Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 99: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

e By JACK BECHDOLT of Morgan Hill, inventor, proprietor and manufacturer of ‘‘ Peggony, the Game That Captured Kings and Kiddies,” the one that has been advertised so extensively of late as the answer to ““ Why Men Stay Home.” Mr. Morgan Hill, in person was paying off the hands. The hands, to be strictly accurate, were two, counting from left to right. They were the slender, sensitive, white hands of Miss Alice Arnold, hands unembellished by ring or bracelet or gew-gaw and the more lovely because of it. During business hours Miss Arnold’s hands fluttered like two white doves above the prosaic keyboard of a pro- saic, second hand typewriter on which she wrote Mr. Hill’s business correspondence and kept his office records. It would be complimentary but not true to say that Miss Arnold’s ten fingers could make the keys sing like the morning stars together and pour forth an incessant stream of clean copy. Her fingers were not as |: was pay day in the offices and factory skilled as all that. They hesitated a great deal and used the eraser often which was one of the principal reasons why Miss Arnold’s business day was fully occupied. ‘Miss Arnold was young—hard to say just what exact age. Sometimes, when her fingers got twisted up in the pot hooks of short hand and she had to ask Mr. Hill to please repeat what he had already dic- tated, Miss Arnold with her serious, gray eyes and repentant expression looked very much like a little girl of ten who is con- fessing a wrong and made Mr. Hill feel like her papa. Other times, for instance once when Mr. Hill lost his head and tried to hold one of her hands while he said some- thing stammering and sentimental, Miss Arnold looked an austere empress of sixty. Most of the time her age was an indefinite thing which Mr. Hill forgot in amaze- ment at her incessant loyalty and indus- try and admiration for her rapid progress in her profession. Fhree months ago he had hired Miss Arnold fresh from a business 569 oO Eomicbooks (elo)