Show STAYING ALL NIGHT NIGH I 1 WITH BILLIE by THOMAS ARKLE CLARK dean of men university of illinois Il linol M TY y 1 IllIK ND liny has a car and a kindly generous gent rous disposition yesterday he naked asked me to go riding with ill tiani arid and as I 1 know how to drive he gave me the he wheel wheat and told me to choose my ova olin road almost unconsciously ly 1 I steamed or shall I 1 say eay gas dined away toward my ad old boyhood through green lanes flunked flanked with neatly trimmed osage orange hedgerows hedge rows over country byroads bar bordered with sweet clover and blooming bloomin 9 with purple spiderwort As we driving along we came upon a beautiful place I 1 did not recognize VIA farm at first but just as we a were slipping by I 1 caught a glimpse of the old house which had been noved moved back to give place to the now new and which was now used as a tool house and I 1 remembered that it was the old olcott place the sight of the angled ant led house recalled vividly to my memory a night that I 1 had spent within its walls I 1 was teaching in the district anil t was the he custom of the pupils to in vite the teacher homo to stay all night 11 at t least cne evening during the term it was billie olcott who naked asked me to ills his house one winter evening the thermometer was twenty below but the kitchen stove N as red lot hot tho the kitchen itself which was the only heated room in the house was none too large so I 1 was not uncomfortable at the evening meal or later when we sat around the fire and played games it was when I 1 was ushered off to the spare bedroom to spend the night alone that I 1 began to experience the tha rigors of the climate the house walls were rs eg tain as 1 paper aper I 1 presume the bed had not been slept in during the winter I 1 could feel tho wind whistling in under the door arid and through the loose windows my preparation for bed was neither formal nor prolonged such religious rites as I 1 was accustomed to perform were deferred until I 1 was well under the covers it was like crawling ug between sheets of ice I 1 should have I 1 aye been no nd colder had I 1 been tossed into a snowbank I 1 pushed my ft fucet down but they were so cold I 1 could stand it only short time dine I 1 pulled them up hoping it unit lilt the bed had bad been partially warmed by my iny body but their cramped position soon rendered them thein numb I 1 slept but little after daylight when I 1 knew ew by the sound bound that someone was astir I 1 struggled into my clothes and toled lied out to tho the kitchen to wash and to only myself out 1 I expect it nas ns a little chilly out in your room mrs olcott suggested tu to me in a kindly tone at breakfast well I 1 suffer from the heat beat I 1 admitted things are quite different now aa one could easily see bowling by the new house as I 1 was there la Is steam heat and i inning water and electric lights ald aid screened ln in porches and a bathroom and all sorts of improvements und and conveniences I 1 wondered oa as I 1 drove home if farmers are more contented than they used to be a it liaf 29 western newspaper unton union |