Evening star., 1939-02-05

car was in the garage for repairs
and the storm had made the walk
home too difncult. Like the tramp.
he said that he hadn't expected no
lady to stop for him, and, in an
excess Of pride, he insisted that the
reviewer stop and let him put the
chains on her car as q price for the
ride. 1t was q handsome offer. but
had to be refused because the re-
viewer did not yet have any chains.
She got them the next night, COM
ing home, after she had skidded
backward down the hill Just the
other side Of Wye Mills. A prosaic
garage mechanic put them on in
stead.
Well, as said, the roads were deep
in snow and the reviewer did not
seem to be the only chainless mo-
torist abroad, either. For, on one
OF the sleeper rises on the Defense
HiShway, q car coming down got
out Of control and skidded madly
toward the reviewer, who was COM
ing up. It's narrow road. You
don't have much liberty of choice
as to what you'll do on 1t, in such
an emergency.
They're going to hit me-" said
the reviewer. and let go Of the ac-
celerator and called 1t q day.
Let me-" said the honest working
man, and reaching over he took
hold of the wheel. It happened very
quick, and so the reviewer cannot
today explain it, but he maneuvered
her car, In some manner, 50 that,
when the crash came, 1t was bumper
to bumper, and not fender was
the worse for 1t. As far as the
hitchhiking species goes, this would
seem to even the score for paltry
few cigarettes.
Called Baby"
Twice, to be sure. the reviewer
has been called baby This she
views with mixed feelings She does
not think-nay, her mirror does not
tell her-that she is woman whom
strange men call "baby" easily. But
1t happened. She has put 1t aside,
to be treasured when she comes to
the period when she will sit in the
sun and remember.
On the first occasion 1t was no
hitch-hiker who thus addressed her,
but young man in overalls who was,
In some manner or other, attached
to a handsome red truck full Of
ropes and ladders. He was a nice
looking young man. In fact. as
young men go. he was the counter
part of the perfect 36. The overalls
which he was wearing were brown
and he had bright yellow hair He
sat on the back end of the truck
and swung his feet and looked at
the world with benign mastery.
Then the truck stopped for the
ferry boat and the reviewer. who had
been coming along behind, drew into
her place in the line next it. The
young man gave fine athletic ex-
hibition Of a young man giving a
fine athletic exhibition getting OIL
q truck full of ropes and ladders,
hit the road standing. and came up
to the reviewers window. It would
not do to say that he staggered.
He was a young man, plainly, who
felt no need whatsoever for swag-
gering. He put his hand on the
window edge and said cheerfully:
Say, baby, when does that old
boat get in, huh?"
The reviewer regrets to write that
she could find nothing at all proper
to say. Oh, she told him when that
old boat got in, huh. She knew that
But what is the masculine of
''baby?' That she did not know. The
young man thanked her, too po-
litely, and wandered of. An expe-
rience to be remembered, as said,
with sweet sorrow.
The other time it happened was
when she had picked up a wanderer
on the Defense Highway and had
heard the story of his broken heart
how his wife had seemed to be
a nice, honey kind of girl when he
married her. but had turned out
that such things could be!-a gad-
about once she had got him safely
tied. She didn't want no home life,
she didn't want no kids, all she
wanted was to tear around and do
the hot spots, and a man don't
marry no girl just to do no hot spots.
Anyway, not constant and regular.
So he'd left her, yes, sir, he'd left