Show betty and the bird man 4 42 by DOP DOROTHY DOROTH THY Y I 1 DOUGLAS rf ss 1913 1918 by the mcclure N newspaper WE pa syndicate 1 bettys eyes were a wonderful blue bine mil ind her hair a dusky brown her lips were like poppy buds and her teeth were but the lonely airman who flew inthy over bettys garden did not know ill 11 this neither did lie he know or even uI ct that betty was as lonely as he be detty bettys I 1 s garden was walled in by a brick wall but there was much to do in the g garden arden and the lieutenant of the american flying corps who had come over to england to ly fly with his lilies allies found and watched the pink clad figure as he flew dally daily over the essex esses homes lieutenant french had sailed on the big Ci marder with many troops some three mouths months before and each day of the three months had brought a more sickening sense of loneliness ITIS his home in long island was just a modest country cottage but there was a carden a cat his dog binks and a family that the young lieutenant thought the he finest in the world ile he had been flying dying very low almost brushing the tree tops of epping forest when suddenly stenly at the very edge of the forest lie ho looked down into a garden that made his heart beat with homesickness home sickness there was at a pink clad zirl working among the flowers that was all lie he had seen the first day after that one glimpse ot of the beautiful essex esses garden lieutenant french flew daily over the spot and watched betty garden or paint or do bits of carpentering that made him quite guite desperate to help her on days when the wind ind or rain prevented the great wings of his bristol from taking him aloft and the big bird was a prisoner in the hangar the flying man chafed chafee inwardly when the moon was bright and the huns were making attempts to cross the coast lie he wanted only to fly above bettys garden and in a sense feel that he was protecting her and her dear home from harm the fruit blossoms were out and billowed out like foamy clouds in a sky below litin him hen hea lieutenant french had about come to the conclusion that he would have to come a cropper or drop down into that walled garden by accident if he were to live on in esses ile he did not know english girls well and wondered as to how this one in the pink frock would accept a note were he to drop it into her garden but while the fruit blossoms were swaying beneath him and the sun shining gloriously the american birdman found courage to drop his note for the lie girl in the pink dress was evidently married and it would be perfectly conventional to make friends now that she was perfectly guarded she had bad come out that morning and very tenderly cautiously she had pushed a great wheel epalt chair out over the flag stones and down the garden path until it rested beneath the fruit trees and in the chair was an officer wounded hero of hers whom she was wonderfully busy about until she left him comfortably enjoying the sunlit garden and his pipe after that she went back to the cottage and returned with chairs and tables and was soon busily engaged in painting them all a brilliant red lieutenant french could stand it no longer lie ile had painted garden chairs tit at home in fact he had left paint on almost everything there in the long island home so that nothing would look shabby 1 I cansis say san sis that bristol pilot is either trying tryan to sniff our apple blossoms or lift a few bricks from our chimney chamne v he a beamut of a bird dick raymond baymond exclaimed enthusiastically and watched the huge wings drop still lower betty and her brother could both see the birdman himself now and while they waved their hands at him in admiration and greeting lie he dropped a small pac package kige which landed almost at bettys feet the airplane went up and up buzzing loudly betty picked up the missive and gave a little cry of delight she unfurled a small american flag and waved it aloft iler her brother grinned appreciatively american they exclaimed in unison betty opened the letter and rend read aloud may I 1 come this afternoon and get acquainted am far from home and horribly lonesome hoist the stars and stripes if I 1 may come please poor duffer i said dick 1 I hope you wont turn him down ats 10 but sla sis was very far from turning him down she was in fact ready to hed a few tears for this lonely amerlean american for answer she just climbed up on her stepladder and flaunted the small flag at the top of a young cedar tree swooping down again lieutenant fr french waved joyously then flew away toward the aerodrome in the afternoon lifter noon lie gave himself the most unusual pleasure of taking some exquisitely fresh jonquils to a tady lady lie quite reveled in the thrilling mollon emotion that hint besieged him as he be carried thern them toward the garden over lie he had so BO often flown lie ile was ans greeted as an old friend and taken directly into the small home circle yankees what luck he exclaimed the moment he had shaken hands this Is too good to be true and he found himself more than ever at home 1 I have only been over about four months said betty after they had wheeled dick into a comfortable nook beneath ben the fruit blo blossoms and were talking as fast as only the yankee tongue con can move sly my brother was so lindly badly wounded that he be was allowed to cable to me said he fie pull through to fight some more if IE I 1 here she laughed softly toward her brother what ship did you come on asked the birdman bardman realizing already that lie he was more than glad to know betty and her brother ile he was discovering the wonderful charms that had been hidden bidden to MR his birds eyes lie ile would be dissatisfied now to hover so far above betty and her garden the adriatic said betty good lord so did I 1 we must have been on the same trip how in the name of did you arrive just after christmas 1 I certainly did acclaimed betty land and we mere civilians were mighty tired waiting for you military people to disembark you must have been III all the way over or assuredly I 1 would have seen you even on so crowded a ship a little hot air for you yon french laughed dick bettys good gocia at that III 1 I was in my bunk the entire trip said french even know there was a woman on board except the stewardess neither did I 1 laughed betty there was so much khaki I 1 had bad no time even to glance about for girl sl she evidently had bad the time of her young life commented dick here I 1 was waiting in ghastly fear of her being torpedoed and all the time she was flirting her head off with our best uniforms and some of the british as well from the number of letters the post girl brings here froni from france I 1 think my sister knew every officer on the he ship dont don t mind me put in french officers who are seasick dont count betty told him but the encouraging cou raging glance she sent into his eyes suggested a complete contradiction to her words 1 I may be a poor sli sailor llor the lieutenant laughed but as a bir birdman dinan ill 11 II take some beating I 1 I 1 find und the he only garden in the british isles and like a huge bee come straight to t the he finest honey 1 I had bad better be getting the tea betty decided with a delightfully heightened color speeding her progress tea in an english garden this ahls great and the birdman enscoe ced ed himself as if for life while dick raymond gave him a thorough inspection and came to the conclusion that french would be a fine pal for himself and for betty well lie figured that his als sister would like her latest victim setter better than the last anyway and it she brought out her big apple p pie le for tea ea with apples at a n shilling a pound rationed atio ned sugar and mighty little buter t to be had that she would have decided to like lieutenant french much better ettar than his predecessors in the white kitchen betty reached up for the pie lie |