1 *
i;| Nellie Dayton's f j
I "Nay" ij
ji| o-n |||
||| By BAIDEE E. BALCOM t\|
i j»
(Copyright, 1919, by the Western Newi
paper Union.)
Twice she had said "nay," and the
last time Marvin Wade marveled deep
ly over the perversity of the nature
feminine. She was something more
than lovely, was this idol of his
dreams.
Yet there was a winning gentleness
to her manner, a tenderness half ex
pressed with those whom she liked
or pitied or wanted to help. It was
because she saw sterling worth' in
Marvin Wade that she checked his
first outburst of love and repressed
its recognition in her own heart.
"We have not known each other
very long," she said; "and we are
young, and we will continue very good
friends."
The sincerity and earnestness of his
second appeal a month later well nigh
carried down the barrier of her re
serve. He was so manly, his longing,
ingenuous eyes revealed a soul tilled
with the deepest devotion, but pretty,
positive Nellie Dayton said:
"You have not yet safely tested your
reserve strength for the battle of life.
There are trials and temptations. Are
you sure of yourself? Let us see what
a year or two may do for both of us
in the way of looking at the concrete
ways of life."
"Why, it's very plain the girl loves
you, Marvin," declared his closest
friend. "She loves you so much that
she wishes you to be sure that you
know your own mind."
"Oh! if she only really does like
me," overflowed Marvin, "I'd be will
ing to wait one eternity for her!"
"You know Nellie isn't much like
other girls. Her folks were strict dis
ciplinarians, great church people, and
she, while neither prude nor Pharisee,
looks to truth and steadfastness as
guiding elements. Trials? She wants
to see how you meet and conquer
them. Temptation? You're flawless
In your habits, Marvin. Why! You
don't even know how to play bil
liards. Perhaps because thoughtful,
anxious Nellie realizes that sometimes
the fellow who has never even smoked
a cigarette goes it like a whirlwind
when he does get started, she awaits
that very test."
"You've hit it —that's the keynote,
temptation!" burst out Marvin con
vincedly. "Oh, but she need never
think J have any wild oats to sow!
Why, every aspiration of my soul is
to nourish beautiful flowers of the
mind that will bloom, and bloom, and
bloom clear to the end of life under
the golden sunshine of Nellie's sweet
smile!"
"Oh, but you've got it bad! That's
all right, though, and you're all right,
too, and you're going to win Nellie in
the end," and Marvin looked hopeful
and went away with a big idea in his
mind.
"Temptation?" reflected the ardent
lover —"that is the keynote of Nellie's
' Ideas, I see it clear as can be be. She
is such a perfect girl, with her chari
ties and her strict church ways, that
if she should ever marry and find out
later that her husband swore or told
lies it would break her heart. I don't
pretend to be goody-goody, but I have
got manhood enough and respect for
my mother's memory and regard for
Nellie to keep me from anything that
would grieve those I love. Now if that
gTeat bugaboo of my falling by the
wayside worries Nellie, I'm going to
show her I can stand the test."
It was about a wWk after that
when Nellie heard new r s that grieved
her. A girl friend came to her, all
a-flutter with exciteraenet.
"Oil, Nellie!' she said. "I hear some
dreadful things about Marvin Wade.
My brother says he's bound to go to
the dogs, quick and fast, and dreadful
indeed was the story she told. In
brief, item one: Marvin had been seen
smoking a horrid big cigar! Item two:
He had stayed half a day with the
loungers in the billiard hall! Item
three: He had joined a card party in
a private room at the town hotel 1
Item four: A friend had to take him
home from a convivial stag party and
Marvin had gone around later, a total
wreck!
The "wreck," to the amazement of
Nellie, put in an appearance the next
day. She was in the garden when he
arrived, and she tried to look very se
vere as he took his place beside her
on a rustic seat.
"Well, Nellie," he began, less the
penitent than the solicitous lover, "I've
come to bid you gooclby," and Nellie,
ready to deliver a severe lecture, be
came very anxious-faced.
"You see, I've been exploiting this
trial And temptation idea of yours,
Nellie," went on the audacious visitor.
"As to the trials. I'm sure I can bear
any of them like a regular hero If you
only love me. Teihptations —I ran
right into them. I billiarded and was
bored to death. I flirted with tobacco
and a mild decoction in the drink line,
and was sick for two days. Say, dear,
I've tested out the foWies that a good
many fall for, and I can say abso
lutely—no more of it for me! I was
going to suggest that now, as penance
for this little experimental fling, I go
away for say a year, and show what's
In me in a business way. Nellie, shall
I go?" She fixed her lovely eyes on
his true, honest face, she realized all
the sterling truth and earnestness in
that worthy nature, and then —as to
the going away, the third time Nellie
Dayton said him "uayl"
HAPPENED IN THE STONE AGE
Beautiful Love Story of How Cave
Man Showed His Great Devotion
for His Mate.
Glub, the cave man, hurried home
through the early dawn. Slung from
his shoulder were three large stones,
and on his face was an anxious grin.
At the door of the cave stood Bla, the
cave woman, a scowl of wrath in her
face, and a large, knotty club in her
hand.
Glub gulped when he saw her, and
hastily set the stones on the ground.
Grinning sheepishly, he approached
and struck her affectionately on the
side of the jaw, following the blow
with a tug at her black hair. But
these blandishments were all lost on
Bla. the stony-hearted, who fixed him
in the eye with the largest knot on
the club.
"Have a heart, sweetie" —or words
to that effect —begged Glub.
At the sound of his voice, Bla broke
into a prehistoric snuffle and removed
the club from her mate's eye.
"Where have you been?" she sniffed.
"I'll bet I know. I'll bet you've been
over with those nasty, lowdown tree
dwellers rolling bones till all hours,
with your wife and children waiting
for you and thinking you had been
run over by a glacier, and the best
ichthyosaurus stew you ever saw go
ing to waste. O ! Boo! Hoo!"
Breaking into loud, paleolithic sohs,
Bla once more brought the club to
bear upon her spouse's pithecanthropic
map. Glub was grieved and her re
proaches made him feel guilty, so he
knocked her down apologetically and
confessed that she was right. He had
been rolling bones with Sweek, the
tree dweller.
"Yes," howled Bla. "I know It. !
knew you were rolling bones. A fine
thing for a man with a family to
gamble away all his good shells and
stones and even skins, when the chil
dren have hardly a whole fig leaf to
their names, and the meat is so low
that unless you' scare up a dinosaur
this very day we shall starve. Fine go
ings on for a man with a family that
needs to he saving his strength to
go out arid get mer' for them and fin
leaves and skins to keep them warm'"
Glub was repentant.
"Bla," he said. "I know it was
wrong to gamble—very, very wrong—
but see what I won from Sweek. the
tree dweller. See the three hollow
stones filled with dinosaur meat and
Adam's apples. Wah ! What do you
think of your Glub now?"
Bla, in the transports ofj her joy
flung the club into the cave, and flung
herself upon Club's neck, choking him
violently. -x
"My own Glub!" she cried. "Come
into the cave and have breakfast."
Moral: There is nothing new un
der the sun. —Detroit Free Press.
Observed Father's Wish.
Thackeray's daughter, Lady Ritchie,
the widow of Sir Richmond Ritchie,
died recently at the age. of eighty-two.
She had endeared herself to a wide
public by her delightful reminiscences
of her father and of the other famous
Victorians among whom her early life
was spent.
If as a novelist she achieved no
popular success she was incomparable
in relating anecdotes of the sort that
illuminate, about the many remarkable
men and women whom she had known
intimately. It is much to be regretted
that, in obedience to Thackeray's dy
ing wish, she was precluded from
writing her father's "Life."
Ritchie's "Thackeray" would have
ranked with Lockhart's "Scott." Lady
Ritchie's charming introductions to
the biographical edition of "Thacke
ray" tantalize without satisfying his
devotees. The reader wants more.—
Living Age.
Recording Tree Growth.
Botanists of the Carnegie institu
tion keep an interesting record of the
growth of tree trunks, with their daily
and seasonal changes of shape, by
means of a new apparatus called the
"dendrograph." It has two forms,
each using as a supporting belt a
series of wooden blocks hinged to
gether and fastened around the tree.
In one form of the instrument, plung
ers, supporting an encircling wire at
their outer ends, touch the trunk at
selected points, and any movement
of a plunger is transmitted by the
wire to a recording pen on a revolv
ing cylinder. In the other form, a
yoke carrying four contacts surrounds
the tree, the variation in the distances
between the contacts caused by any
change in the tree's girth, being indi
cated on the recording drum.
Her Offering.
The elder sister had married a gro
cer and was well pleased with her
choice. But not so her eighteen-year
old sister. She was taking great
pains to impress the family with her
ambitions for a husband. "He'll have
to be a college graduate, a Successful
man in some big business and very
handsome," she ended.
The elder sister smiled placidly.
"And what charms," she asked bland
ly, "have you to offer for all these de
mands?" —Indianapolis News.
Pineapple Fiber for Cloth.
The pineapple, curious as it may ap
pear to people in the Occident who
know it only as an article of food, is
used in China for making cloth. At
least, its leaves are so used The
leaf fiber, after being extracted by a
simple process, is first made into
thread. The thread is then spooled
and run on bobbins. Old-fashioned na
tive looms next handle the thread. cot
verting it into a serviceable <_:•••
ROAD TO SUCCESS
Obey General Order No. 1, Which
Is Simply, Find Out!
Heads of Big and Little Business,
Who Do This, Will Be the Win
ners in the Great Industrial
Battle Now On.
Find out! That's general order No.
1 in American big business.
Can Du Ponts, who made three
quarters of all explosives used against
Germany, swing that vast machine
into a useful purpose of peace?
It hired 2,000 chemists, set them to
research work and found out!
Can the United States double its
wheat product and add a half to Its
meat supply? Spend $25,000,000 in
research work along agricultural lines
as it did two years ago and find out!
How can Standard Oil utilize every
drop of that black ooze which pours
from thousands of oil wells? By em
ploying chemists and engineers who
can find out.
Why does Armour have 125 subsid
iary companies, many of them highly
profitable, and which as the elder Ar
mour said utilize every part of the
pig but the squeal? Because it spends
an immense sum to carry out that
general order No. 1 of all big business.
Find *>ut!
There are in the United States to
day 40 concerns, each of which spends
anywhere fftun $lOO,OOO to half a mil
lion annually on this great game of
finding out, writes "Girard" in ihe
Philadelphia Ledger.
It is the supreme day of the expert,
the engineer and the chemist. It is
the era of unlimited research work.
Is leather too scarce and expensive?
Find a substitute.
Is there a famine in white paper?
Sot your researchers to discover a
new crop.
Two-thirds of all the energy in coal
goes up the chimney in smoke. The
biggest fuel burners, such as the
Pennsylvania railroad, spent big sums
to find out a way to lessen the smoke
and increase the heat in a boiler.
"Can you take that battery?" asked
the general.
"I think I can," replied the colonel.
"Go take it," said the commander,
"and don't come back until you do."
"Here's $10,000," says the corpora
tion president to his chief of research
workers, "find out how we can save
a fraction of a cent on each ton of
output."
And the fellow who can find out has
won a great industrial battle and cap
tured a battery from his more slug
gish competitor.
One winter day in his banking of
fice I saw Winthrop Smith hand a
silver dollar to his old friend> the
magician, Kellar.
"Here, do a trick," said the banker.
"Hands are too cold," replied the
sleight of hand artist, but taking the
coin he flipped it into the air and
instantly it seemed as if it were
raining silver dollars in' Kellar's silk
hat.
That's how some of the wizards in
trade operate. By an apparent stroke
of genius they multiply one dollar of
profit into nearly a dozen.
"Luck," you say.
Not that at all. It wasn't luck
which enabled the magician to ma
nipulate the coins, but years of pa
tient practice and study.
The follow who thinks he can win
in business today without once fol
lowing the injunction "find out," had
better telephone for the sheriff to nail
up his door.
Color Blindness.
Color blindness proves to be less
simple than has been supposed, the
defect being one of coloring instead
of vision in some cases. As reported
by Dr. H. E. Howe of the American
Chemical society, eyes quite perfect
In ordinary color perception have he
come weak or fatigued for red and
then have responded to the green ray*
combined with the red from certain
red glass. A veteran engine driver
properly identified red light near at
hand, while at considerable distance
the signal appeared green. The disfc
of the lamp was found to be copper
ruby glass and this and some other
kinds of red glass permit rays toward
the blue end of the spectrum to pass
In mixture with the red. The use of
selenium ruby glass Is advised, its
transmission of only red rays insuring
that the normal eye will see no green.
Peculiar Patches in Sky.
Not less than 182 more or less clear
ly defined dark patches tn the sky are
recognized by Prof. E. E. Barnard in
his latest catalogue. In some cases
they are fairly round and regular, in
others they are of complicated and
contorted form and their appearance
and sharpness suggest that they are
dark clouds or nebulae cutting off a
background made faintly luminous by
unseen stars or diffused nebulous
matter. Most, though not all, of the
dark patches are in the region of the
Milky Way, where so much of the ma
terial visible in the heavens Is con
centrated.
Belt Had Tightened.
Two soldiers from Fort McKinley,
Maine, attended a bounteous repast
on Thanksgiving day, and after par
taking of the most varied assortment
of dishes, the hostess inquired if they
would have anything else. One sol
dier gazed longingly at the fruit, can
dy and ice cream as yet untouched,
and remarked: "A little more room,
please."—Everybody's Magazine.
1 1 < ' i
;>o ' <s>;»
o <?>n
I;:: l&e
ill Long Journey
j:X By WINIFRED L. JEWELL ijl
(Copyright, 1919, by the Western Newi
paper Union.)
Rodney Price was mad and ashamed,
both at the same time. People stared
at him and he was humiliated from
the fact that they stared also at the
big policeman who had just led him
from a drinking place and now kindly,
though, reprovingly, took him to the
corner with the words:
"Go home now, young man. and
thank me for saving you your money
and perhaps your sense. I fancy you
don't know the reputation of the joint
you went into."
Rodney Price did not reply. He
traced in going into "the joint" a step
down an incline whither he had been
headed for some time past. He had
gone into the place because he had not
the moral strength to resist a panacea
for a headache, a trembling frame and
a general sense of collapse, due to
over-indulgence the night previous.
The dutiful and friendly officer saw
to It that the man he had rescued
was not followed or headed off. He
kept his eye on Price until he had
turned a corner. Half a square further
progressed, the latter stumbled where
there was a loose sidewalk tile. He
steadied himself and did not fall, al
though his head was dizzy and a sub
tle drowsiness was overcoming him.
Contact with the obstruction had rip
ped off the heel of one shoe. Price
picked it up and passed on his way
seeking a shoe shop and at last came
to a sign telling that repairing was
done inside.
A woman, her back to him, was hold
ing out two little shoes and explaining
that she wanted them ready by noon,
when she would call for them. As
Price plunged heavily into a seat she
addressed the cobbler.
"It's my little one's birthday, Mr.
Akers," she said, "and I've promised
to take her to a movie tills afternoon.
"The cost will be nothing, ma'am,"
observed the gentle hearted cobbler.
"I'll send them over before noon, and
you can tell your little one that the
mending was my present, and if I was
a little better off I'd give her a brand
new pair."
Rodney Price held his senses diz
zying and muddled. Somehow, how
ever, he roused up as a vague recog
nition of the soft low tone of the wom
an reached his hearing, but he could
not trace out the suggestion. Iu a
maudlin way he gained the counter
unsteadily.
"Just fix my heel, will you?" he
spoke, and handed it and the shoe he
had taken off to the cobbler. "And let
me snooze for an hour, I'm terribly
dozy. When you wake me up have the
little girl's shoe fixed, too. I've got
an idea. See?"
The old shoemaker did not "see"
anything further than an inebriate
talking incoherently. When the hour
had gone by, however, he came from
behind the counter, the mended shoe
In his hand. He had some difficulty
In arousing Price, who unknowingly
was the victim of a drugged drink.
The latter put on the shoe, produced a
well-filled pocket book, selected a
bank note and threw It on the counter.
"No change," he ordered. "Hello!"
as his eyes fell upon the little mended
shoes, and then his hand passed over
his brow confusedly. "Oh, yes, I re
member now, poor woman, the child's
birthday. And you, good old soul, was
to fix the shoes for nothing. A capital
Job, too, neatly patched and polished
up nicely. Here," and he tendered a
second bank note to the astonished
cobbler. "And here," he added with a
rec-kles.s laugh, "I'll do my share," and
he stuffed a handful of bills in one of
the tiny shoes. "Now then, you let
me deliver them, won't you? Where
does the little one live?"
"Second floor, No. 182, six doors
west. There's a sign in front —'dress-
maker.' "
"All right. Poor little shoes. Poor
little child. And me a regular goody
two shoes, eh? Well somebody will be
happy, and the bewildered shoemak
er's visitor left the place unsteadily,
the two little shoes in his hand.
His gait was unsteady, his sight
blurred, for the drugged drink had not
yet lost its effect. He located 182, how
ever, and the sign "dressmaker" and
the second floor. About to approach a
door he slipped to the floor of the hall
way instead, for a second time rob
bed of his senses by the drug.
"Oh, mamma!" exclaimed the little
child, as she chanced to' open the
door, and, startled, noticed the pros
trate man. "Here's someone sick, or
asleep, and oh, my shoes' all fixed up
beautifully, and oh, mamma! they are
full of money!"
Lost in amazement the mother view
ed the situation.
When Rodney Price aroused again
he lay on a couch in a neat but poor
ly furnished room. He fancied he
was dreaming as a familiar, long
sought-for face seemed to flash across
his vision. He reviewed the past, a
wife abandoned, two years of reckless
Inebriety, a fortune won in a mining
camp, a search for the woman he still
loved, despair, a return to strong
drink, but now —
One word she spoke—his name. One
look she bestowed —of love. One treas
ure he had not known —the little child
—she towards him, and Rodney
Price real..ted tha* he had reached the
end of a long journey.
WILSON INVADES
HOUSE OF FOES
CARRIES HIS BATTLE FOR
LEAGUE OF NATIONS INTO
HOME OF HIS ENEMIES.
GIVES COST OF GREAT WAR
Informs Them of Lives and Treasure
Poured Out to Save
Civilization.
(By Mt. Clemens News Bureau)
Aboard President Wilson's Special
train—Carrying his war against those
who oppoee the adoption by the Uni
ted States of the peace treaty and the
covenant of the League of Nations in
to their households, President Wilson
laet week invaded California.
And there, where the question on
which league opponents have ham
mered the hardest, that of Shan Tung—
is of most interest, the president found
the same enthusiasm among the peo
pie for peace and for insurance
against future wars. The people want
the long controversy ended. They.
want this country to be able to again
turn its undivided attention to social,
economic and industrial development.
Their leaders may not feel this way,
but judging from the expressions
which met the president on every side.
The leaders have overstepped the
limits of the peoples patience in their
stubborn determination to force a
change in the great document.
Must Take This League.
"Wo must take this League of Na
tions," said the president, "for there
is no way in which another can be
obtained without compelling recon
sideration by the powers. And it
v. ouid sit very ill upon my stomach to
take it back to Germany for considera
tion."
"All over the world people are look
lug to tis with confidence our rival.;
along with the weaker nations. I pray
God that the gentlemen who are de
laying this thing may presently see r it
in a different light.''
Germany, (lie president declared, is
taking new courage from our delay in
ratifying the treaty and her news
r/vjes and public men were again be
coming arrogantly out-spoken.
Deeply impressive were the figures
o£ the cost of the late war, In lives
and dollars. It was the first time that
the official statistics have been made
public and the tremendous totals
shocked the president's audiences.
Shows Cost of World War.
"The war," said President Wilson,
cost Great Britain and and her Do
mains $38,000,000,000; France $26,000,-
000,000; the United States $22,000,-
000,000; Russia $18,000,000,000; Italy
$13,000,000,000 and a total, including
the expenditures of Japan, Belgium
and other small countries, of $123,000,-
Coo',ooo.
"It cost the Central Powers as fol
lows: Germany $39,000,000,000; Aus
tria-Hungary, $21,000,000,000; Turkey
and Bulgaria $3,000,000,000.
"The United States," the president
said, "spent one million dollars an
hour night and day for two years in
its struggle to save civilization. All
this, however, fades into insigni
ficance when the deaths by
battle are considered," declared
the president. Russia gave 1,-
700,000 men; Germany 1,600,000;
France 1,380,000; Great Britain 900,-
000; Italy 364,000; the United States
50,300. In all, almost 7,5-00,000 men
perished in the great struggle, or
1,500,000 more men than died in all of
the wars of the previous 100 years.
Should Remember Recent Horror*.
"These are terrible facts, and we
ought never to forget them. We went
Into this war to do a thing that wa3
fundamental for the world and what I
have come out on this journey for is
to determine whether the country has
forgotten or not. I have found out.
The country has not forgotten and it
will never permit any who stands
in the way of the fulfillment of our
great pledges, ever to forget the sor
rowful day he made the attempt."
Arbitration and discussion, the pres
ident pointed out, must replace force
of arms in the settlement of world
controversies. Constantly he dwells
upon the fact that all the nations in
the League agree to do one of two
things, first to submit their differences
to arbitration, in which case they
agree to abide by the decision ren
dered, or, if unwilling to arbitrate, to
have their case discussed by the Coun
cil of the League, in which case six
months is granted for discussion.
Three months must elapse following
the result of this last step in arbitra
tion before the nation concerned can
declare war.
Hold 9 Out Hope for Ireland.
The president took advantage of
questions propounded by the San Fran
cisco Labor Council to give the infer
ence that he believes Ireland can bring
her case before the League of Nations
for. settlement when the League is
actually in existence.
Shan Tung, he declared, will be re
turned to China. Japan, ae said, had
given her solemn pledge to that effect.
And with the League of Nations in
force, said the president, we can, if
occasion arises, stand forth and say,
"This »haU be done." .
;•<> A Double
yle-Union |j
< ►([
ICILLZ LANGDON J^|;
(Copyright, 1919, by the Western Newt
paper Union.)
"But it was only a harmless littl®
tiff." said Kitty Willis. "I was petu
lant. he was impatient, and we parted
as if we were utter strangers." and th«
final tones quavered and broke.
"No 'tiff,' as you call it, is harmless,
my dear," replied the soothing voice
of Mrs. Mayhew, the housekeeper, to
whom Kitty always carried her little*
troubles. "Once I had a husband and
a home. Both are gone now. And all
through my unjust suspicion and will*
ful ways. My husband was a man of
easy ways, and irften his persisteut
silence when I scolded and his refusal
to quarrel with me led my wayward -
tongue to utter bitter things. He had
been a musician, and whenever a com
pany of strolling players came to tow®
he delighted in hobnobbing with them.
One night with some old actor friend*
he was gone half the night. I re
proached him cruelly, and In the morn
ing when he announced to me that
somehow he had lost his pocketbook
containing his monthly salary I ac
cused him of squandering it In gam*
bling and drove him from the house.
He did not come back that day nor
the next, but after that from anothery
town I received a letter. It inclosed
the salary which a friend had found,
He wrote a very brief note. He said
that evidently we could not get on to
gether and that maybe all he was
for was to blow a cornet, and I'vo
never seen him since, and to the end of
my life I shall regret the bad temper
that has lost me a husband I really
loved.
"Perhaps Norman is really quite
angry with me aud will not come to
help me entertain the little ones at the
children's party this evening," mourned
Kitty contritely.
"Oh, yes lie will," soothed Mi's. May
hew, fondly caressing the sobbing?
penitent.
Norman Blair at that very hour
brought his automobile to a halt bet
side a lonely eounfry ruad, his usually
pleasant face wearing a dissatisfied
expression. Of Kitty he was thinking
and of their petty tiff, lie longed to
see her and make up, but pride atyl
stubbornness led him to draw back.
If he could only find some plausible
excuse for visiting tlie Willis hornet
It was presented, strangely, amazingly,
at that moment! The echo of a pro
digious groan drew his glance to a
little thicket. There stood an aston
ishing figure—that of a man with big
staring eyes and bulging cheeks and
paunch, rotund grotesque, and wearing
the costume of the conventional circu»
clown. Such a presentment in that
quiet spot completely mystified Nor
man. He had to smile. As if all ready
made up l'or the sawdust ring, the
stranger's face was powdered and
tinted; he wore the fool's cap, his face
was newly painted. Suddenly he no
ticed Norman and came toward him.
"Don't stare so, don't laugh!" he ut
tered complalnlngly, "but tell me what
to do."
I "Why, what is the matt»M?" in
quired Norman, lost in wonderment.
"Ruined! homeless! doomed to fact
a cold, cheerless world in this outland
ish garb! I'm the clown of a Humpty-
Dumpty company. We had to steal
away from Watertown with our prop
erties, all but busted. We halted in
the woods here to rehearse our enter-*
tainment at Mayville. I strolled off to
take a sifooze. When I woke up my
comrades and the property wagon
were gone. The landlord of the hotel
at Watertown had pursued us and had
seized our wagon and wardrobes, and
my poor friends were visible half a
mile up on yonder hill, in hock and
without money and prospects. That
had to come eventually."
A quick light came to the eyes of
Norman Blair. "I say, my friend," he
spoke rapidly, "if I agree to provide
you with a good sum of money to re
place your wardrobe will you sell me
your professional services for two
hours late this afternoon?"
"You're a life-saver!" almost shout*
ed the other.
"Then get into my auto. A friend of
mine is to give a <•!: hlren's lawn party.
When it's over you shall have a liberal
compensation.
And driving later to the Willis hom»
with his odd companion, the grand ex
cuse Norman had for showing up there
was readily approved by Kitty, and
the tiff of the preceding even forglvea
and forgotten with a loving kiss.
What a rollicking, roystering time
the little ones had! What a rare, jolly,
funny, engaging elown held them spell
bound with his comic antics! * Then at
last as he produced a trick mouse and
feigned desperate f<«ar, he pressed the
air vent of his false front and col
lapsed into a flat, ordinary human be
ing amid the delirious shouts of hl»
appreciative audienc^.
Norman escorted his new friend into
the house where he could wash the
paint and powder from his face, pur
suant to taking him to town to be re
habilitated in every-day attire. As the
clown came outside again there wa»
a shriek.
"Abner! my husband!" shrieked
Mrs. Mayhew, and flew to his side and
threw her arms about his neck, and
fainted there, while her husband, ga2>-
ing tenderly into her colorless faee,
leaned over and kissed her, while Kit
ty, In happy tears, blessed her loyal
lover for having brought about thi*
double reunion.