Show H rn Short Story of pay ill JUST BEFORE PAYDAY Sa Say old man I hate to ask you but tho the fact tact Is you see see w well see well one large Inne shining ou ought ht to hold me out till t tomorrow morron when When we get Ket the weekly 1 bunch of ot prosperity Thanks This'll help some Now ow can you or anybody tell teU me wh why It Is a n. tello fellow will be Itty enough to poke his nose out of at doors when the surplus Is running low and payday two days to windward Its It's got me mo guessing but we seem eem to go right on wan wanderIng wander wander- er- er Ing out and bunting Into places where It costs a a bone per 1000 to breathe aIr Just Just between between us I dont don't believe I was ever cut out to be a a. sure sure enough enough sport I am the original Mr Ir Piker and every time I get gold gold bricked youre you're due to hear heRr an awful holler hoUer Youve You've seen seen these comical pictures about how Cholly passed the Ice cream pavilion In a running Jump taking the cause ot of It all nil with him before she sho could see what was doing I always alwa's thought those were dead funn funny but Its It's getting to me that they were about as hilarious as the death notices Ive I've been Did you ever start out to be a hot tamale on 30 cents and a strong front trant and the first firt thing you 1 0 knew find finel yourself In the gravel el pit with your countenance countenance countenance counte counte- nance In the substratum tum trying to figure out how you were going to make good That's That where I woke up Ill tell you ou Bob and I chased ourselves out last eve and met a 0 couple of at dam damsels els In the shade hade of the sheltering date palm Wed We'd met em once before- before very Informally out informally out at one of these rubber band concerts We were sitting on the grass In the middle of at the crowd last laRt week weck listening to a a. fudge by Bock when hen a 11 damsel el came along alan and tripped over me and Its It's me doing the thc heroic and catching her as she fell and we both fell Into conversation and conversation and nothing to It But that was the first time As soon as we up last night one ono of at cm em handed me the song and dan dance e She says they wanted to go to the roof root garden I fell over Into Bobs Bob's arms Did you get that 1 We Ye to the thc roof root garden I was nas there with one and 1 a quarter and Bob had about that and I had figured by plaIn playIng playing play play- In Ing real close dose to my shirt front we could weather the evening and get fet away with enough for or sinkers today But when they said that that that-oh oh me oh m my I had a swift and violent chill attack In m my pedal extremities as I saw us sitting Into that dollar at seventy seventy- five per sat To the potted palms palm I said Not ot for or m me The roof com comes s too high twenty high twenty stories high I guess they never heard Ezra spring that ante ante- lan 1 Anyway Anwa It went We Ye Well Yell we stood teetering around there looking like 2 cents and trying to figure out where we could get the strongest action for our coin and my f feet t like cakes of at Ice when Marge that's Marge that's the one I got got spoke spoke up for Cor the tho merry amusement park Talk about hurdling the frying pan pan well well This was one of at those places where It costs you a quarter to come In and all youve you've got left leCt and more to get out I could see sec our finish before we commenced getting there Hem However ever I said Good bye dollar green and ande we e passed In It was a 0 sad parting you OU can Just guess I Now ow ow what do you think about two shallow shalla fronts front allowing themselves to tobe tobe tobe be bumped humped up against a game of that kind Kind of oC poor business busness Well Vell I imaging Imagine I never neer saw sa the thc four four-flusher r yet et who didn't get called sooner or later Only we we were sooner Youve You've got to be he there with the portraits of George and Martha or forever er chase sc yourself Isn't that straight Well ll I hung my flags at mast half to let Bob know there was a dead on one In the treasury department nt He lie gave me one of those sad looks to say In that heres here's where he sot got ot off and meanwhile the girlies were around to see ee what would be the best thing to separate us from our loose change with The They were both for the loop but hut I made a t roar and said Id I had a l weak wc heart rt ant and Bob Invented a summer fiction number about how a 3 c carload had been dumped out of oC a foot fifty loop at lt Coney Island two years ears ago We Ye certainly were the Pike Pike brothers Foolish us us' us We ought to have known that It would have hav taken up quite a big bunch of ot time fighting our way In and going gaInS up and around and that tho thoma ma maidens ens would have been so upset that they'd thed want to paddle right home to But Dut some way or another we were so foxy and cautious that every time wed we'd sidestep something that looked had bad wed we'd come up against some deal about twice as worse About this time Marge spied ye e olde aIde mill and let out a I. I glad cry as ns she made for It with us sprinting behind Nothing would do but a a. ride In it Her Herpal Herpal Herpal pal balked b right there cause canse she was afraid of at water but hut Marge was game to togo togo togo go so 10 we left them chewing the rag and went into the garden Maud Did you ever You see fee ou outside It looks like one of these old mills b by the dam side fIrle with a l big bg paddlewheel thrashing the water through a 3 little Intercepting intercepting Inter Inter- tunnel into the mill You get Set Into a boat and the they tell tel you to keep your our hands off oCt the sides of oC It or you'll get scraped and away you shoot Into th the thern rn Of oc course youve you've got to hold on to something so o you ou usually hold on to each other Easy Especially as you plunge Into the dark for Cor awhile and md when youve you've come out youre you're going around the world nice and slow One minute youre you're In Switzerland and the next youre you're going past a a. cotton field to the north pole And the tunnel keeps wiggling back and forth so that youre you're all alone In that part of ot the country and ond c cant can't t see the boats hoats ahead or behind It hit me that we could Just as well stay In Dixie so 80 I put out one toot foot and stopped the ship We Ye were cre having the only good time that eve ec when first firs thing I knew along came the next boat and bumped Into us Maybe they weren't sore at me for getting Into the same section and maybe m Marge wasn wasn't and the whole push All at me And I was sore on myself When we got out every everyone one was grouchy but we wc managed to keep em em In to chairs while the band performed that performed that was free free and and then the they made a break brea for the tintype emporium and a n. few other grafts rafts and Just as Bob Dab was whispering whisper whisper- ing that he had only 15 cents left leCt the they discovered the people hiking Into th the vaudeville show and they were up and awn away a Then I had a I. I bright and happy In Inspiration I told em to walt wait while I hustled ahead and got ot the tickets I butted through the crowd fought up to the window and fell off ocr sideways and then came came hack back In a terrible state of oC excitement excitement ex ex- and anel told em cm Id I'd been touched In the crowd for tor all I had Then I tore oft off to a a. cop I saw standing near and had a n. little earnest conversation on tho the weather with him They thought I was as reporting the dip dp It was pretty coarse coane work but when a fellow gets In a 0 corner figuring his hs way out hes he's apt to do anything I slipped Bod all I had for the c car r fare and that left us flat fiat We Ve hustled em cm to their corner and walking home homo wo we took turns handing each cach other a 0 bunch of good swift kicks The Thc net time we go out two nights before payday we wo wont won't go Chicago o.-Chicago Chicago News |