Show 5 FRIDAYS FRIDA S 5 prologue F R humor heaped u up p V and R running over good who wholesome side splitting care I 1 destroying tun fun people who are just the kind you know D in 1 amusing tu s ing situations ant into D which a any ny one might have stumbled and a rapidity A of action that keeps the A readers interest perpetually cap ua ily on the ju jump m p the tho y kind 0 of story stor which wh ich when Y dramatized makes r n ake s a two S year run on tho he t stage S 5 FRIDAYS 5 j CHAPTER 1 I 1 1 fast ashore ye eat cat too much stated lu ahu jhu cle cile definitely tely while we were IF ay T having tea on the front porch we certainly do I 1 assented idly why not give our digestive appa ratus a rest she propounded why not I 1 rushed to my doom I 1 was vas having my two weeks vacation and was too happy at being able to spend it on the island to care anything about an argument 1 I suggest that we fast for a week A suggestion like that put me in a nice fix I 1 dont mind stating that at that time I 1 was about pounds of eligible bachelor aged thirty five comfortably fort ably in love with lucile but too old and set in the complacent selfishness of single blessedness ever to pretend to be a romeo the idea of fasting gave roe me a sinking sensation right where there was the most room to sink what I 1 ejaculated forgetting for the moment that I 1 had bad a reputation for ready repartee 1 I said why not fast for a week I 1 read an article by lipton S clair about it just this morning he claims that fasting thoroughly rebuilds the system gets rid of all toxins and increases the mental efficiency 50 per cent she picked v ull a magazine which was propped open face downward on the lower shelf of the porch table listen to this she continued tat eating three meals a day is simply a habit habil we have made tyrants of our stomachs they demand to be fed every few hours and if we answer that demand mand we are slaves there that sounds like the reasoning of a thinker it it sounds more like the reasoning of a thinker than of an eater cater luclle lucile reproved my flippancy 1 I think it would do us all good but I 1 feel all right now I 1 called her attention to an obvious fact she dismissed my objection you cant be healthy unless you fast for a week at least once a year lipton S clair says so mother try it wont you try what fasting for a week why yes if you want to her mother picked up op a book as if she had bad decided nothing more momentous than a question as to whether vb ether she preferred cream or lemon in her tea she had been used as an experiment station for to so many years that nothing surprised her I 1 got up casually and tried to slip indoors but luclle lucile stopped me dont you think it will be lovely M montmorency I 1 collapsed into a chair which collapsed immediately after I 1 did she had bad called me by my first name yes montmorency Is my first name it sounds bounds like several names but it is 19 only my first that first name thing made it very hard to refuse As I 1 sat there on the porch surrounded by legs cs tung rung and other parts of a chair a terrific struggle went on in my being between my heart and my stomach and the weaker party won possibly my mind was stunned by my fall although I 1 have no recollection of bitting my head I 1 felt that luclle lucile was putting me to the test from the look in her eye I 1 knew that she was asking me to choose between love and beefsteak so rising like I 1 answered bravely yes I 1 think fasting would be delightful so that was how we began As you can easily see the cause of 0 the trouble was that lucile is one of persons who take the magazine health and hygienic writers in good faith it is impossible to convince her that those fellows have to make a living by their pens peas the same as other human authors and that every bizarre idea they can pounce ou on means just BO 80 much more copy at a regular rate per word no lucile must needs try by experiment every new theory using herself or any convenient relative or f friend as a laboratory the absurdity of Lu lucilee Luc lles ciles attempt to improve upon her health and looks is apparent to any one who has ever been blessed with a sighs of her you cant d I 1 make a slim young body like hers by simply rolling on the floor for an hour every day nor are soft brown eyes with long curly lavlies the result of chewing ewing any particular number of times upon a piece of nature must have been experimenting a good many centuries before she got just 31 particular texture for or hair and that peculiar shade of cream ve V complexions completions complex ions at this particular time fo fop r HE twenty five years she and gatward been uninterrupted by matrix their job of decorating so that suitable to be wondered at that they ba hac last out a well nigh perfect product Is nothing unfinished about hei bei one of her early spasms was arism then she struck the n ni countes coun tys s berries idea I 1 was a guest at hie ht news the summer she che tried both oear ago things out if you are golpl toils kojis many crize a piece of old boot tastes section good as a steak and it is more E carted arted by leal lea the adherents of the nt ni t a suit g berries diet claim that it is a go his last schedule because grizzly bears it As far as I 1 am concerned like a grizzly bear is a doubtfully doubt doubtful full t thurs tage and besides I 1 dont possible for a bear to shell elou r D P nuts to live on 1 a j L lucile called a meeting to ip n arde rne ways and means solicit belll bol ll first of all she said raid jhc w U supply boat comes today well wel ller erect a them take back every edible thino abin save gave have brought together with w county have on hand so that we wool wol rich tempted it lucky our cottuly any on an island all by itself so reful net let wont be possible tor for one of us to start a by going to a hotel somewhere at the dont you think it would be a L i hay a not er victory for us if we conquered con quere demon food with some supplies Vs ve mem easy reach I 1 suggested with a n i into ful recollection of the supply 4 t and be arg 20 wa to the night artines mation 7 ae and atten topic county lk are a of exe if e club irs boj G the chair collapsed immediately adfor I 1 did which came olly twice a week but carried delicacies of which lucullus never dreamed no Ws its beat to take no chances theres the motor boat anyway we co could uld run ran over to the mainland no we lucile smiled father is the only one who can run it and lie he wont be here until sunday thus another ray of sunlight flickered out A man of my build does not crank up a marine engine located near the floor of a boat I 1 might say he could not but it is truer to say that he does not if he is the least bit wise he does not even try it 1 I 1 ill give the maid a week off lulie lucile c continued gayly As were not going I 1 to eat cat anything we shall not really need her and she has been wanting to go 90 home for or some time ill let her go back with the supply boat well begin our fasting tomorrow by going without breakfast she consulted the magazine again we have h ave to drink plenty of good pure water and think high thoughts all the time and well hardly notice the absence of food at all then next nest monday well break our fast by drinking the juice of an orange and eating a handful of popcorn just one handful so as not to shock our digestive apparatus by introducing anything solid into it but why harrow the reader with the rules and regulations which lucile trained framed for us suffice it to bay that they went into effect the next morning according to schedule we met at breakfast I 1 am never at my best before I 1 drink my first cup of coffee in the morning and the thought of the inhuman way I 1 was about to treat my le depressed me more than usual the table was ghastly white unbroken by the tb usual rhe cheerful erful array of steaming hot dishes at each place was a large glass of water and a napkin what the napkin was for I 1 failed to discover I 1 imagine it was what tho the anthropologists would call a survival of culture we have fifty eight five gallon bottles of distilled water lucile informed us 1 I wonder if that will be enough it amounts to nearly a hundred gallons apiece I 1 made a hasty basty calculation and decided that a hundred gallons of drink |