Evening star., 1937-08-01
BACK Yard R |DYLL

- HE had lpsticked three different mouths
on her own and had decided that the
original Isabelle Cummings lips were
~ still best for her face. She had read the
movie page, the society items" and the
comic strips in the morning paper. She had
talked on the telephone with Kay Oliver for
twenty minutes; she had talked to Susie
Clayton for thirty. She had walked three
times around the front yard.
Now she stood in the back yard, picking
leaves off the syringa bush by the kitchen
steps, Back yards, she thought. were depress-
ing; though her mother certainly saw to it
that this one was neat and green with grass
and kind of like garden. with the three
chairs under the big tree. Nobody hardly ever
sat in the chairs except the cook. On very hot
days Mamie came out and sat down to shell
peas or something.
"Babyw Mamies brown face appeared at
the window above the kitchen sink. "You
want pin t'eat?"
Isabelle shook her head. She strolled over
to the chairs and sat down. A line of poetry
came despairing into her mind:
"Oh, world! oh, life! oh, time'
That was Shelley, she remembered; she had
read It in English class last year. The poem
was all about getting old and dying. She didn't
feel old and dying but she certainly did feel
"Oh, world! oh, life! oh, time!" And oh, what
was the use of it all!
What, indeed - with all the boys in town
having gone off on camping trip the day
before? That is, all the boys who figured in
Isabelle's existence; those young men, just
finished with freshman year in college, who
kept her sixteen year old heart blissful with
their constant attentions.
Two weeks the boys were to be gone. Clos
ing her eyes, Isabelle let her head fall back
against the chair. She certainly wasn't one of
those loathsome females who went around
saying she simply couldn't stand women; she
had as many girl friends as any girl in town.
But after all, two weeks!
She heard the click of the catch on the back
gate and opened her eyes, The delivery boy
from Bailey's Grocery Store was coming up
the walk. striding easily despite the heavy
box on his shoulder and the white apron like
cylinder around his long legs. His shoulders
were wide and his arms tanned and muscular
beneath the rolled-up sleeves of his old shirt.
His hair was yellow, Isabelle saw; and it
glinted in the sunlight. Bailey's must have
changed delivery boys. The last one had
looked like brunette rat.
The boy did not look at Isabelle until he
had carried the box to the kitchen and was
returning down the walk. His glance slid to-
ward her and Isabelle said "Hello!'
Hello" he answered in matter of fact
tone Il didn't think you'd remember me"
You remembered mel" she reminded him.
That's different see you around all the
time" He took dollar watch from his
pocket I'm late. G'by."
"Gby!" her voice, puzzled and questioning,
trailed after him.
In the afternoon when she went riding
around town with Susie Clayton and Kay
Oliver, Isabelle observed abruptly and for
no apparent reason: Delivery boys are GER
tainly peculiar people"
This brought blank stares from the other
two and Isabelle did not, as she had intended,
turn the talk specifically to Bailey's delivery
boy. Obviously. to Kay and Susie, delivery
boyswere creatures from another world. They
wouldn't know who that boy was; or if they
did, they'd think Isabelle had gone crazy
even to want to satisfy her mere curiosity