Evening Star Newspaper, September 20, 1936, Page 81

September 20, 1936 . nothing to do with it, and was sympathetic toward him. But it is not pleasant to be exposed before the girls and fellows as not up to the girl you are in love with. “I wouldn't know what a skink was except my cousin told me about seeing one in Arizona,”’ said Mona. This relieved him a bit, but after all she had known; and she knew many other facts he didn’t. For years he had given scarcely a thought to Mona's mental alertness; she'd always been smart, but not smarter than he was. Bitter pill. Mona was the same age he was; in fact, a month older. He did not know that a girl his age was mentally more advanced than a boy. Mona knew more than he, and he could not stand that. She could be sweeter; yes, a thousand times; and finer, and more popular, and more considerate of other people. All that, and more; but to outdo him in brains. . . If he had been older, more experienced in the . world, he might have taken pride in it; but not when he shaved with the bathroom door flung wide open. And never any trouble with his voice, and no giggling spells, and no longer had to kiss a raft of aunts. That made it different. Decidedly. “] don’t blame you for challenging her,"” said Edna Ditch, looking up at him with her doll face. ‘‘Come on, let’s go outside and get a breath of oxygen.” " Edna walked very close to him, her hand on his big strong arm; at least, it felt strong when she had her hand there. “If it hadn't been for that cousin — you see, it was just an accident.” He felt better when they returned from the oxygen tour; and Edna seemed less like a store-window doll than she had. “I think you are awfully clever. You're going to get some- where in the world. Away up at the top. I'm always quoting you at home, things you have said, I mean.” ‘Do you?" Edna gave a little twittery laugh. “You'd be surprised. But I mustn’t flatter you. It doesn’t do to flatter men.” That was good. He was a man. So many people thought he was a boy just because he gave queer whoops and yells as he walked along the street, and whistled on his fingers. “l guess you're just saying that to be polite,” he said. Edna laughed at the amusing idea. ‘I spit out the truth, let the chips fall where they Moss danced with Mona, but he felt less at ease with her than ever before. Conversation did not trip along. ““Your skink sank me, but I wasn't really thinking about it,"”” he declared. *“Such games are childish; you know what I mean. As a matter of fact,” he heard himself say, “‘I laugh at life. I know how empty it is. I'm a very cynical young man."” She stopped almost in her tracks. “‘I didn’t know that,” she said in an awed voice. “It's a fact. Voltaire was a cynic. Renan was a cynic. So was Cyrano de Bergerac.”” He 'THIS WEEK tried to think of more of the bitter gentle- men, but could not; and he was not quite sure of Renan. ‘‘You see what a skink is along- side Voltaire!” *1 — I wish I had never mentioned skink,"’ she said in a voice that had just the slightest tremble in it. “I'm glad you did. I'm a cynic about love, too. ‘Love is the poison ivy in the glade of friendship.’ "’ He had heard it over the radio. *I wish you wouldn't talk that way, Moss. I'm sure no one wants to hear such destruc- tive thoughts." ‘Do you know who else was a cynic?”’ he hastened on, utterly regardless of destructive thoughts. ‘‘Your friend William Shakespeare. In ‘Hamlet’ he says to Polonius, or somebody — ‘Brief as a woman's love.” There! That's the real cynical attitude. It's the modern attitude, too. Look at the way things are going! Look at the politicians. Look at the grafters! Look at the poltroons.” Only by the best of luck had that one leaped into his mind. 1 wish you wouldn't. It seems so silly.” “It’s silly, is it!"’ he said. ‘‘It's because you are afraid to look life in the face.” She said nothing more, but looked at him in a puzzled way. She was not the only one he puzzled. 1 declare, Mae,” said his father, ‘I don't know what is getting into Moss. He’s getting so critical of everything. Last night he picked flaws in the Gettysburg Address.” ] guess it's only temporary,” said Mrs. Fleming. ‘‘Growing boys, you know."” ““And he's reading the oddest magazines. I found him out in the garage reading, with a terrible scowl on his face. I looked at the magazine, and it was filled with the most terrifying words and_phrases. When he goes down the street, he walks by himself. The other boys his age laugh and talk and have their private jokes, but he stalks along with a bitter, disillusioned look on his face, and it doesn’t stand to reason that he should sud- denly begin to avoid Mona Middleton as if she were a walking plague. Yesterday he was sitting on the veranda reading when all of a sudden he scooted up to his room, as if some- body were after him. In a moment Mona passed. He came down and began to read again. Why should he run away from her? It doesn’t make sense. It isn’t that he is soured on girls; look at the way he has become interested in that Edna Ditch."’ “I've been watching that,” said Mrs. Fleming. ‘‘And have you noticed how he likes to be alone in his room? When he is not reading, he just sits there and stares. I've tried to draw him out, but I might as well try to pull a- badger out of its hole.” One afternoon, however, Moss was not able to scoot away. He was running the lawn mower, which made so much noise that he did not know Mona was coming down the street. She had Ray Bean with her, and this was becoming common, too. Rollicking Ray Bean talked too loud, and he wasn't very ambitious, but he was good company. Skinks made no difference to him. “‘Hello, Moss, old chappie! Come down to Gerling’s with us and I'll treat you to a glass of water and an ice cream soda,’’ Ray yelled. Moss felt at a disadvantage to be dis- covered in his old clothes maneuvering a lawn- mower. “I'd like to, Ray,” he said with elaborate politeness, ‘‘but when I finish this job, I've got some reading to do.” He hauled from his pocket one of the odd-looking maga- zines his father had mentioned. “It’s got a fine article on ‘Behaviorism — Up from the Monkeys.’ It shows that practically all our behavior patterns are inherited from the monkeys. That's what makes me a cynic. But 1 have good company. There’s Diogenes. And Talleyrand. And Madame de Staél. If you look around, how can you keep from having a cynical outlook?”’ Magazine Section 5 “Why don't you come on, anyway?"’ said Ray Bean. “We can chew the rag down Moss looked at him pityingly, and returned the brainy magazine elaborately to his pocket. “I didn’t know you read all that trash,” said Ray. “Trash!” cried Moss witheringly. “Don’t you care what's going on in the world today ?"’ *‘Of course I do, but I like to have a choco- late soda, too!” “Why don't you come this one time, Moss?” asked Mona. Was there a hopeful eagerness in her voice? “‘Wish I ceuld, Mona," said Moss heartily, ‘“‘but I can't. Got to mapicure said lawn."’ “If we walked around till you finished, could you come, then?”’ He did want to, in his heart. “‘Sorry. Business before pleasure.” He went up to his room, after they were gone, and piled on his bed. Why, he asked himself vaguely, did he always want to go off MOSS HAD THE - FEELING THAT } HE HIMSELF @ WASN'T SPEAKING, THAT SOME OTHER PERSON HAD CLIMBED INTO HIS BODY 3y himself when he was in trouble? He got up, later. He felt more and more Mona's inferior. *‘I guess I'll shave,” he said, and he did, looking long into his pupils and making monstrous faces at himself. He went back to the lawn, pushing the mower savagely. His father drove up. ‘‘You'll kill yourself running it that way, Moss."’ “I don't care if I do.” He ran the mower faster than ever for a few yards, then turned dramatically. * ‘O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?’ " “What do you think he said just now?” Mr. Fleming asked his wife, out of the cynic's hearing. *‘I told him not to kill himself and he quoted that ‘O death O grave’ thing. I saw Mona downtown — and she told me that -Moss didn’t care for her any more. Of course she didn’t say it in just those words, but that's what she meant. Ray Bean is going to beat Moss out as sure as shooting. And that Edna Ditch— well, you can see what is happening. Why. she’s out there now!" Edna’s doll face looked very charming as she gazed up into Moss's eyes. ‘‘Think of your reading pieceslike that!"’ she cooed. ‘It makes me feel like a common moron, or something. You always were smart. Look at that oration you delivered at our high school commence- ment. I sat there — well, kind of awed, if you (Continved on poge 11)