Clarkson used to draw her out,
find out the things Aunt Julia
had told her about bad men who
were supposed to be lowering
around with candy. waiting to
lure away little girls, and what
nice little girls did and didn't
do with boys. Then she'd hoo
hoo" to Mrs. Carey to tell her,
and they'd laugh and laugh.
Val never forgave her for
that, nor for going around tell
ing the other neighbors that
Miss Macfarlane said she was
glad the boys didn't seem to
care for her niece, and she
didn't worry about Joe Carey
tagging after her, because he
was such sissy it didn't
matter.
She wanted to do something
wonderful and beautiful for
joey, to make up for that, but
she never knew just what to
do, and besides, she was
ashamed of them noticing how
much she liked Joe, so some
times she wasn't even nice to
him.
Joe wasn't a sissy, anyway.
Joe had never been that. TAX
ing care of a lot of babies
doesn't make a boy sissy.
At least it hadn't Joey. Joe
just did whatever his mother
told him to because he thought
he ought to, on account OF
being the only one she could
depend on, and his father being
dead.
Sorry For Herself
Joe didn't even care that
they called him a sissy. Joe
was funny that way. He didn't
care what anybody thought.
Val wished that she didn't.
But she did. awfully.
If all the other girls went to
the senior dance and she didn't
she'd just die. Not that the
silly old dance mattered. She
wouldn't care if they didn't
have any dance. She wished
dances had never been in
vented. But to have everyone
else go, and feel sorry for her
because she had no one to
take her.
Marjorie said she knew two
fellows in the class we'll enough
to promote, but she didn't
know anything about "promot-
Ing" partners. She'd die be-