Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 12, 1927 — page 48: what you’re looking at

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

. q é MS ei me almost extinct love of adventure; and this was fanned feebly by the wild stories Wil- liam, the roving brother, delighted to spin _on any and all occasions. He listened silently for the most part, misunderstood most of what he heard, but gloated lethargically upon the rest. While at work alone in the stable, or cutting wood in the timber lot, he pondered on the in- credible happenings, the outrageous coun- tries, their queer denizens. It brought a litthe excitement into his drab life. But the most noteworthy change was in Jennie, the hired girl. More and more she fell beneath the infatuation William had from the first inspired. To her, he was the infallible scholar, adventurer, explorer, hero. She was for- ever slipping dainties into his hand—a fresh gingerbread cookie, some doughnuts hot from the fat, a quarter of a sponge cake, a glass of milk that was half cream. She spent twenty minutes making his bed, although he could do it perfectly well in four. She almost wore out the straw matting | on the floor of his room with her broom, although it might have been thick enough with dust to leave foot tracks and he would never have noticed. She hung on his words as if he were a prophet. Most amazing of all was the change in her appearance. She wasn’t such a bad- looking creature, had she not been so slop- py. Young enough, quite a stretch from thirty as yet, good complexion, and very sturdy save for her curious tendency to break here and there in her bones. Suddenly she began to smarten up in her dress. She was very capable with her hands, both as a cook and seamstress. She discarded several old and outlandish gar- ments, tore up three dresses and from the fragments managed to make a new one; bought a pattern from the general store and began to cut it out with no little skill; sewed missing buttons onto her shoes, no longer went about with skipped stitches in her stockings. Her most surprising act was to take a day off, go up to Derry by bus, and there have a dentist replace her two broken front teeth with pivoted ones, one of them a solid pe ; ae aor some aevach found the seth chapter = ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. gold affair. And while-she was in Derry she also had her hair bobbed. When she now appeared on the street of her native village, at first nobody knew her, under a brand-new cloche hat and with her glittering smile and the set of her shoul- ders. When she was recognized, a number of worthy middle-aged bachelors began shining up to her in a half sheepish way. But Jennie was a one-man girl. Her heart was in the keeping of George Bangs, the meanest of men in his own proud estima- tion. To all these changes George was rather, oblivious. He settled down to the easy life so different from anything he had been ac- customed to. With grace he accepted the bountiful table, the clean sheets, and warm fire, his easy rocker, the lazy hours dozing in the sun, his pipe full of good tobacco. Yet underneath always lay the recogni- tion that he was not living up to his bar- gain; that he was not being especially mean to Ernest Sproul, certainly not mean enough to induce him to leave his own com- fortable home. It is not to be supposed that George made no efforts; from time to time he thought of something to do, and promptly did it. | There was, for instance that first—and only—night whe Sproul suggested that brother William take his turn and read the chapter from Holy Writ. This was done in a spirit of malice. Ernest suspected that his new brother-in-law was a poor reader,’ whereas he himself read rather well, if sepulchrally. He wanted to show him up. But George Bangs, having had expe- rience as a ‘“‘ mission stiff,’ had more than a passing acquaintance with the Bible. More than once he had been obliged to await his supper until long portions of it had been read; he had learned the trick of keeping his soup warm at such times by covering it with a hand. He had even been obliged to take his turn at reading; and if he read haltingly, and mispronounced many words; he made up for this by a familiarity with some of the more bizarre portions. Now he willing- ly took the big gilt-edged book, and after Ra piv tes oat —— eS a = Sass = << = os Ses | rs = we . + k= re ae antes . a ES Ea TicDOOKS. com ee tne 7 a a c= a =