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Show I A Home jj TICT10N For"ie ll TT WAS Easter Sunday in New York. And the sun was shining Laura Burton and Frank Harding had been to church and now they were part of the sleek crowd on Fifth avenue. Laura held Frank's arm. To look at her you'd feel sure that she was happy. She was pretty and young and so well turned out. Successful young business girl, you'd probably have guessed. Or maybe even a young bride! And that, (indeed, was the catch. Laura WAS a successful young business girl. But she wasn't a young bride! And yet right by her side was Frank Harding. And it was Frank with whom she was In love! He could have been as far away as the North Pole, Laura felt. As far as matrimony, that I I is. He was nice to mi her. He took her to lnis the theater, occa-Week's occa-Week's sionally. He took her to the movies Best once ln a while. He . took her to dinner. Fiction But he was careful not to take Laura too often! Laura had tried all of her tricks, long agb. And all of the tricks she'd read about. But none of them worked. WelL he was here with her now. That was something. It was fun, being here with Frank, being jostled by the well-dressed crowd. It was fun but it wasn't enough. It would end too soon and there'd be nothing else. Why Frank might not even telephone to her again for days and days! And there'd be just office routine. And a few dull dates that were only a little better than staying home. And actually staying home and pretending pretend-ing that reading the newest magazines maga-zines and listening to the radio was enough. Funny, when Frank was with her, reading or listening to the radio was quite enough. If Frank were with her but that was the whole trouble! "I didn't have a chance to get you a flower," Frank said, as they strolled. "Let's get one, now." They walked over to Madison avenue, ave-nue, found a flower shop and were going to turn in for a corsage, when "Look!" said Lura. And there, In with the flowers, on a moss carpet, were a whole flock of very young, very yellow baby chicks. "They're darling!" said Laura. "Rather have one than a flower?" "Of course I would!" But baby chicks were so inexpensive inexpen-sive that Laura had one and flowers, flow-ers, too. They took the little chicken to Laura's Immaculately modern apartment. It walked on the beige carpet and scratched a bit. And for no reason they named it "Nellie." They fed it some of the prepared food they'd bought. And decided that having a little chicken for a pet was great fun. It was great fun! For Laura, anyhow. She put the chick in her snowy kitchenette before she went to the office in the morning and left a note for Carrie, who came in, afternoons, to be careful of Nellie. At ten o'clock Frank telephoned her. "How's Nellie?" he asked. "She was fine, when I left this morning. When are you coming in to see her?" "I thought tonight would be as good a time as any. No use letting her forget her foster father. What about a bit of dinner tonight. At Louise's, maybe?" It was wonderful! Frank had never telephoned so soon after seeing see-ing her had never made a date so ' promptly. Nellie? What of it. She'd be with him. Frank got there at half past six. They spent nearly an hour sitting on the floor and playing with Nellie. They went to a movie after dinner and then Frank came in to see Nellie again! , She was a cute little chicken. No doubt of that. So small and yellow! And she gave gentle little "cheeps" and even stopped those when you snuggled her in your hand. And the next day Frank called again! And then there were other dinners. din-ners. A whole flock of them. And Laura was happier than she had ever been in her life! It couldn't be all Nellie's attraction! Nellie grew tall. She lost her baby prettiness, and her legs grew long and tiny feathers replaced her soft yellow fuzz. And as she grew taller she grew more friendly. Neither Nei-ther Laura nor Frank would have believed it possible. Nellie followed them the way a puppy might do. It was grand having Nellie as a pet and Frank coming in so frequently. fre-quently. AND then Nellie became ill! Not very ill, of course but she seemed to mope and her eyelids drooped. Laura and Frank took Nellie in a taxicab to a veterinarian. The vet didn't know too much about chickens. chick-ens. But he prescribed a change of food. "That chicken has got to have sunshine," he said. "Sunshine and a place to scratch in the earth." And Laura lived in a small apartment. apart-ment. And Frank in an apartment hotel! There had to be a home for Nellie! Nel-lie! That was certain. Without realizing that they might be open to ridicule, they began hunting hunt-ing for a house in the country. Luckily Luck-ily Laura's lease was up on the first of the month. They finally found just the house they were looking for. White, with green shutters. And a beautiful garden gar-den it needed fixing, of course, but Laura liked to work in a garden. "I'm great in a garden," said Frank, unexpectedly. "I used to work in our garden at home. Things always grew for me." Laura hadn't known that Frank had ever been in a garden! Laura signed the lease for the house. In a way she felt that she was burning , an awful lot of bridges. All of her friends lived in town. Laura and Frank went out . to the new house every minute they had to spare. Frank painted. He made book shelves. He repaired the flagstone walk. He was wonderful! won-derful! The movers were ordered. On Saturday Frank came by to take Laura to a party. Then they were going to have a last dinner in Laura's apartment. The party was fun. But Laura was a little sad. There still could be parties, even if she lived in the country but, somehow, she'd be so far away from everyone. As long as she saw Frank, that didn't matter mat-ter but if something should happen if Frank didn't come to see her Frank opened the apartment house door with Laura's key, which she handed to him. Carrie had been listening for them, evidently, for she was at the door the minute it opened. "My goodness!" she said, "I don't know how to tell you! But but you got to know it. Nellie is dead! Yes'm, she just fell over!" Nellie was dead! And, suddenly, Laura realized what it meant to her. She'd miss the little chicken, of course. But now she'd be all alone! And not even in town! She started to cry. Frank put his arms around her. "Don't cry!" he said. "We can get other chickens." "But but " she said, an3 couldn't go on. She didn't know how to say it. She wanted to ask: "Will you come, if there are other chickens? chick-ens? Was it Nellie you came to see?" She didn't say anything at all. "After all, Nellie was only a chicken," chick-en," he said. "But I was going to meve to the country. to make a home for for Nellie," -she sobbed. "The country's fine," said Frank. "I can hardly wait to get there myself. my-self. I say, you know, I've been thinking about it, and I well, what do you say if we, well, get married and you make a home for me. That would suit me all right. How would it suit you?" Laura wiped her eyes. And decided de-cided it would suit her just fine. It! , ! They knelt on the floor playing with the little chicken. It was so cute and small and yellow!' , |