Lakeland Evening Telegram Newspaper, January 28, 1914, Page 6

3 Y , RN PR GET YOUR GASOLINE OIL = and DRY BATTERIES at the ELECTRICAL SHEFT& METAL SHOP THOS. L. CARDWELL Phone 233 -=- Lakeland, Fla HIS LIFE WAS DULL By CLARISSA MACKIE. A sound of fresh girlish laughter rippled across the quiet street and Professor Tringle, smoking his pipe in the shadow of his vine-wreathed porch, frowned impatieutly. It was annoying indeed to have his summer evenings disturbed by silly chatter and senseless laughter; he had come to Littleport to spend a few weeks with his sister Hannah, and he had expected to find the sleepy village life an antidote for the nine months of excitement he endured at the hands of prankish atudentn in a university town. Now he went indoors, his tall, lean form making a grotesque shadow on the gravel path as the front door opened and closed. “Hannah,” he sald to his sister who was embroidering a bureau scarf for the coming church fair, “it must be very disagreeable to have those young people across the way—why, I thought the Browns owned the place.” He sat down in a rocking chair and swayed slowly to and fro, the lamplight falling on his fine gray eyes and revealing the few silver threads that frosted his thick hair. Hannah smiled cheerfully. “Amos Tringle, I believe yod grow more ab- sent-minded every day,” she sald, placidly. “I told you in my letter that the Browns had sold the place to city folks for a summer home. This is the first time the Desmonds have been here, and I must say I like to have young folks around—it makes it real cheerful for me. I told you all this in my letter, but I do believe that you skip everything like that—you think At this Period use all Safe- guards for Comfort 5 I'm gossiping. and Well Being . R s The best and most practicable of thess is ice-OUR ICE. It preserves ¥ “Who wants peace! interrupted i your food, conserves your health, increases your pleasure, does you good in ways too numerous to mention—and |.ll for a very litfla h:tudofdacmdngymuking ohoeonthaoooldnyl whloll will be oocasionally sandwiched between the warm ones, resolve | right now that every day is & full ice day for you. And stick to that COUPON BOOK of ours. It is your consistent, per* sistent SAVER. Lakeland Ice Company Phone 26 Hanngh quickly; “for my part I may be fifty-five years old, but I'm not so old that I can’t remember how blissful it was to feel young and foolish—and to laugh and talk and have a good time! Why, I just laugh right out sometimes at their nonsense! It's company for me. They're real good neighbors, too; Mrs. Desmond has tak- en me out in her motor car once or twice and the girls are sweet and pretty—especially Desdemona.” “Desdemona! Listen to that—and her name {s Desdemona!” groaned Amos as a rich chorus pulsed across the street. “I'll love you, mah honey—if you've got money!” “Ragtime music!” sniffed Amos con- temptuously. “I like it,” cried Hannah excitedly, beating time with her embroidery hoop, humming the refrain, entirely off the key. Amoswatched her in growing amaze- ment. Hannah had always been the impersonation of old-maiden dignity; recollection of other summer vacations assailed him—Iong, quiet days whem the bees boomed in and out of the flowers, birds sang in the little or- chard, and Hannah moving quietly about thie house preparing delicious meals that they ate without enthusi- asm; delightfully dull days during which he dreamed of many things that might have been or that might be, but never living in the present.save when he went back to his college classes. Across the street, in those days, the Browns, an aged couple, sat and stared at the few passersby from their big chairs on the long piazza. It had been very quiet, very peaceful, very dull! He roused himself to hear Hannah speaking. “It's bad enough for me to be fifty- five and gettingon in years, Amos, but you're 16 years younger and you act Iike an old man. I should think you'd like to have a motor car and get out and have some fun. I would if I was a man!” “A motor car?’ repeated Amos. “Are you crazy, Hannah Tringle?” Hannah laughed heartily. “Of course, I'm not crazy—but you can afford to buy one—why don't you? TN learn to drive it it you don’t! I'd like to have it tomorrow—I'm going over to Petawick for the day and Sam Pinney’s going to drive me over in his surrey—seem’'s if horses were slow beside motors!” “Hannah!" 'gasped Amos, realizing that all his plans for a drowsy old age with Hannah as sole companion, were tottering to earth. “I'm not going to be a back num- ber!” protested Hannah as she folded up her work apd took the clock key down from the shelf; “I'm not going to be a has-been!” o “A—what?” gasped Amos. “A has-been,” repeated Hannah, glo- rying in her newly acquired slang ex- pression. “I heard Cleopatra Desmond say that—it's very expressive, isn't it “It is—very expressive,” assented Amos dazedly, as he kissed his sister good night, going out on the porch for a final pipe. Across the street there was the sound of laughing goodbyes in which the bass of men's voices mingled with the sweet treble of the Desmond girls Then a motor horn honked loudly, and with a rasping “swo-0-0-0sh” a large car swept out of the Desmond gates and disappeared down the street. He could see the white gowns of the girls in the front doorway as they entered the house and presently the lights were extinguished and quiet fell upon the street. It was very quiet—it was deadly still, save for the crickets chirruping in the dewy grass and the distant call of a whippoorwill, Suddenly Amos Tringle felt very Long Lifeof Linen " hat is just what we are giving 18 what you are looking fer and alony with good laundry work. Try us, i Lakelana *Steam :Laundry Theme 100, © Y, Woet Maix B0, MAYES GROCERY CO. /> “Reduce the cost of living,”Jour motto for nineteen fourteen Will sell [staple groceries, hay, teed, Wilson-Toomer_Fertilizers, all kinds of shipping crates and baskets, and seed potatoes, etc., at reduced prices. Mayes Grocery, Co. Wholesale Grocers Lakeland, ot Florida Lakeland’s leading Barber I“[ P “0["' Shop wish you alla Merry Christmas. 1 thank Xou for 1913 patronage. Call again during 191 brma a friend. L. E. PEACOCK. .. MANAGER The PHOENIX BARBER SHOP THE EVENING TELEGRAM, LAK BLAND, FLA., JAN. 28, 1914. $00000¢0000000000000000000 | Sull—that he was in a fair way to dle 'hnlr He realized that his life was ! & lonesome death; for Hannah, in- spired by the juvenile spirit of the age, would slip off the years while he lhouldered them until there could be y between them There was only one thlns to do— either to give up his hopes of a quiet old age with his sister—or else to slip off some of the staidness that his age and profession had brought him. “I believe I really could enjoy a good time,” he sald wonderingly as he weat to bed. 4 DAYS' SALE I Want Some Ready Cash. These price for Ready Cash: Sugar, 25-pound sacks, for ............... Swift’s Premium Hams, per pound....... Octagon Soap, 13 bars Lenox Soap, 15 bars ........... Al Best Flour, 98-pound sack.............. e e Best Flour, 24-pound sack.... ............ The next afternoon Professor Trin- gle sat in the orchard under a low- hanging apple tree. He was in Han- nah’s favorite seat, an anclent wing chair covered with oilcloth. Here Hannah could sit and sew or read or LR CEEXRR ) eleep entirely protected from draughts. | Best Butter, 8 brands, per pound........ S ki Amos Tringle had spent a lonely |Best Oleomargarine, per pound day. He had seen the pretty Desmond [Can Salmon (160 kind) 'r—u] b dianliee il il U girle—he didn't know how many there (Can Corn, extra good, 100, 18 fer........ s were, four or five altogether—drive |(ay Pegs Fancy Early June, 180 18 itor A B away in the motor with thelr band-|Hodnnt Yea] and Grits, 10 pounds for ......... .. tennis court over the way. The Mttle volume of essays dropped | Best Broken Rice, 30 pounds ......... ... ... .0 o0 ceunen from the professor’s fingers to the|Baby Cream, 6 cans for.. ground and he closed his eyes drowsi- | Grand Ma Washing Powder 7 lor ly. Bwift footsteps crossing the or chard grass roused him and the sound of a sweet volce brought him wide awake. From behind the wing chair came the most astonishing words. “Dearfe, if you're not asleep, won't you please get this horrid splinter out of my finger? If you are asleep, Miss Hannah, dear, you needn't answer,” added the voice with a gurgle of Celtic humor. Professor Tringle cautiously poked his head around the corner of the winged chair and looked into the as- tonished face of the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. As she uttered an embarrassed cry he arose to his tall height and smiled down into her wonderful blue eyes. “Don’t be alarmed,” he counseled her. “I am Miss Tringle’s brother— she is in Petawick today. Won't you sit down?” He indicated the chair he had vacated. “No—no, thank you, meeuor Trin- gle” sald the girl recovering her poise. “I am Desdemona Desmond, from across the street. I've a splinter in my finger, and the servants are so clumsy about such things that I just ran acroes to Miss Hannah, I'm afraid I disturbed you,” with a glance at his book. “Not at all,” he assured her eagerly, “and if you will permit me, Miss Des- mond, I will remove the splinter. Let me see it.” Desdemona held out a pinky-white forefinger which Amos took in his own hand. She gave him a needle and a tiny bottle of antiseptic solution. In & second he had extracted the sliver, wincing with her at the slight pain. When he applied the antiseptic, he recorked the bottle and gave it to her with the needls, waving aside her thanks. “Won’'t you sit down?” he asked, feeling awkwardly that he must seem very anclent to this girl' in the white middy blouse with a red bow at her throat and s glimpse of little white tennis shoes beneath her snowy skirt. “Thanks, I will, it I'm not interrupt- iag you,” she said demurely. Amos threw himself down on the bench under the apple tree and after that there passed the most delightful Rour he had ever known. Desdemona Desmond could talk of things that in- terested him. Not only wes she in- terested in girlish pursuits, but she was widely read, and her freshness of view and her charming d!ffidence before him, the learned man of letters, was the undoing of Professor Pringle. When Hannah came home that night she was obliged to unearth from the attic some automobile catalagues which he had tossed aside in scorn the week before; before his blazing en- thusiasm her longing for a past youth took new impetus and when a week later they both came back from New York in a bright red automobdile, one would scarcely have recognized the staid brother and sister tn the conple so modishly attired in motor gar ments. The Desmonds were deeply imter- ested in the car—especially Desde mona, and all the Deemonds rode forth fa it and were charmed with it and with the professor—especially Desde- mona! And after awhil¢ Hannah grew to decline a motor ride by moonlight while she went to sit with the Des- monds on their gay pis:za and Amos Tringle and Desdemona went through the country over perfect roads and learning the old, old story. Desde- mona was not too young to learn it, and Amos, who was slipipng off the years with every bhour of this new ex- perience, was as young as Desdemona Rerself. The day Professor Tringle proposed to Desdemona Desmond, he was wear- sescses sessssenens ..... tesssssenes eeen Extra present to everyonme buying over $2. 00. D. B. DICKSO Sk e S A AR A AT AT T LN AT LTSI AT AT AT AT AT S Room 17 Kentucky Bldg. W. FISKE JOHNSON REAL ESTATE AND LOANS CITY AND SUBURBAN PROPERTY A SPECIALTY LAKELAND, FLA st If you want te buy property we have it for sale; if you want o sell property we have customers, or can get them for you. Make out vour list and see me today. 3t/ | Phone: Office, 102; Residence, 160 The Cost of Living is (Great Unless You Know Where to Buy IF YOU KNOW The selection will be the best The variety unmatched The quality unsurpassed The'price the:lowest All these you find at our store Just trade with us This settles the question of living Best Butter, per pound.....cocoeecnoences conrnnornes 40 Sugar, 17 pounds Cottolene, 10 pound Palls. .. ..ve efrae oo s vinos Cottolene, 5 pound pails.......... tebes “esesssesseeneslecs sesessss s0sael 00 seweeesedl 4D 4 pounds Snowdrift Lard. ...cocoeeness cersirnimeecns 050 Snowdrift, 10 _pouml | N A ST TATIT SIS B | ] 6 cans baby size Cream.... ing an old gray sweater and his hat 1-2 barrel best FloUr.....cvvvvvnrnnsens cecssssenes3.00 had been left at home; his thick hair 12 pounds best Flour............s Jesosess sessonscnne o8 was ruffled all over his head and he 2 > looked so young and handsome and Octogon Soap, 6 for......... tecsssses seesessssssses o830 brown that Desdemona laughed when he suggested that he was too old to be | Ground Coffee, per pound....... sesese secsssessssinee 030 her husband even while his whole hap- piness revolved around her answer. “Dear,” she sald sweetly, her head against his shoulder, “you are the dear est—and the youngest of men—and the whole Desmond family loves you—es- pecially Desdemona!” | {Copyright, 1913, by the McClure Mews- paper Syndicate.) ' 6 gallons Kerosene. . . teesceres senasasssseaes +80 E. 6. TWEEDELL The New Jeatousy. “Do you want a job as a farm hand? “No,” replied Plodding Pete. "!o- have been kind to me in ths past, I think too much of you to make you S5 fyening Telegram 10c a Weeg