New Britain Herald Newspaper, January 31, 1921, Page 13

B elements outside were In perfect harmony with the conditions which prevailed ithin. The waves dashed white- #Ped over the sea wall in mountains the wind roared and lashed o vy rain against the windows, x leaden-hued clouds gave nc of sunshine for hours to come lignon Murdock sat at the break- t, table swabbing her pretty eyes Al & very moist and futile apology & handkerchief, while her husband & week stood with his hands thrust Ply into his pocket, his good look- boylsh face as troubled as the sea Was gazing at out of the expensive ment window, at are you going to do, Byron?” in quavering accents from the Do? Blest It I know, unless it Is jgone for a few thousands. I never ¢ ed that the people would take marriage like this. I thought they be hopping mad for a few days then turn round and say ‘Bless my childre Biggest surprise in eems llke a ghastly night- me. What does your Uncle say? Read it again, sweetheart.” joy came and sat down by his fe and gave her a protecting pnon dabbed away a fresh gush of and spreading out the fatal let- d between gulping sobs: Dear Children—Since you have andd 1 you're leaving us for the foggy ly flecked her bluo-black curis from her saucy little face, patted rough gray sleeve and smiled up eyes. think I'm funny, don’t you, o want to go? Why, it's the of a life time. I've always read the palms and miles of roses quakes and desert Sum- red Leonard Ray, uneasi- uncle's got me that candy place with the nice manager sn't any reason why I shouldn’t nd he's even sent my fare both Molly went on as if Len hand’t the cold water over her dream. A reason why,” Len protested ly. “Nice managers aren't in o nifty brown bungalow in the rchard is waiting, Molly. Your off is going to mean we can't ed before fall and—" er promised, Len. I always to see something of the worid ay. You sald the bungalow pod investment.” know what kind of an invest- meant, Moll,’ Leonard told her. Ind maybe we can go West to- ome time. You'll find things there. You'll get home- Harrison Van De Veer, now Hal Jones, Texas rancher and good fellow all around, dim light of his den, he lift- vy embossed stationery on as serawled a few lines and letter over and over. Clara, came in, wiping ber hands in m apron, and with one arm s neck, she, too, scanned the ith a whimsical little smile around the corners of her lays funny tricks, eh, Clara?” el up at her with a most fhg glance. ht us how to live, dear,” she , and then, drawing a little on from a nearby chair, she pn the floor and took her seat feet of her adorable Hal. been three years since the rrison Van De Veer came vn in Texas on the open makes his home. He had from his howe, family, d fortune all because he had he girl of his cholce. hg to the rules of the ex- fety set in which he had since babyhood with his ready for the sleigh ride, and girls,” piped Jones, he entereds the school here and ready, but Sally she Is always late,” spoke a olc that surrounded the ry schoolroom stove. a bright-eyed little girl ot heeks ltke roses and hair n her shoulders In golden drive to school each morn- from short, but Sally feit to and must go home new brown coat and c&P that her aunt Johanna r for her birthday the day 1 Rice, the youngest trus- hool was going cna she very best, The seen fit to light your lamp at Hymen's altar without consulting your elders as to ways and means of providing the oll so necessary to replenish it, espe- cially in these days of H. C. L., I have come to the conclusion, that in the terms of your modern slang, ‘It is up to your husband to provide that oll.’ Byron Murdock must play the man and keep the child he has taken from my care and try and compensate her for all the advantages he has deprived her of. I am willing to give you DuBois Point as a home this Summer; you might take two paring guests there and 80 help to pay off some of your honey- moon debts. At the end of the season Byron might enter business life.” . Mignon's voice became hopelessly tan- gled up in tears as she flung the letter away from her. “I didn’t think Uncle Tom could ever be so cruel,” she wailed. “And Dad says if I am such an ass as to leave college, why I can go hang. I can't let you see his Jletter, darling, it is too profane; but I can make n safe bet that your Uncle Tom and he have both chewed the matter over and neither is willing to put up the dough help us out!™ iped away e glistening tears and kissed his wife's mouth into a more normal curve. “We'll show them we can make a living!” Mignon's eyes flashed determ- ination. “We'll go down and open up DuBois Point and take in boarders; you can help, Byron. It's a lovely place, lonely, perhaps, but then people like it there, and at least we can make enough to pay off our honeymoon expenses. Of course, we'll have to work, dear, peel the potatoes and things. Anywav, we can show those two old forgetters of youth and love that we can wriggle out of the lap of luxury they have nursed us in.” The girl set her red lips firmly, and Byron. feeling his backbone stiffen un- der his silk shirt, was resolved to “peel potatoes and things” until the cows came home, or longer if neces- sary. His conscience bothered him as he looked at his dainty wife and thought of the mansion he had stolen from her and the staff of servants that had been at her bidding; and Mignon, as she looked at her handsome boy husband, realized that he would miss his carefree college life and the sup- The young husband un of Tomorrow port of an adoring and wealthy fa- ther. Both realized , too, that even though they had “married in haste,” their repentance would be hard work for them. DuBois Point was 10 miles from no- where in particular. An up-to-date Summer cottage on the lake, when one had servants to do the work; a good car to drive a few miles to the near- est farm-house for milk and other necessary things, and nother 10 or more for fresh meat. An ideal place to stay for a week end with a party of friends, and an up-to-the-minute motor beat to take you to the surrounding beauty spots. Such things Mignon re- membered made DuBois Point livable. 'But DuBois Point had an entirely different aspect when Byron and she opened it with two boarders. After their hotel expenses were paid they had no money to hire help. Byron supposed he would be expected o clean shoes, wait on table and help Mignon around the house. Neither of them, however, dreamed, in their im- aginings, the amount of work that two boarders, themselves and one small | The East 1s East--- sick for the apple trees.” “I will not!” Molly laughed. “I want to find things different.” Then she added without the least malice in the world, “I want to find folks differ- ent, too.” “They are I've heard,” Len remarked briefly. “If you want the fun they™l give you, and that’s all, I'm sorry, Moll. You needn’t think you're going to find a man out there that likes you better than I do. It can’t be done, girl. Nice manager! Umph!” “You funny boy!” Molly laughed, but she was thinking right hard. The next week Molly Sauders start- ed on the journey of her life, waving cheery good-bys to the family, but see- ing longest under the cindery station roof the sober face of Leonard Ray as it still pleaded for her not to go. “He's a selfish old thing,” Molly told herself, as she watched the dingy city roofs and then the soft green flelds and white birches and apple trees slip by. A tear stole down her pink cheeks and landed on her white cotton gloves. “I'd like to know what I'm crying for. Be- cause he gave me the preserved ginger stolid money magnet father, the illus- trious Harrison Van de Veer, Sr., wiz- ard of finance, he was expected to marry a girl from the moneyed set. So, accordingly, when he brought back his little bride whom he had married abroad and introduced her to the Hon- orable H. V. Sr., the elder shook his white head in disapproval and early that evening asked young Hal how much the divorce would cost. “Why, father, I don't mean to di- vorce Clara, she is my wife, and I love her,” Hal sald, startled at the sugges- tion. But the domestic storm grew a little worse each day until one day It swelled into such fury it suddenly burst, and Hal left the enormous in- dustry his father was engaged in, giv- ing up his position as general manager to take refuge with his little bride, “oh, anywhere away from here,” as he put it. tered Sally, “but then-—-I suppose I will have to go, as he has been so good to father since his illness.” Two o'clock came and Horace drew up in front of Sally’s door, well pro- tected from the Winter's cold by his red scarf securely wrapped around his head, and his fine looking sleigh, as he supposed. “Ready, Sally,” shouted IHorace and the silk stockings maybe,” she pondered. Thén, “It’s just like a mov- ing picture out the window. Only I'm moving instead of it. Isn’t it grand!"” By the third day the grandness had begun to pall. The monotony of the wide prairie country, the hot stuffiness of the cars, and the loneliness pelted at Molly’s staunch little heart till she almost wished she hadn’t come. The folks who spoke to her talked too much about cities and lobster salads, and the folks she’d like to talk to looked mil- lion-airy. The dining car was the joli- est, reelingest place ever, and the lit- tle silver plates swallowed so many of Molly's shabby bills that she finally stayed away and munched nuts squir- rel fashion and sobfully. The nights were pretty bad, too. A moving pic- ture for a bed was not so thrilling, after all. As she neared her journey's end Molly began to grow actually fright- ened, but she didn’'t know why. She could see so far and it seemed as if the good old Atlantic must be over yonder, and it never was—only more wide sweeps of land sun parched, brown, flat, so different from the hard, scary mountains that had been threatening to tumble down on the train, and so horribly different from the snugly lit- tle hills and apple trees at home. “I wanted it to be different,” Molly told herself bravely. “But I didn’t know it was going to be lonely differ- ent.” Uncle and Aunt met her at the sta- tion and hardly gavecher a chance to get the awful sticky black washed off and a fresh blouse on before they took her to the candy store. “They’'re short of help, and the manager, Norton Frost, is keeping the place open for you. You've got to pitch right in,” eaid Uncle. And Molly pitched in bravely, learn- ing candy, candy prices, candy smiles and sweltering in the new kind of heat that seemed to be wilting her to a fraz- zle. What a stuffy place the city was! And foggy; and then it never rained. Umbrellas were only needed for Mol- 1y’s tears nights after she went to bed —funny tears; almost as if their own- er were homesick. And wasn’t the city packed! No extra room, like Len's So it was Harrison Van De Veer, Jr., stepped from the train at a little by- station down in Texas and took the name of Hal Jones, Clara was with bhim hand in band. Within a week she had made little draw curtains for the windows of their little hut and Hal had gone to town regularly each day to fetch back some varnish for the floor or some tacks to hang the pic- tures on or some oilcloth for the lit- tle table which served as kitchen, din- ing and library table all in one. Hal had gone repeatedly to look for a job, for the one hundred dollars cap- ital which he had taken along with him was slowly but surely dwindling down into cents. When they had got down to their last twenty-dollar note Clara concocted a scheme in her mind while she was ly- ing awake one night late staring into the dark but seeing only poverty clos- 1 ing upon them by degrces. She would Where Roads End go to town and hire out as child's nurse. They had both made a solemn promise to each other that they would never go back to Harrison Van De Veer, Sr., seeking help until they knew they were welcome, and it was months now since they had left, and not even a note from him. Now Clara had been a nurse and that profession she knew well. In fact th~t was how she met Harrison Van De Veer, Jr., for she had been nursing in a French rellief hospital to which Harrison Van De Veer was brought in an emergency while on a business trip abroad. As Clara dismounted, when they reached the town she was startled from her reverie by the scund of wild cries and everyone in the town seemed to have gone mad. Hal jumped from the horse and having installed Clara safely behind the sugar barrels in the By Elsie Endicott cottage could make in every 24 hours. The creation of the world seemed a simple feat compared with their day’'s labor at DuBois Point. ' Then there was the fear that the boarders might leave, they were paying so well, and the honeymoon bills looked as though they might be paid off if all went well. It was astonishing that they did not leave; their beds were seldom ever made until sunset; the meals were never on time, and provided out of tin cans most of the time, and the cottage was in a general state of chaos. The young husband and wife honest- 1y tried to make the best of a bad situ- ation, not only for their boarders, but in trying to help themselves. The boarders certainly must have had the patience of Job and the digestion of an ostrich, though they never com- plained and were always delightful company. Mr. Russell Radford was a very quiet, very neatly dressed man in the late 30s, and Mrs. Keel, a widow, was about the same age. Neither gave any information about himself. It was hard to tell what station of life they belonged to. Apparently they were in- terested in each other, or the life at DuBois Point would not have satisfied them for three wecks at the high rate of board they were paying. Byron said it was robbery, and once nervously suggested to Mrs. Keel that they were not receiving their money’s worth, but she gently but with dignity said every- thing was as they expected. Doing the unusual always comes to a climax. morning, when the locusts sizzled around and the lake looked like a calm before a storm. Mignon, very white and tired, was frying steak over the gas stove and Byron, with hair as long as his poet namesake, and two days' growth on his chin, was scraping new pota- toes, when in walked the two board- ers, looking very cool in white gar- ments, and also out of place in the general muddle of unwashed dishes of the tiny kitchen, which in the old days Nakito, the little Japanese cook, kept immaculate. Mrs. Keel coughed gently, “Mr. and Mrs. Murdock, we wish to inform you that we are leaving you as boarders today; but your people wish us to stay on and take care of the cottage, so that you can both have a rest. To explain, Mrs. Murdock’s uncle will arrive to- It was a cool MOrrow Wit wish us to get » “Who in and what al reared his slin feet. “We are s@ your people . to se out. Will you reported that 3 pair we have proud to work “And it was j being mad at us H exclaimed Byron. “Just a ‘bluff,’ to really made of, sir, with a slight bow. “And they are com morrow, Mignon, dal have realized we a: tame kittens sorry that our bo: on our account. and believe us-that, considerate people a meal for . . ., from experience, tience.” Byron Murdock servant’s hand, wl her arms around neck and kissed hej turned laughingly dered kitchen to reunion of the mot cactus. “I've dr " things, but they wi By Parke Whithey fields and meadowa But Norton Frost, manager, was nice and jolly and West- ern. There was that to be thankful for. The second week he asked Molly to go to the show with him. She went, and cried softly all through the big picture because it had soft pretty hills and farmers in it that reminded her— well, hills and all—of Leonard Ray, whose letter had just about broken her heart that morning, it had been so lonesome sounding. After that first evening, in spite of the tears, Norton took Molly about rather often to quaint restaurants and theaters and parks, with the palms and miles of roses, and to museums that had all the wondrous things Molly had ever dreamed about. So Molly Saunders ought to have been happy, especially since the handsome Norton told her occasionally that he liked her more and more; and it had always been the secret wish of Molly’s roman- tic little heart to marry a real live Westerner. But, with all this, Molly missed something . She had the desert heat Len had warned her about; she had all the can- dy she could eat; the homey life at her aunt’s, besides the attention of Norton Frost. But with all this Molly’s throat got lumpier and lumpier, and she couldn’t tell for the life of her why. Then one evening out in City Park, like a story book exactly, the great Norton Frost asked little Molly to marry him, and he told her about the white bunga- low in the suburbs where they would live, with the oranges and figs and nec- {farines and tree-high rose bushes ia their back yard, and no earthquakes or thunder showers ever, and delicious, cool evenings, and— “It's. what I've always dreamed about,” sighed Molly. All those things and a real son of the Golden West for a husband.” Norton laughed. “Then it’s settled, little Molly, and we can be married in the fall?” * Then suddenly Molly dashed away so fast that she stepped on the prick- liest cactus in the park. “You mustn’t kiss me, ever, Mr. Frost,” she stammered. “You see-— I—" Molly got on the other side of the I By Joella Johnson ported to her hut, and there she estab- lished a permanent little shelter for grocery store he too ran out and fol- lowed the crowd. It was the outbreak. The famous Mexican outbreak as the paper said, i1f one outbreak is any more famous than another. But here it was in full swing and help was nceded on the American border. There was a skirmish, a battle and then Clara used her skill. She had always been an adept at making the best of things and she proved her skill here. A hospital was erected in no time on the screened porch of the gro- cery store and sheets and bandages made and rolled from old muslin bor- rowed from the community. Clara had won her battle, the battle for a living. The little skirmish had opened the way for a real future for both Hal and Clara or better known in the Northern gossip centers as Mr and Mrs. Harri- son Van De Veer, Jr. Clara had all the little things trans- the sick. She had investigated and found that the nearest hospital was miles away and many folks had died while waiting to be taken there. There was plenty of illness down in this hot country, especlally when the element was foreign. When they received their first check for services rendered the governinent, Hal set about fixing up the little shelter house and it really looked like an up-to-date city sanitari- um when he was through touching it up. Clara did the nursing. Hal did the washing, baking and cooking, while Dr. Morrison from town attended. With the money they took in as their share Hal invested in a little piece of land. Then he doubled it and tripled it, and with the proceeds derived from that they invested in machinery to draw oil from the ground where Hal had discovered it one day. mare, I guess. I'm Leonard Ray and tl want to come hers er, you see. I sho take me places, b I've been imagin and—" “I'm from Boste laughed Norton Fn not losing much of) call on you some Len Ray is an old| told me to keep ¢ give you a good £ missing you lately thought I'd better you really felt ab Molly - recovered. deluge with reman a ridiculously shord est cross-continen Ray and that b; apple orchard and in the world. Ted—He's a ques ¥ likes to write vers Ned—There’s tastes. I know like to read it. Bobbles—What mean by saying ths carved features? Dobbles—Perhapi It had been a hat then they were wo their accomplishm now they realized As Harrison Van up the note once closer to the shade twig-made table, Clara with a twin said: . “Shall we go father asks?” and O proud but gentle dear, if you will only for a visit.” There is a fresh ental viewpoint of spoke” that is Here is a little s ental paper with & “The news of latest. Writ in p most earliest. Do we hear of and tel chief die, we publis somber. Staff has leged and write lil the Dickens. We and extortionate mn ments.” Hero of Dreams from the sleigh, forgot to even thank Horace, but he was soon tucked in and on his way honk. “Where have you been the last hour, Sally Hisks?" shouted a voice from the corner, “we want to get stdrted.” Sally was cold after her long drive and stood by the stove warming her little white hands, first lookin Lo parison with Paul, the highly polished gentleman, who stood by the stove. “We must get started now, boys and girls.” Paul helped Sally on with her coat and assisted her to the sleigh and they were soon cuddled together in the cor- ner of the hay bottom sleigh talking and chatting. ? By Abner Anthony * pered in her ear in a gentle voice, “we will go back in Mr. Blake's new red sleigh, it will be much ‘safer and be- sides. Sally, it looks a lot nicer.” They had only gone a short distance 4nd they came to the turn in the road when the horse jumped, came angry and lashed for me to follow the broken road to Nancy Blake’s,” Horace said deep voice. —— In a short time Mrs. ace well 4happl be- 2 her gently beside h ion sleigh. The cold sharp night brought Sall; and as she looked honest blue eyes sh white arms aroun claimed. “You are! my dreams.” The Exact T\ Oprietor g lance o