Show a 4 J A e 1111 t A e 13 ja a I 1 EAU EAR roe me I 1 hope the Johnson sll bo be here mrs briggs said uneasily silo she had deposited a large parcel on the serving table of the small private dining room where the saturday dinner club was in the habit of taking its weekly feast a parcel that appeared to be too precious for horace briggs clumsy paws the remaining nine members of the club were ita in their places and many an anxious eye had been cast in the direction ot of tile serving trible table when the door opened and the tardy ones burst in bubbling with suppressed excitement cit elt and also bearing a parcel tills this one in the husbands sinewy and always competent hands wonder if bringing eats big bill smith muttered under its his breath he had been th a assured that the briggs parcel was not good for the e digestion dige stio 1 I dont want anybody to look while I 1 get it ready no fair peeping ada johnson warned as sh she e bent over a chair in the remote corner of the room in an amazingly long minute she relieved the anxiety of the crowd by setting in ili the center of the table a mound of easter eggs colored in the most ingenious fashion and bearing the names of all the club members warranted hard boiled will not shrink warp or rub off and to be carried home in the tall pocket of every fellows dress suit johnson explained humph I 1 know a better place to carry eggs than that was bills suppressed comment shall I 1 open mine before or after dinner sirs airs briggs asked the shine having been rather rudely r u de ly brushed brus lied from her surprise by the hasty appearance of the eggs 1 I should say have to open it before you eat cut it jones gibed gabed 1 I mean the egg I 1 was talking about that and she indicated the carefully wrapped box on the Be serving table just as the walter waiter nr ar rived with the anchovy paste so it was not until the interval between soup and roast that she pot got round around to the openings of the easter surprise how perfectly beautiful full 1 how Interest interesting 1 how uni unique quel 1 came in chorus from the ladles ladies as she passed out the gifts made of easter cards of bygone by gone years cut out and mounted to form it a mat tor for an unusually pleasing kodak picture of the briggs the edge of mat and glass had been cleverly bound in soft gray green 1 I liate late you vera briggs mrs airs jones ejaculated 1 I passe a picture as neatly as tills this Is lone done if I 1 worked a week at it and as for or combining these E enster aster lilies and angels and other et ct ceteras well I 1 suppose its a gift I 1 look at buts bials in ili the windows or on peoples heads ind and I 1 think ill go right straight glit home and get out roy my old velvet and ostrich feathers and make inake a swell lint hat tor for myself instead of blowing 15 for it and do you know the most graceful plume in the alie world would get as rigid as a poker the minute I 1 get my fingers on it it makes nie me sick to see aee tile the things other women can do id trade my skill at making pictures and trimming hats for the ability to concoct a salad sal id the tha way you do it mrs airs briggs retorted everything I 1 know about cooking ive lint hail to grub grab for fo r I 1 brive to have a cook book glued to the end of my nose ond and all roy my wits about me and I 1 could die of envy when I 1 see you flip things together without even looking to see how much youre taking and have the dish turn out simply delicious there I 1 love you again may jones bubbled im going to hang this easter picture in my bedroom and every time I 1 look at it ill reflect that my illy one poor talent so BO stupid after till all and say vera vcra any time you want to get out of cooking a meal ineal theres loads of old feathers and hat shapes and velvet in the old trunk up in the atlie c say girls it if cut it out ill tell you a stora mrs jones husband broke in its right I 1 in boason lison too I 1 got the lust last chapter of it while inet 8 out on the alie road tills this past week and the I 1 arst rut installment coxum my way when I 1 ua a rj young chap just out of school it began in western new york and some ot of you sou know the hero here im morally certain I 1 reckon bo be fla safe fe to tell his bis name right here in the buzdum of the alie family but to be on the safe side ill call him stan ley ile he manufactures something i v advertised in all tile big knag agines and most of the ladles ladies use it to help out their complexion any of you that have been to guessing school can finish out hla his name tor for yourselves oh I 1 know little mrs airs smith twinkled 1 I always buy his fits dental cream bill wont let me put the massage stuff stud on my face says my skins good enough and he 1 I youre next nett all right jones assured her stan used to be the liveliest alv bellest tellow fellow in our crowd folks said nothing a cyclone C clone or having a leg cut off would ever settle him down he hall had lots of sense find and could learn anything hs he set his mind to 1 trouble rouble with him was as that things came too easy ile he liked to strum n guitar and dance and skate and ride a wheel and make inake love to the girls when I 1 met him last february I 1 believe he was the same chap theres nothing like smashing a mans heart to settle him down 1 I find that the cares of a family have the same effect bob white said solemnly solen whereat the other members of the club laughed lou glied 1 I like tile the fa family nilly but ive sometimes t thought hought it would be a good scheme to take the cares by proxy prosy the way you do briggs remarked your sisters kids and the kids of tile the club have mode made quite a serious decent man ot of you vou stan have any kids nor even any nieces and nephews to pester him if lie he lind it have gone so hard with him jones averred ile he was the only child and his mother died when lie he wits was about fifteen ile he and his 1113 dad and an old maid aunt lived together and I 1 reckon he hall had to tear around a n good deal to keep from dying of of slow stagnation in that house ile he have lave been moren 23 when two new girls came to town hell hed run the gnout of nit all the old girls gills and he the sort to fall in love with a girl hed grown up with not but what hat lie ho could have had tiny any of lein em for the asking oil oh ho what you sou call a flirt ns its he caught the look in mrs johnsons eyes eves stan break any hearts ile he took care to let the girls know it was all play and I 1 suppose lie he never w would have got in dead earnett if it been for the two strangers stron geis that dropped in on oil us the sanie same week onea one of I 1 lein em was a tall girl with serious dark eyes and a rich contralto voice shed been studying art in new york and her folks were all in europe for or the summer and slie wont vant to go along so BO they sent her out there to visit her uncle and do some r sketching ketching the other girl was ft a tiny bit of a tiling thing with yellow hall hair and big brown eyes tin and a complexion like peaches ond end cream when she he sang it reminded you vou of a baltimore oriole when she danced silo she made you think of a trick pony in ili a clifus could cut more moie dainty little capers and do more amusing thIng sn any dozen girls id ever seen I 1 met her the same night stun stan did and wed both met the other girl a couple of nights before I 1 saw in a second that there was going to be something doing in the old town that summer and I 1 miss my guess I 1 can tell you vou half the boys were dead crazy about the little girl gill and she make tiny any bones ot of her preference for stun stan well I 1 woke up lip to the filet fact one starlight night that the tall ono one wills vas in love with kam I 1 had a yearning arning ve for her myself and how I 1 came to surprise the secret from her stun stan hall had paid her a lot of attention nil all right and it was a alear case of the little vixen cutting her out for the fun of showing us that she could hut but lie ho get up tip ills his nerve to prope a till fit al mot mo t tho the end of summer and then thea oie he led him fa right up to the climax she got dead serious for once flu iud d told him shed never neer had any idea what ft hat life meant till she met him so lie he suggested helping her to fight all the battles of life and all that rubbish that it a man talks when lies hes embarrassed and dont know what to say and the little duvvll pardon nie me its all I 1 can call her laughed in hla his face said she want ant to marry him flint he made an elegant summer beati bean but was too flighty for a husband shell Sli ell get punished for it mark my word mis airs briggs insisted 11 slie site did last tuesday what im coming to she went back to new york and so did the fall tall girl find stan went vent to the bow wows bows for awhile then lie braced up and went into the cold cream business just happened to get gel into that line of manufacturing tind and lies hes rolled up tip barrels of money the little girl married nn an englishman with a title and cut a swath in london society for a season then she had find trouble when her husband found out she really lune lave as much money as she pretended so lie divorced her after hed blacked one of her brown eyes ees anil and called her several kinds of pet names after that silo she had various arlous kinds hinds of hard times rind and finally dually about a year sear ago she went to see stan walked right in and gave gae him to understand that shed reconsidered the question and lie he please take her hack baek to its his henrt unit and love and support her dont you sou know and sh she 0 was so 0 o appealing about it that lie he almost went into the old madness about her the only thing thin that lived him was an easter card ile ho advertised last january for sketches in ili color with prizes amounting to it a thousand dollars for six to be sent out to tile the trade and one of tho the designs submitted without any name or anything to show who painted it gave bae him tin nn lawful awful jolt it was the hie facade of an old croninn tomb and the tomb was mas empty and a halt half lead dead rose vine tine that climbed over the marble had burst into foliage rind and blowers just above the door and over oer it there was file lie most wonder wonderful rui light oil oh stan consider putting it in the contest lie ile had bad it fra flamed ined to hung hang in hla fits bedroom where lie he could see it the first thing in the morning to inspire re him for the lay day under it was that text fr aiom iced corinthians old things are passed anway bel behold fill all things are become new ile he sent out the other pl azes and then lie he asked the artist who nho painted that one oile to cunie cunic and get her money said it was worth to lint and she came anil and let me tell you iou it was tile tall gill all hed turned town dou fifteen years ago you dont wean nenn itt alint do you sou think of 0 thakill eliat I 1 A chorus of exclamations burst from hla his li yes tile the sanie same tall girl gill with the serious lark eyes and the contralto alt 6 voice olce then what un edher that very da 7 |