Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-04-15
Daily Short Story
Dream House
by ALMA and PAUL EILERBE


Jean is a charmer we said e
each other when we first met her
on her native New England soil
but how's she ever going 10 ad-
justI Where is she going TO fit
in!
She didn't fl in there al home
in the little inn her family ran so
that they could get the most out
Of the vegetables and meat and the
milk. cream and butter produced
by their farm and dairy.
They called il the Country Home
Hotel, and II was just that. II
was on the banks Of a shallow
river that flows into the sound.
We spent winter there. one
Of those mild winters that make
people say the climate is changing.
Sea gulls stayed on through the
whole of il, dartng down after
FISH beneath our windows and
striking white fire out of the blue
water with their white wings.
All the Mallinsons worked with
their hands land Jeans hands
were lovely): father, mother. three
sons, and daughter Jeans Job was
waiting on the table.
obey read and hought and
studied. made money and saved it.,
savored life. and debated vigor-
ously what il was all about.
They went TO college whenever
they could-all OF them; the father
and mother through extension
courses that sometimes they were
too tired 10 understand and went
10 sleep over.
All of them liked working with
their hands but Jean. Jean didn't
like il, but she carried her load
and went 10 business college be-
tween times, though she didn't like
the idea of working in the bust
ness world either. Ii bothered her
family.
SHE WANTS HUSBAND
What she wanted was 10 get
married, and IL was deep ingrained
n their philosophy that getting
married was by-product.
Whereas in Jean though she
was as modern as day after to-
morrow-it bulked frankly as
"woman's whole existence" But
she didn't talk about il.
She was so pretty that il star
tied you TO discover il all over
again every morning at breakfast.
We thought she was going to
make somebody a charming and
satisfactory wife as soon as the
right somebody turned up; but in
the meantime she looked uponI
young men with distaste.
Those whom her family liked
particularly were men of the field.
the farm and the waterfront. We
liked them too, but Jean didn't.
Some of them didn't have clean
fingernails. And the few white
collar men she knew seemed color
less and pale-probably by con-
trast.
All of them slid into her life
and out of il. She looked at them
without interest and went TO the
understanding. maybe. of a
lover on a red roam steed of steeds
or its American equivalent, a
l6-cylinder gaS-eater with auto
matte convertible top and white
walled tires.
That latter was what she talked
about.
We left her there. in the Coun-
try Home Hotel, working and
dreaming, and stuck. we thought
planted. and we were sorry. be-
cause we had become very fond of
her.
When events, foreign or domes-
tic shake this country up, a lot of
dislodged Americans, as iron fill
ings 10 a magnet, go to Washing
ton, and that's where Jean was
when we saw her next-and still
she wasn't happy. She was
IOhi uiIlk.
81 was 40 tired If the family"
she said. They are the SWEETEST
people Tn the world, but - you
know, 1 saw too much Of them.
And now I've got TO eat two
meals n day with another not
.-so-swell one, picked for me en-
tirely by my income" She was
a stenographer,
81 want" said Jean, looking so
pretty that you wondered why
nine men didn't offer il 10 her
every morning on her way 10
town. ga life Of my own"
what about men," we said
"Worse and more OF 10. Most
Of those I've met here would
have 10 stand up twice 10 make
n shadow. I guess I'm just not
n mans woman"
She sigh Q d. And that, we
thought. was the unlkelleSi ok
PLANTATION in the whole wide world
We found bolt-hole in Wash.
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