Red Lodge daily news combined with Carbon County news., 1934-09-12
Fat and Forty
By ALDEN
G. by Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate
WNU Service

IL days. He'd sit back OF the
stove and white and let the boys
wisecrack all around him without
ever rising to the bait.
Donnie's an especial favorite OF
mine-he's so darned good-lookln'-
and the first time he come In when
| was alone | asked him right out
what the matter was.
How would you feel, Mis- Har-
ris, If a girl you was practically en-
gagged to got crazy about a married
mann"
Il s'pose you mean Idella," l said.
But who's the MANI"
Joe Lawrence"
Heavenly day Is that old bum.
blebee still buzzln' around? Why,
he was n of life's dangers when
| was eighteen. He must be"
Sure, he's old enough TO be
ldella's father. But he's lived In
Boston all these years and he's
smooth. He's got all the girls run
ming around in circles, but Della's
the one he's after. Just happens
to be driving by and brings her
home, and then they talk and talk.
And they dance together a lot"
well, you aren't going to set
still and let him get away with 1t,
are your"
but Mis- Harris, what can i
dot"
l considered while / put up Old
Man Wilson's order. "If you could
make him look ridiculous"
Fat chance with that big sports
model and all these snappy
clothesl"
"0r you could go to his wife, but
that's kind OF mean. Let me see.
You tried paying attention to some
other girl?"
Il don't want any other girl"
TRY 1t. anyway" | advised him.
You'd be surprised how often the
old gag works"
A few days later Donnie came
in and hung around till we we're
alone.
"How's things eoming?" I asked,
seeing be wanted an opening.
mot so hot. She's meeting him
up by the Point. happened to
be coming home through the woods
the other night-lines stood out
along his jaw-'and / saw him kiss
| her."
well, one Kiss from n married
man won't ruin her life, but many
of those meetings will go a good
ways towards ruinin' her reputa-
tion."
"rd like to choke him"
Eyes, and spank her.
Amos Benson came In Just then
for some nails, and / didn't get a
chance to ask Donnie IL he'd dated
up another girl. But | could e
that this latest development had
him set so high he wasn't capable
of much tinessing. So / decided to
take a hand myself In this little
game.
got out the good old law Of aver
ages and figured that since Idella
waited In the store for the night
mail five days out of six, and Joe
almost always went by from the
mill while she was there, 1t was
fairly apt to so happen on any
given date.
Then | wrote a letter to Milly
Barlow, an old crony Of mine who
lives in Wauhoxit. Milly's still slim
and wears smart clothes, and the
fact that she's a Vance Falls girl
who's made good as a radio singer
puts her ace-high with the young
crowd.
Wednesday afternoon Idella and
Annie White sat on cracker boxes,
giggling as usual, when Mllly's car
drove up. She came along In and
we stood gossiping till the whistle
blew and the weavers began strag-
Gin by.
Milly leaned to get a better view
of one figure. my heavens, Is that
Joe Lawrence? Why, Maud, he's
got a paunchl"
"'Fat and forty" l quoted, "only
he's a good ripe forty, wouldn't you
sayY'
"Oh, be was years older than we
werel Well, WE'LL" Milly couldn't
seem to get over 1t, "Joe Lawrence
fat. Perhaps that's recompense for
all the girls he made fools of.
Wouldn't Hattie Allen love to see
him now?"
Poor Hattie-he did that just TO
break up her affair with Chef, didn't
he? And she neve did get another
beau. But Joe couldn't resist turn
ing the head of any silly girl he
ran across, with that charm that
didn't mean a thing"
Milly laughed. 1.-The worlds boy
friend. But | should say there
wasn't much chance of his charm
ing a niger just now"
Idella had taken 1t all In, though
she pretended to be deep in gable
with Annie. Her face was plenty
red, and the different emotions on
1t would have given Hepburn les
sons.
And then fate co-operated and ]
witnessed a little scene / hadn't
expected. l was III my way home
u,hoo I onfnd n nourlo n ~ %ho Forro