The Seattle Star Newspaper, November 30, 1921, Page 11

NOVEMBER 80, 1921. AIN STREET The Story of Carol Kennicott BY SINCLAIR LEWIS Copyright, 1920, Harcourt, Brace & Hows, Inc. evccccccce (Starts on Page Six) knife would make an excellent dag: 3 Upson, whom she had once! ger with which to kill Uncle Whit | #e8n in Minneapolis, He was at once | tier, It w i slide in easily. The 100 Sensitive and too sophisticated | headlines would be terrible. OH Loon! YES, | SEE - You MUSTN'T Por LIKE 19 touch business as she knew it in| Prairie, et i With restrained amusement he was @nalyzing the noisy Mr. Zitterel Carol was ashamed to have this apy, from the Great World hear the pas. tor's » She felt respon. side for the town. She resented his | waping at their private rites. She Tiushed, turned away. But she con. | Unued to feel his presence How could she moet him? she been For an hour of talk. He was ‘that she was hungry for. She Could mot let him get away without she would have to, She} and ridiculed. herself as| up to him and remarking, 7 am sick with the Village Virus. You please tel! me what people saying and playing in New Bhe pictured, and groaned Ver, the expression of Kennicott if e say, “Why wouldn’t it be for you, my soul, to ask! complete stranger in the brown Goat to come to supper to Drooded, not looking back. She herself that she was prob- Kennieott said judiciously, “Oh, don’t want to be unjust to him. | 1 believe he took his physical exam: | ination for military service. Get varicose veins—-not bad, but enough to disqualify him. Tho | will say he doe#n't look like a fellow that would be so awful darn crazy to poke his bayonet Into a Hun's guts.” Will! Please” “Well, he don't when he was getting a haircut on Saturday, that he wished he could play the plano.” “Ien't it wonderful how much we know about one another in a like this,” said Carol inno all town cently. Kennicott was suspicious, but Aunt Hessie, serving the floating island pudding, agreed, “You, it is wonderful, Folks can get away with all sorts of meanness and sins in these terrible cities, but they can't here, I was noticing this tailor fel low this morning, and when Mrs. | Riggs offered to share her hymn. book with him, he shook his head, and all the while we was singing } Looks soft to me. | |And they say he told Del Snafftin, | 'S FRIENDS wi ting; that no young have all these exalted he just stood there like a bump on a log and never opened bis mouth Wasn't he too obviously | Everybody says he's got an idea that 00 glossy.new? Like a movie | he's got so much better manners and Probabiy he was a traveling all than what the rest of us have, ‘who sang tenor and fan-) but if that's what he calls good man in imitations of Newport | ners, I want to know ANd spoke of “the swellest; Carol again studied the carving. Proposition that ever came | knife, Blood on the whiteness of « ‘the pike. In a panic she/| tablecloth might be gorgeous. ! This was no| Then salesman, this boy with the} “Fool! Neurotic impossibilist! Tett Grecian lips and the serious | ing yourself orchard fairy-tales—et thirty, . . . Dear Lord, am I really Pose after the service, care. | thirty? That tmy can't be more than faking Kennicott's arm and | twenty-five.” at him in a mute assertion t was to bim no mat: She went calling. (8 what happened. She followed Boarding with the Widow Rogart | the Mystery’s soft brown jersey’ was Fern Mullins, a girl of twenty- out of the church. two who was to be teacher of Eng: _ Fatty Hicks, the shrill and pofty|tish, French, and gymnastics in tho #0n of Nat, flapped his hand at the|high school this coming session. ‘Stranger and jeered, “How's | Fern Mullins had come to town “the Kid? All dolled up like a plush early, for the sixweeks normal today, ain't we!” course for country teachers. Carol | was exceeding sick. Her her-| had noticed her on the street, had aid from the outside was Erik Val-| heard almost as much about her as ” Apprentice tal-|about Erik Valborg. She was tall. ‘and hot goose! Mend-| weedy, pretty, and incurably rakish. Jackets! Respectfully hoid-| Whether she wore a low middy col about a paunch! she insisted, this boy was/in a black suit with a high.necked blouse, she was airy, flippant “She m1 es looke like an absolute totty,” said all "They had Sunday dinner with the| the Mrs. Sam Clarks, disapprovingly. 5. im a dining-room which cen-jand all the Juanita Haydocks, en 4 ‘about a fruit and flower piece | viously wy 4 t of Uncle } That 1v fees inge a Sunday evening, sitting tn regard to Mrs.|house. the Kennicotts saw Fern bead necklace laughing with Cy Bogart who, tho Whikttier's error in putting on | still a junior in high school, was now day like this, Sheja lump of a man, only two or three reest pork | years younger than Fern. Cy had to go downtown for weighty matters ‘T wonder if that Yount | connected with the pool-parior. Fern flannel trousers, | morning, was this chin in her hands. “She looks jonely,” said Kennicott “She does, poor soul. I believe I'll gO over and speak to her. I was introduced to her at Dave's but I haven't called.” Carol was slipping across the lawn, a white figure in the dimnens, faintly brushing the grass. She was thinking of Erik and of the fact that her feet were wet, and she was casual in her greeting: “Hello! The doctor and I wondered if you were lonely.” Resentfully, “I am!" Carol concentrated on her. “My dear, you sound so! I know how it is. 1 used to be tired when I was on the job—I was a librarian. What was your college? I was Blodgett.” More interestedly, “I went to the Fern meant the University of that’s what he is.) year of teaching, and I’m scared tired to sce a young fellow | stiff. 1 did have the best time in fa ye to be in the war, or any-| college: dramatics and basaket-ha!! im the fields earning his liv.) and fussing and dancing—I*m simply Best, like I done when I was|crazy about dancing. And here, ex doing a woman's work and | cept when I have tho out and dress up like a kids in gym. Why, when I was his pore = (Carol reflected that the carving- ePx. gb da fa aE, TWINS ' nasium class, or when I'm chaperon- ing the basket-ball team on a trip outoftown, I won't dare to move above a whisper. I guess they don’t “Please, Green Shoes, turn us rightside up again” “The only thing is," went on Pim) “Goodness” said Nancy, grabbing Pim when Nick suggested that he | Nick's “It ‘ ‘and Nancy follow Kip into the sg Se ee Gnome village and try to get the|'t? | can’t see @ thing! key of the enchanted cupboard that| “Yes,” answered Nick, never think- | he had stolen, “the only thing is, ing, certainly never thinking of Pim you must be careful and say neither | Pim's warning, As suddenly as a, nor ‘no’ after you leave here. | coal wagon turns topside duwn to un- you do, you will find yourselves load its burden, the twins found walking on your hands, and the | themselves turned downside up, and Gnomes will steal your Shoes. But | walking on their banda, just as the take care to avoid these words | Brownie had said. Fortunately there and also take care not to let Kip| were no Gnomes there to steal their |Prise, Nick said quickly, “Please, As #00n 48 you|Green Shoes, turn us rightside up uurvelves back here |again.” I shall be waiting to take) “Goodness,” gasped Nancy when the wonderful color mines as |they found themselves standing on as we get the shovels. And their own sturdy little feet once dear little friends, good|/more. “We mustn't forget’ again, to you both.” S@ saying the | Nick.’ rownie King opened the door of the | “N—" Nick was geing to say, then passage leading to the Gnome | stopped, for already he had felt a village, closing it aguin quickly,” king. ‘the little adventurers had (To Be Continued) \. opyright, 1921, by Seattle Star) et Lemar lar or dressed reticently for schoo! | Carol did not Reed Aunt) baggy canvas lawn-chairs beside the | drooped on the Bogart porch, her! | | | leare much if you put any pep into! teaching or not, as long as you look | like a Good Influence out of school | noure—ana that means never doing anything you want to. This normal |course is bad enough, but the regu | lar school will be fierce! If It wasn } too late to get a job in the Cities. | 1 swear I'd resign here. I bet I | won't dare to go to a single dance jall winter. If I cut loose and danced | the way I like to, they'd think I was lm perfect hellion—poor, harmless }me! Oh, I oughtn’t to be talking [like this, Fern, you never could be cagey™ “Don't be frightened, my dear! |. .« « Doesn't that sound atrocious |ly old and kind! I'm talking to you | the way Mrs. Westlake talks to me! That's having a Husband and a kitch jen range, I suppose, But I feet | young, and I want to dance like « | ke a hellion’—too. So I sym pathize.” Fern made a sound of gratitude Carol inquired, “What experience did | you have with college dramatics? I | tried to start a kind of Little The atre bere. It was dreadful. I must tell you about it—" Two hours later, when Kennicott came over to greet Fern and to yawn, “Look here, Carrie, don't you suppose you better be thinking about | turning in? I've got & hard day to- morrow,” the two were talking so intimately that they constantly in terrupted each other. ' As she went respectably home, convoyed by a husband, and decor. ously holding up her skirts, Carol rejoleed, “Evergthing has changed! | have two friends, Fern and But | who's the other? That's queér; I | thought there was— Oh, how ab wurdr” ¥ ! She often passed Ertk Valborg on the street; the brown jersey coat be came unremarkable. When ghe was driving with Kennicott, in early evening, she mw him on the lake | shore, ~ a thin book which might @usily have been poetry. She | noted that he was the only person in the motorized town who still took | long walks. She told herself that she was the | daughter of @ judge, the wife of a doctor, and that she did not cre to know @ capering taller. She toid herself that she was not responsive to men... not even to Percy Bres- nahan. She told herself that a wom an of thirty who heeded a boy of |twenty-five was ridiculous. And on | Friday, when she had convinced her. jeelf that the errand was necessary, | she went to Nat Hicks’ shop, bearing | | the not very romantic burden of a| | pair of ber husband's trousers, Hicks was in the back room. She faced the Greek god who, in a somewhat un- | godlike way, was stitching a coat} on a scaley sewing-machine, in @ room of smutted plaster walla, She saw that his hands were not in keeping with a Hellenic face. They were thick, roughened with needie| and hot iron and plow-handle. Even |in the shop he persisted in bis finery | He wore silk shirt, a topaz scarf, thin tan shoes. This she absorbed while she was saying curtly, “Can I get these pressed, please?” Not rising from the sewing-ma- chine he stuck out his ee mum- bled, “When do you want them?” She was/ | “Oh, Monday.” ‘The adventure was over. marching out. “What name? he called after her. He had risen and, despite the farct- | cality of Dr. Will Kennicott’s buley trousers draped over his arm, he had the grace of a cat. Kennicott.”" <ennicott. Oh! Oh say, you're Mrs. Dr. Kennicott then, aren't you?” | | “Yes.” She stood at the door, Now | that she had carried out her prepow | |terous impulse to see what he was| | like, she was cold, she was as ready | to detect familiarities as the virtuous Miss Ella Stowbody. “I've heard about you. Myrtle Cass was saying you got up a dra | matic club and gave @ dandy play. | I've always wished [ had a chance to belong to a Little Theatre, and | give some European plays, or whim- |eteal like Barrie, or a pageant.” | He pronounced it “pagent” he |rhymed “pag” with “rag.” Carol nodded in the manner of a lady being kind to a tradesman, and |one of her selves sneered, “Our Erik |is indeed a lost John Keats.” He was appealing, “Do you sup- pose it would be possible to get up another dramatic club this coming tall?’ “well, it might be worth thinking of.” She came out of her several conflicting poses, and said sincerely, “There's a new teacher, Miss Mullins, who might have some talent. That would make three of us for a nu- cleus. If we could scrape up half a dozen we might give a real play with a small cast. Have you had any ex- perience?” “Just a bom club that some of us get up in Minneapolis when I was l EVERETT TRUE THE SUMNER (3 OVER, ANOS % WANT You TO TAKE Down E FLY SCREGNS THIS MORNING ANO PUT THEM AWAY FOR THE A 8 hi Bas ER AAAI OSEE Fa OLIVIA, ARE You CRYING? GELE WIS” EARS LIKE ————$ BY CONDO | USTEN, MY DEAR — T HAVE A SUGGESTION TO MAKS. WHY NOT CEAVEe THEM ve TILO SPRING? THEW WHEN THe FUES CONE BaAciI< THE SCREENS Witt BE IN PLAGS AT THE exact PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT. “THERE WAS IN [T WAS A BACYCLE PUMP = I WoN'T OF HOMEMADE MUSTARD, A BOX OF FIDDLE RESIN AND A MaMa IS TONGUE “ToucH OUGUTA SEE MY GRANPA, Zo ain 1 wortr accepr ir! F LAST YEAR SOMEBODY SENT ME AN EXPRESS PACKAGE COLLECT FOR $1.90 AND ALL TAR PRY CHARGES ON “THAT BOX WHEN I DONT KNow WHATS IN (T= “TAKE IT BACK ! BZESTION” TO MAKE WHENEVGA THERE'S ANYTHING FOR You TO DO AROUND THE HOUSE EXCEPT ANSWGRIN THE CALLS TO THE DInIn@e TAGE {i You'Re ACWAYS AGoUT THE MPSXCHOLOSICAL MOMGAT"— L HAVE 2 onset! oe ae Nomunic comes MY RACKET IS To DELNER “TH'GooDS AN’ COLLECT TH JACK GET $2.70 ON DECK AND 7TH’ RIDDLE ‘You SPOILED THAT PLAY) FOR f.E WITH YouR LAUGHING <THE NeXT (/ TIME | TAKE You |} WILL LEAVE You \F IT GURGLES = MAYBE THERE'S, ; A QUART OF | OUT OF “TIGHTWAD’ WILKYS POCKETS BUT HIS HANDS == ar od When the Little-Lady-With White-Curts left her story of the great cougar with the unfinished ending and the kiddies heard the honk of the auto horn which called them away, they left un- willingly and made the story teller promise that some day, not too far off, she would tell them the rest of ft. And after a few days of walt- ing, they found themselves once more listening to her voice as she put her old, old memories into words. “My father,” she took up her story, “came tn one @ay and said, ‘Lille, come and see what I have in the lot.’ “Out I skipped, expecting to see 4 new>cow or A rooster or any one of a number of things | which father might have bought. “But it wasn't anything bought which I found; it was a baby colt with long, wobbly legs and big soft eyes and it was nuzzling up against its mother as if it had known her longer than I had, when it knew perfectly well it had just come and the monther had been our horse for a long, long time. Lethaihed working there, We had one good man, an interior decorator—maybe he was kind of sis and effeminate, but he really was an artist, and we) gave one dandy play. But I— Of course I've always had to work hard, and study by myself, and I’m prob- ably sloppy, and I'd love it if I had training in rehearsing—I mean, the crankier the director was, the better I'd like it. If you didn’t want to use me as an actor, I'd love to de- sign the costumes, I'm crazy about fabrice—textures and colors and de signs.” She knew that he was trying to keep her from going, trying to indi- cate that he was something more than @ person to whom gne brought! sherwi baby when you've been in the | movies as long as I havef’ Ginette |drawied just as I banged my door. I felt sick, “Scare-baby! Horrors! How did a girl get like Ginette? “Hello, Ginetter* The voice was Dick's and it reach. ed me simultaneously with the siam- ming of the perfect lady's door. | Doubtless he bad missed the vision | and had merely bailed her in pass. | ing her half-closed door. That must be it. But even so, how could the fastidious Jimmy Alcott address a genuine Thais-type in such a friendly tone! Familiarity—that I could under. stand. I'd beard plenty of that in the studios, It was bunk—meaning: }less twad d! But—friendliness! |Some peculiar excitement brought | the tears to my eyes. And it was| absurd to ruin my own carefully ap- | plied complexion! Ginette, not 1, was | the one to weep! I hated to meet Ginette and Dick |at luncheon. Our studio prides itself | on being the home of a happy family. | | In the studio restaurant all the peo- | |ple mingle in genuine democracy. | Actors in their costumes, the di- hrectors and the electricians, camera- eC & OT md * Page 534 THE BIG COUGAR AGAIN “How we loved that colt,” the Little Lady- With White Curis smiled at her memory of it, “and brow we watched it grow, watched its wobbly legs grow stronger and ite thin litte sides fill out, and how we petted it and talked about it! ° “One Sunday afternoon, when it was big enough to frisk all over the place, but still spending much time close to its mother, we children went out for a walk with father. “Now, ploneer fathers, if they ‘were men who took any interest in the Bible and church and things like thate were special about how they spent their Sun- days. They didn't forget that fourth commandment which says, ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,’ and they rested just (Copyright, 1821, Seattle Star) artists and in milliners, decorative seamstresses, came and went carnival variety. Several of the boys stood up when T entered the restaurant I signaled Bobby that I would take the chair at his side. Bobby manages Nghts for my director. He's a ni boy. He was overseas, and he says he's learned to pick out a lady when he sees her. Tho why being in the army can teaclf a man that, I can't imagine. I especially liked Bobby that morning because place beside him was a long, long way from Dick Barnes, Dick was sitting “across from Ginette, dressed now in a regular ireenwich village smock and skirt— jade green and white, with a huge Spanish comb of green stones over one ear. She was smoking cigarets. The restaurant is the -only place where smoking is allowed. Cigarets and coffee—that's what Ginette works on, she boasts. I wondered if Dick were sitting opposite Ginette by chance or choice. My tears nearly embarrassed me. While Bobby talked to me, I kept thinking of the only time Dick and I the; Confessions of a Movie Star | CHAPTER XXIV—DICK REFUSES TO KILL A SNAKE “Oh, you won't be such a scare |men and craftsmen, carpenters and|had lunched together. He had me in his canoe up the river the New England town. I'd never been off like that with a man I didn't know then, but later ized what a high opinion of Motherdear had held. He and I were two of a small Lincoln, screamed, or rather yelled like a wild woman. He said he would not kill a poor, frightened creature like that to please any girl The crowd taunted him—called him a Brahmin or a Buddhist—but I liked him awfully well. I understood his feeling about the frightened, wrig- sling thing. And within the next hour, Jimmy | killed @ rattlesnake—and saved my life. T never could catch a fish, and so after luncheon, he and I climbed the ledges to gather wintergreens. We had some lovely bunches tied up with grass to take to Motherdear when I heard a peculiar buzzing like a weird electric contrivance, (To Be Continued) “Well, they have, at that, They've me @ good deal, here and | as God told them to rest in the | commandment. They didn't grub [| joniea pian lbs cre arn ype | Minneapolis both. They say dress- ian" making is ladies’ work. (But I was ery ne was Meeping it om | willing to get drafted for the war! near od he could for a holy da: I tried to get in. But they rejected scWell, this Bunday afterncen ||. But I did try) I thought some My See iee ith hin [lof working up in a gents’ furnishings then, we were walking with him I) store, and I had « chance to travel about our own place when @ J) on the road for a clothing house, but peculiar whinny of the colt drew }) somehow—tI hate this tailoring, but our attention. " I can't seem to get enthusiastic (To Be Continued) about salesmanship. I keep thinking tt + ——_—_mrmmmmemntineed) |ebout a room in gray oatmeal paper with prints in very narrow gold trousers for pres! He besought:| frames—or would it be better in | “Some day I hope I can get away| white enamel paneling?—but any- from this fool repairing, when I have} way, it looks out on Fifth Avenue, the money saved up. I want to goland I'm designing a sumptuous—" East and work for some big dress-| He made it “sump-too-ous''—“robe of maker, and study art drawing, and| linden green chiffon over cloth of become a high-class designer. Or do| gold! You know—tileul, It's ele- you think that’s a kind of fiddlin'| gant. ... What do you think?” | ambition for a fellow? I was brought “Why not? What do you care up on a farm, And then monkeyin’|for the opinion of city rowdies, or round with silks! I don’t know./a lot of farm boys? But you mustn't, What do you think? Myrtle Cass| you really mustn't, let casual stran- Says you're awfully educated.” gers like me have a chance to judge “Iam, Awfully. Tell me; Have | you.” the boys made fun of your ambi-| “Well— You aren't a_ stranger, on?” one way. Myrtle Cass—-Miss Cass, She was seventy years old, and| should say—she's spoken about you sexless, and more advisory than Vida!'so often. I wanted to call on you— have the nerve. One evening I walked past your house, but you and your husband were talking on the porch, and you looked so chummy and happy I didn’t dare butt in.” Maternally, “I think it’s extremely nice of you to want to be trained in —in enunciation by a stage-director. Perhaps I could help you. I'm a thoroughly sound and uninspired schoolma'am by instinct; quite hope- lessly mature.” “Oh, you aren’t either! She was not very successful at ac- cepting his fervor with the air of amused woman of the world, but she sounded reasonably impersonal: “Thank you. Shall we see if we | really can get up a new dramatic club? I'l tell you: Come to the house this evening, about eight. I'll |ask Miss Mullin@ to come over, and we'll talk about (Continued. Tomorrow) CASCARETS 10* For Constipated Bowels—Bilious Liver The nicest cathartic-laxative to|tonight will empty your bowels com physic your bowels when you have Headache Biliousness Colds Indigestion Dizziness Sou~ Stomach pletely by morning and you will feel splendid, “They work while you sleep.” Cascarets never stir you up or gripe like Salts, Pills, Calomel, or Oil, and they only ten and the doctor—but 1 didn’t quite] is candy-like Cascarets, One or two|a box, Children love Cascarets,