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Show 1 Birds of a Feather f I By JANE OSBORN & il-X-iSS by McClU'e Newspaper Syndicate.) ( WNU Service) THERE was always something cheerful about the atmosphere of O'Grady's store that stood on one of the corners where the state highway crossed the old Main street of the village called North Hill. There were always plenty of people peo-ple waiting for the bus, young meu who bought cigarettes as an excuse to hang around an hour or more, older men occasionally talking politics, girls sitting at the tables giggling over their ice cream. If you had been a resident of North Hill and had had a son you would have taken it for granted probably prob-ably that he would occasionally join the loiterers at O'Grady's. But If you had had a daughter you would have passed on to her the unwritten un-written law that girls didn't hang about O'Grady's. They went there for ice cream, or to buy a paper or candy or a quart, of milk. But having made their purchase or eaten their ice cream they .left. Even boys who spent too much time at O'Grady's were looked upon as idlers and loafers. It was at O'Grady's that Lois Granger Gran-ger first saw Malcolm Kent. She had gone to buy bird seed and Malcolm was with the loafers leaning against the tobacco counter. Lois east a glance in that direction just to see who was there and naturally enough noticed Kent. He was a stranger and looked so different from the usual O'Grady frequenter, she assumed that he was waiting for a bus. But when a day or so later she went to O'Grady's with her little sister to get an Ice cream cone and noticed again the tall, rather well-dressed young man loitering there beside the cigarette ciga-rette counter apparently feeling very much at home, she concluded that he had got the O'Grady habit. "Who Is the good-looking stranger that's been hanging around O'Grady's lately?" Lois' uncle asked that evening at supper. Lois tried to look indifferent, while her older brother informed the family that the loafer was named Malcolm Kent and that he was a cousin or something of the Robinsons who had a big farm out beyond the creek. Tom further announced that he had met the young man, liked him and if there was no family objection, would bring him around to supper. "He can't be much account," observed ob-served Lois' mother, "if he's always hanging around O'Grady's." "Still, just because he goes there isn't any sign he's like, the other O'Grady loafers," Lois said. "Birds of a feather flock together," pronounced her mother. "You're right," said the uncle. "Every "Ev-ery time I've been in there he was having the time of his life." Still it was agreed to permit Tom to bring the young man to supper. And that was where Lois met him. Malcolm called again two nights later la-ter and when he was told that Tom was not at home he asked whether he might see Miss Lois. Yes, he had actually come to see her. He had an Idea that Tom wouldn't be home. Almost every night at supper when Malcolm wasn't present Lois' family spent some time in discussing Mr. Kent. He had said something about having had some sort of a job on a newspaper. But certainly he couldn't be doing any news gathering out here nt North Hill. And always Lois' mother moth-er would observe that birds of a feather feath-er flocked together. It was a matter of common talk that he spent more than half . his waking hours at O'Grady's. Then, one Saturday afternoon, Malcolm Mal-colm and Lois went walking down country lanes in the mellow autumn sunshine, and Malcolm asked Lois to be his wife. "I think I'd like to, but I don't know how my family will feel about It. They know you aren't working, and you spend so much time at O'Grady's." "Just because I hang around O'Grady's doesn't mean that I am like other O'Grady habitues, does It?" asked Malcolm with a mystifying smile. "Only mother says that birds of a feather flock together." "Well, It happens that the reason why this bird flocks around O'Grady's Is because he is of an entirely different differ-ent feather." Lois told him. In a rather hurt tone, that she hadn't the least idea what he was talking about, "It seems to me that if you really care enough ahont me to want to marry me, you wouldn't hang out there all the time that you'd be making plans to do something some-thing some time." So Malcolm explained, but he made Lois promise not to tell the others until he left. lie had written a novel a darned good novel, too, Malcolm frankly admitted. 'But, you see, I've always been something of a bookworm, book-worm, never spent enough time talking talk-ing with the kind of blrls that stick around O'Grady's. And there are chapters in that book of mine that need the kind of talk you get at O'Grady's. Came out to see the Robinsons Rob-insons one day and happened In at 0'nrady's--found It was Just the sort of thing T needed the publishers have accepted the book that is. when I put in a bit more first-hand work on those chapters. And now I've cot my regular regu-lar job on my paper. Book reviewing, you know I've been carrying on as usual while I've been away." And Lois was satisfied. |
