The Coolidge examiner., 1932-08-19

his sons. A beautiful, plump old
creature who sat all day like a con-
tented cat, in the sun-drenched
rooms and on the sun-drenched ter
races of her lovely house and let
herself fatten on well-being.
Poor old Aunt Ella. Can't make
her stir. Sits and soaks herself in
sun. Knits sillies for people who
won't wear them. Dozes by the
hour. Loves waiting on. Goes to
bed at eight and loves to be sleepy
and snooze like an adorable old
maltese cat. Can't you shame her,
Senator
You couldn't shame great,
plump, purring old woman like that.
She was for all the world like moth
ing but a maltese in the sun, sleek,
cOntented, superior.
Come out of it, Ella. Be young
one. Dancew
Dance, my hind foot, Senator
You can make your old bones play
at being twenty. Mine are seventy
five and I'm showing them good
time"
Nothing to do about a woman like
that!
The summers were a nuisance.
No use talking, the boat trips were
a trial. 4 man was supposed to be
entitled to look upon his holiday as
a period Of rest. But nothing Of the
sort. If you had the reputation of
being the youngest man on board
the floating palace of an ocean liner,
there was no such thing as relaxa-
tion. Young ones knocking on the
cabin door. Come on, Senator,
we're all waiting for you to come
up on board and show who is the
best shuttle board player on this
ship. Saving me a dance for to-
night, Senator? Oh, say, Senator,
don't you go and desert me for that
pretty blonde. You promised to
walk the deck with me this evening.
Yes, the summers were trial
Same way at Antilles, or Paris, or
Deauville or wherever youth and
beauty fitted. Fight on! Don't let
the years so much as get toe in
the wedges Of the door. Fight on.
Sometimes the tiredness became
just a numbness and that made it
easier, except you dared not relax.
The memory had to be kept oiled,
to repartee fawless and tendency
to reminlsce held firmly In check.
Fight on
you're not an individual any
more, Senator" Aunt Ella told him
once, sitting on the porch in her
huge upholstered chair and daubing
arnica on her swollen rheumatic
knuckles. you're the prize exhib-
1t. You're like the dog-faced man
and the fat lady and the two-head-
ed girl. You're the oldboy wonder.
Can't grow old The boy-wonder
who was cursed with the inability
to grow old"
How she cackled. In age you had
to guard against that. Without your
being aware, the laugh could become
a cackle.
Then fell the nine days wonder.
Almost like the one-horse shay, the
Senator awoke one morning too
tired to face the day of frivolities,
the trivialities. the repartee and the
challenge of youth. His bones hurt.
His spirit hurt. His soul hurt.
The young and younger generation
about him declare they can trace
his disintegratIon to the day. Al
most the hour. They blamed Aunt
Ella. The facetious patter is that
she vamped him at seventy-five.
Be that as 1t may, the Senator
and Aunt Ella sit now sometimes
six and seven hours on end in the
great sunny terraces of the beauti-
full country house. The Senator has
relaxed so outrageously to his
rheumatism that Aunt Ella says of
him somewhat testify that it is In
decent to surrender.
The curious part of II is that with
all his shamelessly revealed In
firmities, gout. joint trouble, jaun-
dice and a leaking heart, the Sen
ator somehow looked better. Re
laxed, is Aunt Elias way of put
ting it.
Call 1t what you WILL" says the
Senator, "it's solid comfort. Being
eighty eight has enormous compen-
sations, If you'n just let yourself
be eighty-eight."