Show ako t r ON BETTER LATE j fly by E EDWARD DWARD STEVE STEVENSON athey W ELL im m certainly ce taly glad ed yorio youre V not seasick when I 1 first saw n 1 you leaning over the rail I 1 said to I 1 that you must bo be seasick though I 1 see how anybody could get seasick with the water so BO calm the way itis our room stew gew i ard says that anybody that gets i seasick in this kind of weather i on tho the lake 1 in cen aai park iles hes comedian and that reminds me how i much do you think I 1 ought to tip birri hirthe the room steward I 1 mean ini not t ono one that dont have to count i h imy pennies but still I 1 want to do i Y the right thing as ag to tipping C v you ade see this Is the tha first time i weve been on a boat my wife and i me I 1 mean of course weve taken i a trip up the hudson with the kids r but I 1 guess you mention i the hudson river day lina in tho the same breath with the S S goliath would you tho rho kids thought it was grand though grown up i i and married now with kidson kids of their awn except judy that Is and she f hardly had time not having been ta V married qu quits ito a year yet but it A dont seem more than yesterday if that t they aey were e running about hilkea like a i js bunch of wild indians and getting J into all sorts of mischief time gainly files its if getting hot itt it ja we must be b coming into the tropics i from the way it feels ever been down hero here before mr I 1 dont think you mentioned your name did yo you arthur well im 13 glad to know you mr arthur my names bentham td id like you to meet my wife some time too i lier her laying enthat in that deck chair down at tho the endo end ashes ma making king believe ashes reading that book but ashes sound asleep the salt air seems to tucker her out I 1 time flies files now you take lake me why it seems its only the other day that ellen and me were getting married an and dhere here we bare are grandparents ants of six ox already b weve waye been married thirty five years it dont seem possible but whit what it it Is all right why says say I 1 can remember the wedding just as plain as it if it hippo happened ned last week 1 n I much machof of a wedding you know no fuss fusa and feathers besides ellen and I 1 and tha minister there wai was only ti th wite wife and the church janitor for witness but I 1 can still see bee the alvo ae otus of us standing there in the tha chapel with the sun aun coming through 4 d high elih window and falli tailing fig all around us itis and turning everything golden Fre I 1 remember member el len specially she was so pretty and little when I 1 look ook back I 1 think ellen on and I 1 been crazy getting married hariw the way ay we did my gosh 1 have a cant to td my name it was all I 1 could do to scrape up the money for the wedding ring en engagement ga gement ring i ano and honeymoons i a and d all we the fixings aings were eri out of deac hi as far as we were concerned r 1 I felt bad taking hefright her right jarom churow to a 2 50 a week weck fur SV room A wonderful girl like v 1 her deserved better and I 1 told her so A big wedding a reception at tho the Waldorf the tho old waldorf you knowland kno wand a honeymoon at niagara palls falls was little enough to her ber but she just laughed it if I 1 wanted such truck she says edve married mr astor and not johnny Men bentham tham the way she Is I 1 mind so much not having a big church affair or a reception afterwards but gosh 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 was the malting of me I 1 was just a shipping clerk at the time but she made me ine 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 months pay fora bonus at christmas first i bonus wed hadan had jn years so what did J 1 do well I 1 with ou all the kids married and no one to take tahe care of bojt but ourselves that we have any real need for vie the money so I 1 breath a word aboudi about it aitto to ellen you see id been feeding ic these cruise ads inthe in the papers and I 1 thought to myself just the thing for El lenand I 1 nassau jamaica and cuba 1125 and up I 1 say anything till about two weeks before we wore to sail then I 1 broke the news welli well you knocked ellen over with a feather MIN g ml w z all ya V 0 9 ag I 1 I 1 1111 I 1 N n 11 V g wl on 81 first knew she ehe throw threw her arnis arms around mo me came along I 1 stopped stepped right in I 1 im head bookkeeper now of course that isn so much theres only one other bookkeeper bt but lo 10 cing head of anything is 19 pretty good these days I 1 always lay A couple of years yeara back when id been with the company compa iii thirty five R years they put on a dinner tor for me nt at jack demp seya and gave me a watch here it is see what it says sayi to john W bentham thata my full name for thirty five years of devoted oer service vIce aua atlas paper supply co mr stover the president made a speech 4 I 1 did I 1 was too choked up ta say much you cun can bemid bet id stuck atuck around to got get that W atch it if it been for euen ellem and the kidston kids too of course when you got get to be a family famili mayyou man you got to tend to business kit short for christopher was the first then roger cynthia anthony and nd judy the baby nice names aint they ellen picked lem cm out all grown up bowfin now fine fin young men and women ii if I 1 do say lay so go myself bitt but there w was as times when you just wondered it if they ever would it was just one ant thing thine after another sick or healthy they had you up to your neck beik in bills IJohn johnny jy bentham she says are you out of your mind no 11 I 1 says and nd I 1 robbed a bank neither so I 1 told her an all about the bonus well she still thought I 1 was jc crazy razy spending all that money on a little trip she says do you think were millionaires johnny johnn Y ill never put toot foot on that boat now a fine howdy dot dol I 1 says making out im insulted A woman refusing to go on a honeymoon with her husbands husban hus bandl till we well d she just looked at me and I 1 just looked at her and first arst thing you know the she threw her arms arms around me and began kissing me and what did the two of us do but end up laughing and crying like a couple a of kids gosh mama I 1 says its better late than never aint jt say will you look at them par por |