Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1935-08-15
Honarus
Americanus
By cAP'N TRUMAN oRDIoRNE
@ Mcclure Newspaper syndicate.
WNU Service.

~ pin Cove in his lobster boat, puts
his days catch aboard the skiff and
skulls ashore. A stranger at the land
ing halls him. II say, captain, would
like half dozen or so Of your legal
size Homarus Americans"
Bent straightens up and growls:
What in ell you drivin' at?"
Il said wished to purchase half
dozen HOmarus Americans. / pre-
sumo you refer to them as Holsters"
"All engaged. None to spare Bent
tells him.
When he/gets home he asks his
daughter what Homarus Americans
has got to do with Holsters. She tells
him it's Latin.
Sixty miles we will go to big city
where live Lydia Hawkins and her
widowed mother. Cap'n Abel Hawkins,
an old coastwise skipper, had left his
wife and daughter comfortably well
off. We find Lydia, at twenty-five,
teacher of French in the high school.
For year she had been running
around with young man named
Knowles. He drew fair to middling
salary with big hardware concern,
and had kept an eye on the stock mar
ket. He had run a shoestring into a
bank roll and was some ten grand to
the good. So he and Lydia plan to
wed the next June.
Apple blossom time comes along
and grassy June is just over the hori-
zon. Then one evening A. Benton
calls.
Lydia" he said, 81 have lost every
dollar 1 had in the world and this
morning I was given months notice
at the office. 1 give you back your
promise. can't marry you now"
Lydia Hawkins liked A. Benton for
himself and didn't have the slightest
idea of heaving him over just because
he'd gone broke.
"Bent Knowles, you damn lobster!
You're squealin' like stuck pig.
Where in hi are your guts?"
mo woman can talk to me like
that" he tells her. II thought you
were a lady," He steps to the hall,
grabs his hat and is gone.
A. Benton goes home to his room,
sits him down and considers. 1t was
all off so far as Lydia Hawkins was
concerned. He had heard that skip
per Abel had been a hard swearing,
hard driving master, and Lydia, in
spite of her college training. was like
ly to break out in the mouth any time
things didn't go to suit her. Next day
he boards a bus and turns up at his
Uncle Benton Saunders cottage at
Skulpin Cove. After good lobster
supper. pipes going, A. Benton tells
Uncle Bent his troubles.
Benton" he says, do you think
you can haul lobster pot? Well rig
forty more pots and I'll let you in on
shares"
Lydia Hawkins misses A. Benton
and is sorry she lit on him so hard
She waits and waits but no word
comes from him. In the meantime, she
runs afoul of Prof. Alvin Barstow, who
teaches Latin. One night he asks her
to marry him. There is a lot about
the professor that she likes. So she
tells him that she needs time to think
the matter over. But all the time
she's hoping to hear from A. Benton.
Professor Barstow invites Lydia to
go for days outing to place down
on the North Shore called Skulpin
Cove. There they can procure some
Homarus Americans fresh from the
sea.
One morning they make an early
trip to Skulpin Cove.
what a day." says Lydia. we've
got to go fishing!"
She hires a dory and drops her
gy Neck. They have luck. They've
got half dozen good sized BOOKINGS
when Lydia notes the professor turn
ing a mite green round the gills.
Lydia makes a move to haul In the
grab and row ashore with the profess
sor when she sees she has anchored
in too close to the point. Just then a
motherly old sea curls over, the dory
capsizes and Lydia and the professor
are hove out.
The dory is bottom up but the grab
holds. Lydia holds the professor by
the collar, swims the few strokes to
the dory; and hangs on. She has seen
a fisherman in a power boat headed
for the capsized dory, driving hard.
He shuts off, reverses to a standstill,
and helps the girl and the professor
aboard.
AS Lydia straightens up she says:
."Gosh, Bent, your old boat stlnks like
hi" Then she wraps her bedrag-
gled self around that fisherman and
sobs for JOY.
Bent Saunders, working in his fish
house, sees them coming up from the
landing. "Well, I'll be dod-diggered I"
says Bent. ITS old Homarus Ameri-
canus !"
They dump the professor into his
car. Bent takes the wheel and streaks
1t for his house. He strips the profess
| sOr, wraps him In blankets and feln.