The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-09-20

With shouts OF laughter, till Eliza.
beth lost her cap and Arthur had to
dive to find it for her, though by
that time her hair was down her
back, as soaked as though she had
never worn any cap at all. Now
look simply awful" she said, tread.
ing water while she wrung out her
hair, but he retorted, You do not
you look like a mermaid, tawny Skin
and sea-green eyes and your hair
floating" They came out to sit ir
the sun, and while she shook out her
hair to dry they talked without any
sense of strangeness.
Arthur told her he was a research
chemist. He was employed Dy ar
oil company to conduct laboratory
investigations leading to additional
practical uses for petroleum, and he
had published several pamphlets de-
scribing his work. To Elizabeth the
profession sounded erudite and
clustered, not at all the sort to en-
gross beautiful young athlete. But
chemistry, he told her, was the most
exciting subject on earth, though
physics ran it a close second, or
maybe he should give that place to
biology-though it didn't matter,
they were all divisions of the same
subject, which was the fascinating
way the various bodies of creation
were made. Even a smattering of
it," he said, makes you see things
you never saw before, you feel as if
you've been walking around blind. :"
Pulling leaf off the nearest plant,
he called her attention to how glossy
it was on top and how velvety be-
meath, and told her the tiny tufts on
the velvet side were clusters of little
nostrils through which the leaf
breathed the air.
She was interested, so he went on,
telling her how the leaf used air
and water and the energy from the
sun to make food for the plant.
"Then animals eat the plants" he
said, land we eat the animals and
the plants both, so we stay alive.
But we don't know how to use the
sun; nobody understands how that's
accomplished, only the green leaves
can do it. It's the fundamental life
process of the world. Our bodies
can't do it. Only the green leaves
know how, and If they should forget
we'd die, all the life on earth would
end, because we've never learned
their secret"
Elizabeth was delighted. "But
that's wonderful" she cried. "Why
didn't anybody ever tell me that be-
fore? Now whenever I walk across
the grass or look at a tree, I'll re-
member it. What lot you know"
'Oh no I DON'T" he assured her
laughing. 81 don't know anything,
but ] like finding out"
AS they talked she discovered that
his outstanding characteristic was
profound curiosity about how the
universe and its inhabitants were
put together. Everything from ba-
bies to planets interested him. He
wanted to take them all apart and
see what made them behave as they
did. He told Elizabeth that before
choosing his specially he had hesi-
tated before the attractions of be-
coming chemist, surgeon, biol
ogiSt, an astronomer-notb because he
did not know what he liked, but
because he liked SO many fields of
study that he could not decide which
one would be most interesting to en-
ter. 1t was lucky he had his living
to make, he remarked, as otherwise
he might have turned into one of
those scholarly recluses, a sugges-
ton that provoked her mirth, at the
notion that anybody who loved life
as much as he evidently did should
imagine it possible for himself to
withdraw from it. ''No, guess not"
he admitted, laughing too. "I love
people. I can't imagine anybody's
actually liking to live alone, can
your"
81 don't imagine you've ever been
alone very much, have your" she
asked.
''Why no, haven't. I always meet
somebody"
"Have you been in Tulsa long?"
asked Elizabeth.
"About three years.
''Where did you live before that?"
Chicago"
Elizabeth began to laugh again
and said, That's where you were
born, isn't it,"
"Yes, how did you known"
Because people born in Chicago
always call it Chicawgo, and every
body from other places call it Chi
cahgo. Why is that?"
"Chicawgo," he said thoughtfully,
and laughed at himself. why, I
do. What do you call it?"
"Chicahgo," said Elizabeth.
"Chicawgo," repeated Arthur. 'T
can't seem to say it any other way.
It's like a birth certificate, isn't it?"
She nodded.
did you ever hear anybody from
England say it?" Arthur asked.
''No, what do they say?"
"Tchicago," said Arthur. "The Ch
like in church. You can tell them a
thousand times that it's like the Oh
in machine, but they can't seem to
change"
'Any more than you can."
"Chicawgo," Arthur repeated.
"Chicawgo," as though trying to
change, and shook his head in
ev,a.,cay,oanf ttNa can't Cba11 xr,a