The Reign of the Automobile
' By Myra Nye.
ELIZABETH GLENNEN glaneed
down her pergola 'fl sun-splashed
i perspective with longing eyes. It
was not Co much its shade she desired,
though the September sun pushed the
mercury no true Californian would
care to say how high; but it was with
a longing for the work that the Bhade
entailed. Her flower-lover's lingers
fairly trembled in their eagerness to
be removing dead leaves and staking
trending stalks; but heat or not heat,
the figs must be preserved or the silly
linnets would got every one.
She turned resolutely from the artis
tic, home-made pergola, went down the
path, paused at the eorral fenee to give
Jerry a friendly 'pat Once through
(the gate she pushed Jane's intrusive
nose from her shoulder so that she
might get the ladder lying against the
b.arn. She had not quite mounted to
the tap when a bell ringing made her
pause. Beth, lingering behind to hunt
a. basket for the figs, called insistently:
I "Telephone, mother, telephone!"
' "Oh, dearl" It was a disgusted ex
clamation that fell from her lips as
JUiiabeth set the basket down on the
top step of the ladder among the bees
and fragrant Smyrna. She gathered
her skirt in one hand, descended and
reached the telephone with character
istic and capable haste,
j "HeUol"
"Oh, it's you, George."
I "What what did you sayt" It was
in' italicized exclamation more than a
auestion,
"Oh, George, isn't that fine!"
I "Do I like itt I should say so. It
b simply great! What good times we
will have. Come here as quick as you
tan. I must tell Beth."
Click went back the reeeiver, and
Elizabeth turned to her little daughter,
her blue eyes black with excitement
and eagerness.
"What do you think, girlie, father
has a new guess what"
"Oh, mother, I can't guess; tell
)&.'
"No, you must guess. What would
jrou rather have than anything elsel"
"A little baby sister. Goodie! Will
he bring it home right nowt"
The quick change in her mother's
expression made her eagerness lessen a
degree. "Isn't it a really, truly baby;
or is it just a dollt"
"Neither, Beth. What made you
guess thatf"
"Well, you said that father was go
ing to make a deal with Dr. Strong to
Bay, so I thought of course it would
be a baby." Beth's crestfallen face
escaped a pont only because the cor
ners of her mouth were not made to
Jtum down.
Elizabeth herself felt a slight abate
ment in her enthusiasm. "It is an auto
mobile," she said.
Beth looked at her mother with big
Earnest brown eyes widening into a
questioning gaze which her mother
ould not interpret as gladness.
"Why, don't you like it, Bethf
'Aren't you gladt It is a great big tour
ing car."
"Yes I I'm glad, but mother, will
wo have to sell Jane and Jerry t"
"Yes, I suppose we will, but just
think of the fun we will have. We can
go everywhere we want to, we can take
aU the girls for a ride, we can go to
the beach and back in one day."
"Oh, mother!" Beth gave a little
jump. At last she was won to unre
served gladness:
. They talked it over at length with
increasing interest till the sound of a
Gabriel horn made them pause. With
lips rounded for ready exclamation they
gassed for an instant through the open
door in silence.
"There's our automobile!" Beth's
entenee was pregnant with ownership.
Her slendir form slipped through the
screen door before Elizabeth could
reach it. Her good fellowship with her
child made her hurry to catch up with
Beth to be on the ground when the
great new possession should appear.
Under the big pepper tree, with its
festooning branches brushing 'he scats
and its red berries already littering the
tonneau, the shining, resplendent
stood incongruous between the modest
four-roomed bungalow and the still
mora modest, almost shabby barn.
'home and farm
Jerry stood at the corral gate with ears
pricked forward, and Jane, with femin
ine inquisitiveneas, tnrust ner nose
through the bars. They regarded the
intruder and usurper with an air of re
serve. When throbs and sputters and jerk
ing sounds subdued sufficiently, George
managed to say Hurriedly:
"Elizabeth, let me present Mr. Mis
ters." "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Masters."
Elizabeth's provincial reply had at
least feminine composure under exciting
circumstances. Neither she nor Beth
was going to be indecently jubilant be
fore a stranger when it was a matter
of trade. The had been in California
real estate business too long for that
Not that they were going to lead this
fashionable easterner to suppose this
was the first ear that ever came into
their yard. Even Beth could have told
him that Los Bobles had more auto
mobiles for its size than any town in
the state. This was one of her father's
stock pieces of information in selling
real estate, ud he was a truthful man
notwithstanding his calling and the
place of his calling. Beth Olennen
could sing Los Bobles' praise in tune
with her father.
Later, when the two -men turned to
ward the corral gate and George low
ered the bars, mother and daughter
with on accord walked slowly to the
house, sot onee glancing at the new
possession that monopolized the drive
way. "I jost can't bear to see dear old
Jane and Jerry go, motherl "
"Neither can J, dear." In the i-v
stant Elizabeth regretted her sympa
thy; for sensitive little Both broke
away and ran sobbing into the house.
When Mr. Masters drove out of the
yard, a sound suspiciously like a sob
came from the screen porch. Elisabeth
turned to her husband.
"Beth Is broken-hearted, George.
What shall we dot"
"Poor little girl, she did love Jane
and Jerry so."
"So do 1"
"Yes, and so do 1" George smiled
ruefully, then he called out to Beth:
"Come her, little girl, and IT1 tell you
how it happened.
With George's arms around cotn
"his girls" they walked through the
cooler pergola, he talked to them, un
til Elizabeth said:
' ' The best medicine for the dumps is
a ride. Lot the figs go to the bees, let
my ironing go. It's too hot to iron,
anyway. My sprengeri is all pot-bound.
Never mind, let it go. We can afford
lt anvthinc eo. We are rich. We
own an automobile."
George had already mastered the
steering wheel, the gear-shifting levers
and the brakes. The three ventured lor
their first ride. It was a Joy! This
devouring of spaee made them greedy
tnr mnrn. So eaeh nieht for a week
found them on th road. No lamplight
shone through the windows of the little
country bungalow to cheer the old peo-
pie in the big house on tne am. vhwjd
the whole day was spent in riding.
One day George earn bom in tne
middle of the forenoon, an unusual
thing with him. He was white and his
hands were trembling. Elizabeth hur
ried to him.
"What is itt What is the matter!
Are you sick, deart"
"No. no. I'm all right; but Eliza-
hih I met Mr. Masters with Jane
and Jerry the brakes wouldn't work
-and"
"You didn't hurt Jane and Jerry!
Oh Goorse. you couldn't "
"No, but I just missed them. Think
what mieht have happened!"
"I can't bear to think of it, George,
and the worst of it is, it may happen
anv time."
"No, not me, never again. Besides,
Mr. Masters told me that they begin
cultivatine tomorrow in dear earnest.
"That isn't any consolation. They
were never meant to cultivate."
tiach morning in her white night
gown Elizabeth stood in the sleeping
porch and worked an improvised pulley
which agitated and flapped numerous
twists of newspaper among the second
cron of fil?S. Shining lard puil lids
were twirled in the sunlight to frighten
magazine section
away the thieving linnets. It was by
such vigilance that Elizabeth had, each
year, a crop that was the wonder of her
neighbors.
Bnt this year the days followed ene
another with none of the white figs
preserved in ginger, or the purple ones
with lemon. The apricots had yellowed
the ground, the peaches fell bruised
while the fruit shelves went empty.
This was the reign of the automobile.
The sprengerei ceased to send out its
quick-growing fronds. The begonia
leaves curled and lost their luster; the
pergola changed from a cool retreat to
a common, home-made clutter; the wal
nuts lay upon the ground ungathered,
while the muscat grapes refused to be
come raisins, bnt mildewed on the roof
for the lack of Elizabeth's ear.
Yet there were ridesl They sped
through the white moonlight; over the
prone, purple shadows of the eucalyptus-bordered
roads. They whirled past
acres and acres of oranges where fitful
far breezes earns winnowing through
the smells of the many fragrant groves.
They rode to the very base of the mar
velous Sierra Madrea till the time when
the snow fell on the mountains. Then
the amethystine glow of the peaks grew
white they were alabaster steps lead
ing through the azure to th thron of
the Most Hieh.
No matter what the joy upon the
road, the home-coming was) mr quite
the same as it had been in the fugitive
roriw? days which they remembered
with Jane and Jerry.
"How esa we help miasm tnemT
We loved them so," Elizabeth said.
"Why, we began loving therm as soon
as we were married when wo took our
wedding trip after them down to Ban
Diego. The first time Beth ever left
the house when she was a baby was to
ride after them. They were always the
best sort of company.
"All summer when I have frightened
away the birds, the first friends I saw
in the morning were Jan tad Jerry.
Every morning till they went away
they would stiek their dew old noses
through the bars and show m that
they were as glad to see ma as I was
to see them. Jane would nicker up to
me on the sleeping-pores, and say
'Good morning' as plain as eould be.
But now that dead, ugly auto stands
there and does nothing, just like an old
dummy. Even when we rid a it, it
is not as cozy as our little road wagon
used to be with Jane and Jerry U front
of us three. Beth and I bump around
on that big baek seat like two popcorns
in a popper. Jane and Jerry are alive,
alive! An auto is nothing but dead."
viu.hafh mAni nassionatelv. and a
nnrnose ervstalized in George's mind.
A short twilight was already shading
its gray into the black dark of early
winter. The fog was drifting in, ban
daging the trees like cotton gauze. The
Umns of the automobile must be light
ed before Olennen started. Like a great
hoatln- the machine at first
oravlod from under the pepper tree.
and flew down the
mntia nf innumerable peppers.
muoWn watched its flight tnrougn
the
troML Off-blooms 01
Valeneias wafted their fragrance
i,..,t, tkn linma door: yet a nomo-
sickness that is part of the dying sea
son wherever it is, overcame her. The
scent reminded her of a spring rid
with Jane and Jerry to th. Pt
Hills, where the maidenhair terns w
in.. . ..t ti tread UDOn ia th
small canyon. There th yellow violets,
shooting stars and lupine studded the
slopes as thickly as stars in th Milky
Way. Sueh a wealth of beauty to bring
home for their garden and fernery.
"We can never go so far up Into
the hills with a new auto; for w might
get it scratched," she said to Beth,
who was just coming in from play.
"No," was the mournful reply, sjd
next spring we cant go up th bin
roads where the mustard blooms, nor in
the
waahea where there are muuowi
and millions of flowers. ve u ju.
have to forget what they look like, I
guess."
"Oh, it isn't so bad as that, and
spring hasn't come yet. We do go lots
of places, dear, and farther than ever
before. But we surel) are singing a
different tune than we did when we
first got the auto, aren't wet"
"Yes, but autos are not sneh fun,
after all, when you think of Jan and
Jerry."
Soon supper was ready. The home
curod olives gleamed green against the
scarlet pimientos, the savory smell of
bacon and frijolss reached out W
George Glennea returning. The smeQ
added zest to the satisfaction 01 MS
planned surprise. The gleam paths of
light held the moving shadows of th
two whom h loved, to whom b
brought joy.
Elizabeth stopped suddenly as she re
turned from her last trip to the cup
board. "Listen! Someone is coming WITH
HOBSESI" v
"Jane and Jerry I"
Elizabeth put down th cake plat
and followed Beth's dash through the
door.
"Father! Father! " Beth's voice
pierced th night with its clear, glad
treble, and Elizabeth's alto was just as
eager,
"George!"
"Yes, yes," came the answer. "Her
we are; hurry upl"
It was superfluous instruction. With
unerring footsteps in th dark they
reaehed the open space by th corraL
Elizabeth's arms went around Jerry's
neck, while Beth shouted:
"Lift me up, lift me up on Jan1
baek, so I can hug her good! Jane,
dear Jane! Oh, Janey dear, have you
eome baek to stayt"
"They are oars. I bought them
back.' In th lantern light th hus
band and father watched these two
eager children with amused fondness.
"How good it is to have them hero!
But did you hav to loss in th trade,
George t"
'Wo, no loss. Anything is valuable
according to bow much yon want it I
paid a little sum for experience, but
that always comes high, you know.
Anyway, I wouldn't take two auto
for Just one of Jans, lot alone Jerry."
"Neither would II" chorused Ehzsr
both.
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