| Show WEEDS by LOUISE OLIVER ili eldred sitting on the threefoot three foot toot porch ot of her portable house was not so BO interested in the sketch book on her lap as her absorbed expression would indicate the lush flush on oil her cheeks although very becoming comine be was a signal of considerable disturbance within gary osworth fifty feet or so away on the links seemingly intent upon addressing a minute sphere of hard rubber with a silly looking stick having an iron end may have been just as absorbed as he looked but then it Is just likely that he crack the ball went tar far and wide of the green landing in a bunker which spelled disaster gary stood and watched its descent compressed his lips and picked up his bag eldred on her diminutive porch giggled she help it in spite of her reminiscences she was pretty twenty two and drawing teacher in enough big brick city schools to scare her to death gary was homely thirty and superintendent of those same schools moreover it was the superintendent not the schools that scared eldred not Us his ugliness dear me no but he ridiculed art and laughed at eldreda Eld reds pictures on the blackboards which stiff little fingers tried so hard bard to reproduce then the last day in june when the thermometer was ninety five near the tha water cooler and his desk was stacked head high with papers to be disposed of that day and the two telephones were ringing fiendishly every other minute and his neuralgia started to dig out his right eye and everything went wrong and everybody wasa was vips a tor or ture then eldred lia had d breezed in and asked about some crayon supplies for tho the coming year saints could have endured less and gary went to church only every other sunday he told her several things he thought ot of her art was silly her ber work useless her aim purposeless an and d her ambition not worthy ot of her ho he spoke ot of dicky birds frog ponds and finally in a fine frenzy ot of rage he had mentioned something about the tha damned weeds she made the kida draw eldred drew a sharp breath what could be more foolish she asked herself than for or a full grown man to chase a little ball around tor for miles every day and yet he says that my work is silly her eyes flashed through a tiny isinglass window she could see her enemy in the distance trying to dig his ball out ot of a sand ditch the next shot landed him in the water moat around the green oh how very very tunny funny she cried ive heard him talk golf in the most awesome terms it if some of those people in town could only see him now she stopped struck with a sudden idea billy hawkins cartoonist tor for the daily news had made this remark before he went away on his vacation ira im off for two weeks it if you see anything good send it in particularly it you can get anything on anyone somebody prominent you know eldred put the tea things away and got out her sketch book A week later gary osworth opened his mall mail on the file porch of the club house before going out to play on the front page ot of the dally daily news he spied six sketches and this legend in largo large type our superintendent at golf there he was ridiculous in all sorts ot of contortions the line below the cartoon read thus sir osworth dislikes anything that is frivolous and useless and that does not strengthen the mind he threw the paper down savagely then he be went out to his game adf ant vented his wroth on the turf the air and the ball when he be could hit it and the ball going wild upon one occasion swerved to the left out through the leaves ot of an oak tree and hit bit a young lady who had stepped ott oat of her cottage to gather goldenrod gary osworth see the ball hit eldred but he went in search of 0 it and found her lying unconscious on the ground her arm still around a huge mass ot of yellow goldenrod the ball that had done the damage was lying near his heart stood still he carried her inside laid her upon a couch and hunted tor for water but she started to breathe which was all that was necessary to start his own heart to pumping again he turned and his eye caught the open page of a sketch book a cartoon of himself playing golf and eldred opened her eyes to see her enemy gazing blankly at it how petty her revenge was what a mean thing she had bad done to this big wholesome man she sat up instantly im sorry she said simply ile he turned and smiled you be im glad you did it I 1 feel better some way I 1 ought to be shot tor for saying what I 1 did that day and then trying to murder you now you might get my goldenrod he came in with ills his arms full thank you it seems tunny funny to see your carrying weeds ile he reddened wont you try to forget what I 1 said it you only knew how bow I 1 adore it now since I 1 saw you lying with your arms full of 0 it ile he stopped suddenly eldred turned away but he caught a glimpse ot of her face ace and saw that his case was tar far from hopeless copyright 1916 by mcclure mcclur per syndicate i |