Evening star., 1936-03-01

entered the Smith Hardware
a Stores contest in the hope of
winning the bicycle. And few days
before the competition was to close
he realized that he was not the only
one who had the correct solution to
the problem.
Sure, I've got it," Freddy Temple
told him. Il did the same thing you
did-counted the revolutions of the
wheel per minute. Everybody will
have that right, except lot of dunn
mics who wouldn't have a chance Of
winning anyway! But I'm having a
tough time with the essay"
Ralph was having tough time with
the essay himself. He had already
rewritten it a half-dozen times, and
still he was far from satisfied with it.
He had originally planned to sub
nit his composition to his English
teacher and get her criticism, but the
contest rules said definitely that en-
trants must receive no help on either
the problem or the essay. So Ralph
kept his essay to himself and checked
every word and every sentence for
grammar, spelling and punctuation.
The fact that the Misses Jameson
were away helped him, for it was
much less work looking after their
furnace these days. and that gave him
all the more time to spend on the
contest. The weather had been mild
and he had no fear that the pipes in
their house would freeze.
RUT the day before the contest was
49, to close it suddenly turned much
colder. That afternoon after school
Ralph read his essay over once more
and felt rather discouraged about it.
He felt that he could do it better if
he wrote the whole thing over again.
But time was getting short.
WELL" he told himself, II might
as well do it right. I'll stay up late
tonight and rewrite it, and finish it
tomorrow after get the ashes out"
Then he suddenly had an idea. Dora
Custer, his cousin, had typewriter.
Wouldn't it be good plan to type
his essay before turning it in? The
added neatness Of typewriter manu-
script might be the one little thing
that would decide the contest in his
favor. He promptly called Dora on
the telephone and arranged to use her
typewriter.
"I'll be over tomorrow afternoon"
he told her. "I'm dub with a type
writer and it will take me long time,
so I'll come early"
But his plans didn't work out. It
took him most of Saturday morning
to clean out the ashes at DR.. Carlyle's
and the Jamiesons'. Then he hurried
home and went to work on the essay
once more. It was 4 o'clock before
he was finally satisfied with 1t.
It'll probably be late for supper"
he told his mother as he left for the
long street car ride to Dora's house.
Il really ought to go over and look
at Jamiesons' fire before leave"
eyes," said his mother, cts getting
colder all the time"
But just can't stop to do it now"
Ralph said. His conscience hurt him a
little bit, but, after all, the jamie. ons
were away, and their fire should be
all right until he got back. And the
contest closed in less than five hours!
lie RAN out of the house and met
a boy coming up the walk with a
Inffnrs IN
delivery letter, and it was addressed
to Ralph. Surprised, he hastily tore
it open. It was from Miss Jessie
Jameson, informing him that her
sister was i'll, and that they were re-
turning to their home late that eve
ming. She had written to make sure
that the house would Re good and
warm when they arrived.
Ralph's face took on q worried
frown as he read the letter. Then he
began to figure hastily.
"If I hurry over to Dora's, and
don't spend too much time tipping the |
he thought, II can get back
down to the hardware store and turn
it in by 2 o'clock at the latest. Then
I can rush out and see to the jamie
sons furnace. The fire oughtn't to go
out by then-and even if it should, I
can rebuild 1t before they get home"
He. ran down the street and caught
the car. But traffic was slow because
of the ice on the street, and 1t was al
most 5 when he reached Dora,s.
/ Dora offered to type the essay for
him, but Ralph feared that would be
o violation of the rules. So she showed |
him how to use the machine, and he
started to punch it painfully with two |
fingers.
. Twice he destroyed pages which