The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1943-07-22

|
striding gloomily ahead, hypno-
tized by dark chaos around him,
he passed the entrance to his no.
tel without seeing it. When he
saw his mistake he turned back in
a temper, pushed open the swing
ing door and stepped into the
small dingy lobby. .',., ~".
A girl was sitting there. She
was rather pale and looked a lit
tie anxious, and she wore a last
years hat. She sat nerviously far
forward, and kept her eyes fixed
on the door. When she saw him,
she sprang up and went quickly
to meet him, saying his name in
a deep, shaken note, ooh, Mr..
Hulme!" she cried, as if she were
astonished to know that he still
lived.
He took both her hands in his,
looking down at her in relief and
establishment as great as hers.
"Susan!" he cried. "Why. Susan!'
Della, short, broad-shouldered,
sturdy-legged, appeared from a
door at the side, her hat in her
hand, her surly dark hair freshly
combed, her brown eyes snap
ping. Hello there, Mr.. Hume.
Are you as nearly dead with
tiredness as Susan? Not me! I'm
crazy about this town. Here's
where I'm going to live, you
watch me! What are we going to
do this evening""
They went to a restaurant and
ate fish in a white gravy with oy-
sterS, and for dessert had thin,
thin pancakes but not with ma
pie syrup; with another kind of
syrup that the waiter touched a
match to and it actually burned
for a while. After a movie, Tim
Othy took them up Broadway, its
myriad electric lights resonant as
bugleS.
The most unexpected event of
the winter was the solving Of the
old problem of how to get the
basketball teams and their sup
/ POrters transported to the towns
up and down the valley where
their out Of Clifford matches were
played. Selling that gadget for
carburetors, Eli Kemp had learn
| ed a good deal to know Of the me-
chanics in various garages. One
Of them was Bill Peck, rough
| spoken older Workingman en-
oloyed in a garage in Ashley.
Peck had a brother working in
St. Johnsbury who happened to
write him that the old bus line
there was about to replace it's
two battered ancient buses with
new ones.
When Eli heard the news he
was aWed to feel, blowing from
it as from the Delphian pit, the
authenic wind Of inspiration. Dir
zy, but agonizingly in earnest, he
told Peck that if those two old
cars could be had as a bargain he
was sure something could be
made out of them at the Acade-
my. Peck was a pool-playing old
bachelor with no wife to restrain
him from follies; he withdrew a
few hundred dollars from his
savings account, borrowed a little
more for insurance, and went in
to the bus business, he driving
one and Eli the other.
The engines were still in fair
shape, but the bodies and seats
were disreputable. The older man
was willing to put the first prof
it's into paint and denim, and Eli
| got up eagerly at dawn, day after
day, to scrape, mend, paint and
paul. LVS1 az L11CA "OAoC' ClAC
two rickety buses were more
comfortable, enclosed as they
were, than the open pulpwood
trucks in which, standing up on
zero nights, the teams and few
hardy hackers had formerly rid
den to out of town games. With
Professor Hume to help him Eli
worked out a season ticket plan.
It was just before the begin
ming of the midwinter vacation
which that year was the first
week in March. Susan was to
spend it with Della who had