The Washington times., 1936-01-01

Yet it's only a little more than
three years since Christine Cooper
was II.
Seventeen, and in love.
Heartbreakingly, tenderly, COM
pletely in love.
They were both so young.
Is that an excuse? She never
used it as such. The Coopers
never made excuses. They were 3
little arrogant about things.
This is going to be hard to take,
but can take it"
Christie was like that, even
then.
She was. for a creature. so In
tenSely female at heart, an amaz-
ingly rough and tumble tom-boy
child. She was so boyishly straight
and slim, her clear, amber-flecked
eyes were so disarmingly frank
under their straight, fair brows.
Her slender hands were so firm
and strong, her lovely scarlet
mouth was so often stretched into
Q wide, hoydenish grin.
Even when she was 16 and
Adolphus Cooper married again,
just SO that folks would stop nag
ging him about letting Christie
''run Wild" he never thought Of
her as that dangerous creature, a
young and pretty girl.
To him, who had made for
tune in the Klondike in the old
days and never had much to say
about how he did it, feminine
beauty was still a matter of ro-
bust curves. Slim, sun-tanned
Christie was just a child to him,
as fresh and lovely and as inno-
Gently sexless as the wild flowers
that carpeted the hills in the
spring.
And so she was, until the sum-
mer that she was II, and Gene
came back.
It was also the summer that
Aunt Nettie (Adolphus married
his first wife's widowed elder sis
ter, Nettie) took the trip 20 Homo
lulu with her two eager, fading
daughters.
Homes good enough for me-"
AdolphuS said.
OF course 1t was understood
that Christie would stay home,
too, AS far as getting mother
and sisters for his daughter was
concerned, Adolphus Cooper knew
very soon that his second mar
rage was a failure.
But Nettie was good. She made
him very conf ortable, and he had
been lonely in the long years that
he had been a widower. He was
grateful to Nettie for all she had
done for him, and all she had
tried to do for Christie. Christie
was like him, didn't care for show
and fuss. Later ON, when she was
a young lady, Nettie could take
her in hand, and see that her
future was made secure.
For the present things were well
enough as they were. Though he
scolded her a bit for not warm
ing up" to her aunt and cousins
q little more, he basked in her de-
votion to him.
Christie worshiped old Adolphus
Cooper, poured all the love of a
warm, generous nature on the
grizzled, weather-beaten old man
who could have been a power in
the mining world, but preferred
to "do a little prospectin' at
Spanish Pass.
Poured all her love-no, not all.
She couldn't remember when
she hadn't loved Gene.
II just love Gene. He's so NIGEL"
she used to tell Adolphus, and
he'd nod and smile his slow smile,
the way he did when she used to
say IT Just love baby chicks" and
IT could kiss the wild roses, they're
80 sweet"
He never worried about her.
Afterwards, after he was dead,
and there was no one to do any
thing for her, the few who cared
wondered why the one who had
loved her so well had done so little
for her.
And nobody but Christie ever
guessed the reason.
Which was simply that he had
never got around to it.
He was old and fat and lazy