Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1935-09-19
CHAPTER V-Continued

Crack gave an uncomfortable laugh
as he got out, and faint blush deep
ened his old-fashioned youthfulness. i
guess that pup don't like me so very
we'll" he said. He smiled shyly at
Hal, as if half-hoping for some other
explanation from him; but then his
eyes drifted lazily away again, undis-
appointed.
The morning lay hot and long over
the flat croplands of Indiana and ILL
nois. AS Rasputin sang along the road
past farm and field and farm, through
brief brick towns, noon-drowsy and
anbustled, the land kept the character
Of things it knew, the assurance of
things it remembered. Halls sense Of
these quickened sometimes to Kerri-
gan's remark and Implication, some
Zines to untried appropriations Of his
Dwn-not so much forgotten as never
before found.
Rasputin ran like an aristocrar,
granting an aristocrat the privilege of
metallic song in the gearboX and a
dissemination to compete with low
price upstairs at a change of traffic
light. And before Mrs. Pulsipher could
come to the fidgeting preliminaries of
.unch-hunger, they were crossing the
Illinois river into Peoria.
Barry saw the sign on cafeteria
In side street, "Air Cooled and Con-
ditioned." And there was chorus Of
grateful exclamation and struggling
into jackets as the almost-chilled draft
swept up the stairway. Down in the
bright hustle Of the cafeteria itself,
Sister Anastasia suddenly sneezed,
then looked at Barry with pretty
expression halfway between amuse-
ment and apology. Barry's hand went
to her arm, her clear face lighted with
quick, humorous sympathy. Kerrigan
took the dead cigarette from his lips
and, with an air of awkward courtli-
ness upon his bulk, said to her, We'll
all catch the Russian grippe in here.
Sister, allow me to take you some
where else"
"Oh no-thahnk you," said Sister
lAnastasia, her eyes grateful and still
amused, her diction trying carefully to
elude the accent that touched it.
1t was an enchanting voice-in its
gentleness of grace and inner assur-
ance that still, as Barry had said, kept
you from using the word humble. Hal
smiled in pleasure as he watched her.
And since Barry would not meet his
eyes-not actually avoiding them but
seeming to know of no use in meet
ing them--he had double welcome for
an impulsive tenderness, brought his
tray of lunch to the empty place be-
side the nun.
She spoke only when she was spok-
en- to; but the restrained ease of what
she said, the smooth, quiet cadence
she gave to each sentence made it de-
lightful to 60 on prompting her. They
talked of nothing much that Hal re-
membered clearly; how long she had
been in America, the pleasures and
imperfections of crossing the ocean,
the view from the Empire State build
ing, the world eminence of American
cities in degree of summer heat. And
then Hal had an innocent, urgent de-
sire to see her blush--a little, once,
to see what she might have been like
as young girl with first beau. And
he said:
''Have you heard, Sister, that Cali.
fornia is place where the fruit has
no flavor, the flowers no scent, and
the ladies no charm?"
NO. she said looking at him in
guileless interest. II ave not 'eurd
that. Is it true?" ,e..r
II don't. know surely, because I've
never been there" said Hal, without
concealing his pleasure in her. 1--WE
tasted oranges from there which were
sweet; and I've been told that their
orange blossoms at least have the
cent they do In other places. AS for
the last part of the saying, l know II
will not be true when you and Miss
Trafford get to California"
For an instant Hal was afraid he
IA n eli, % IL,