Show ake FICTION BETTER LATE by EDWARD STEVENSON L eo cornec W xcell ELL I 1 in certainly glad you re not seasick when I 1 first saw you leaning over the rail I 1 said to myself that you must be seasick though I 1 couldn coulden t see how anybody could get seasick with the water so calm the way it is our room stew ard says that anybody that gets seasick in this kind of weather wouldn t be safe on the lake in cen aral park he s a regular comedian and that reminds me how much do you think I 1 ought to tip him the room steward I 1 mean I 1 in not one that don t have to count my pennies but still I 1 want to do the right thing as to tipping you see this Is the first time we ve been on a boat my wife and me I 1 mean of course we ve taken a trip up the hudson with the kids but I 1 guess you wouldn t mention the hudson river day line in the same breath with the S S goliath would you youa the kids thought it was grand though they re grown up and married now with kids of their own except judy that Is and she hardly had time not having been married quite a year yet but it don t seem more than yesterday that they were running about like a bunch of wild indians In 1 lians and getting into all sorts of mischief time flies whew its getting hot isn t it we must be coming into the tropics from the way it feels ever been down here before mr I 1 don dont t think you mentioned your name did you arthur well I 1 in glad to know you mr arthur my name a bentham I 1 d like you to meet my wife some time too that s her laying in that deck chair down at the end she s making be aeve she s reading that book but she it s sound asleep the salt air seems to tucker her out As I 1 was saying time certainly flies now you take me why it seems its it s only the other day that ellen and me were getting mar ned ried and here we are grandpas grand par ants of six already we ve been married thirty five years it don dont t seem possible but that s what it is au all right why say I 1 can remember the wedding just as plain as if it happened last week it gasn wasn t much of a wedding you know no fuss and feathers besides ellen and I 1 and the minister there was only the minister ministers s wife and the church janitor tor for witness but I 1 can still see the five of us standing there in the chapel with the sun coming through a high window and falling all around us and turning everything golden I 1 remember el len specially she was so pretty and little when I 1 look back I 1 think ellen and I 1 must a been crazy getting married the way we did my gosh I 1 didn dian t have a cent to my name it was all I 1 could do to scrape up the money for the wedding ring engagement rings and honeymoons and all the fixings were out of reach as far as we were concerned I 1 felt pretty bad taking her right from church to a 2 50 a week fur ni shed room A wonderful girl like her deserved better and I 1 told her so A big wedding a reception at the waldorf the old waldorf you know and a honeymoon at aniag ara falls was little enough to her but she just laughed if I 1 wanted such truck she says I 1 d ve mar ned ried mr astor and not johnny bentham that s the way she is I 1 didn dian t mind so much not having a big church affair or a reception afterwards but gosh what s a wedding without a honeymoon I 1 mean it made me feel kind of low not being able to provide even that you know marrying ellen was the making of me I 1 was just a shipping clerk at the time but she made me study bookkeeping and when an opening in the company well last year our company did pretty well and they gave all the old employed emp loyes a month months s pay for a bonus at christmas first bonus wed we d had in years so what did I 1 do well I 1 figured with all the kids married and no one to ta take k e care of but ourselves that we d dian didn t have any real need for the money so I 1 didn dian t breath a word about it to ellen you see I 1 d been seeing these cruise ads in the papers and I 1 thought to myself that s just the thing for ellen and I 1 twelve days nassau jamaica and cuba and up I 1 didn dian t say anything till about two weeks before we were to sail then I 1 broke the news well you could ve knocked ellen over with a feather 4 first thing I 1 knew she threw her arms around me came along I 1 stepped right in I 1 ra head bookkeeper now of course that isn t so much there s only one other bookkeeper but being head of anything is pretty good these days I 1 always say A couple of years back when I 1 d been with the I 1 company thirty five years they put on a dinner for me at jack demp sey s and gave me a watch here it is see what it says to john W bentham that s my full name for thirty five years of devoted service atlas paper supply co mr stover the president made a speech I 1 did too but I 1 was too choked up to say much you can bet I 1 d never ve stuck around to get that watch if ff it hadn haan t been for ellen and the kids too of course when you get to be a family man you got to tend to business kit athars short for christopher was the first then roger cynthia anthony and judy the baby nice name names ain sin t they ellen picked em era out they re all grown up now fine young men and women if I 1 do say so myself but there was times when you just wondered if they ever would it was just one thing after another sick or healthy they had you up to your neck in bills johnny bentham she says are you out of your minda no I 1 says and I 1 haven t robbed a bank neither so I 1 told her all about the bonus wen well she still thought I 1 was crazy spending all that money on a little trip she says do you think we re millionaires johnny never put foot on that boat now a fine how dydo dol I 1 says making out I 1 in insulted A woman refusing to go on a honey moon with her hus husband bandl well she just looked at me and I 1 just looked at her and first thing you know she threw her arms around me and began kissing me and what did the two of us do but end up laughing and crying like a couple of kids gosh mama I 1 says it s bet ter late than never ain t it say will you look at them por |