At the Sign of the Jack O'Lantern

na

stationery, in gold, and a yellow pumpkin on the envelope flap, just above the seal. And I want you to make a funny sign-board to flap from a pole, the way they did in 'Rudder Grange.' If you could make a wooden Jack-o'-Lan

on, which could not have been

for the note-paper? If you don't, you won't have to use it. Nobody's

but none the less determined pride, he had refrained from taking his wife into his confidence regarding his finances. W

rs. Carr, coolly, "what is

t afford it." The whole bitter truth was out, now, an

e said, in smooth, icy tones: "What was

hat he had never suggested buying a typewriter. "I di

d Dorothy, "when you asked me to marry yo

rot

ned, her cheeks flushed and her eyes blazing. "I

as a millionaire, did you? Were you under the impressio

n for the mistake!" She slammed the door on the last word, and he heard her light feet pattering swiftly down the h

at the most, Dorothy would be her sunny self again, penitent, and wholly ashamed of her undignified outbu

y on every wall of the room. In a sudden flash of

ry to the Bronx every day from eight to six! Murders, smallpox, East Side scraps, and Tammany Hall

tant hill, all but hidden now by trees and shrubbery. A column of smoke curled lazily upw

, for an hour in the midst of it, with the rumble and roar and clatter of ceaseless traffic, the hurrying, heedless thr

day at a time off for six years? Since the "cub reporter" was first "licked into shape" i

"if the old man would

again. The old man will look up and say: 'The hell you do! Thought you'd accepted a position on the lite

the newest kid as a horrible example of misdirected ambition. Brinkman will say: 'Sonny, there's

t month. Drop in again sometime after six weeks or so and meanwhile I'll let you know if anything turns up. Yes

gy, and give you a measly living in exchange. They'll fill you with excitement till you're never good for anything else

files, day in and day out, along Newspaper Row, drawn by every instinct to the arena th

avagely, "with even the cubs offering me the price of a dri

d, "why wasn't I taught to do something honest, instead of being cursed with this itch to

the bricklayer were without significance; that even the builders were remembered only because of the great uses to wh

cils-the dull, meaningless stone waiting for the flint that should strike it into flame. Day a

said, aloud, "and I'v

tance-a man who had a book published every year and filled in the intervening time with magazine work

ke a lash, and, completely overwhelmed

was pressed close to his, and a sweet voice whispered, tenderly: "Dear, I'm so

er?" asked Harlan,

looking straight into his; "you're absolutely the most ad

d Harlan, seriously, "I don't car

ued Dorothy, "how near

pockets inside out and piled h

said, when she had finished counting. "Why, we're almost rich,

nt, except one dollar in the savings bank.

flushing, "makes a nice pocket for almost everything." She drew up a chamois-skin bag, of an unprepossessing mouse colour, and emptied

me silk stockings and a French embroidered corset and some handmade ling

d, "but, Dorothy, you know

?" she d

right. Do you think I'm cad enou

life-all that I have been and all that I'm going to be-and be glad to get it, and now you'

ferent-tremendously differen

as two hundred and twelve dollars and ei

ld put together. Don't talk to me like that. But I can't

to grind an organ in the street, and collect the money for you in a tin cup till we got enough for

n his hitherto immaculate shirt-front. "You don't min

voice trembling, "this is the one place for

led handkerchief. In a time astonishingly brief to one hither

on, with assumed severity, "and I hope you'll behave so well

nest in the boughs of a maple close by. "Do you see those birds?

what o

re married,

laughed Harlan, "or

traw and feathers for

tly," he repli

nice, and fixing her feathers in the latest style, or perhaps goi

't k

two hundred and twelve feathers, of the proper size and shape to go into that nest, do

wouldn't," ad

er to him. "Do you suppose," she queried, "that Mr.

d he d

e's letting h

ut

rly like. Instead of buying a typewriter, we'll rent one for three or four dollars a month until we have enough money to buy one. And I'm going to have a cow

ple must have plent

our own living besides. You can write when you feel like it, and be helping me when you don't feel like

mon with most men, a chicken-ranch had appealed

in the tone which was al

n the barn, and our own chickens for Sunday dinner, and our own milk, and butter,

do that sort of thing, you'll have people to do the work when I

mall points settle themselves and have her own way in things that

e, and, half-fearfully, she reached into her sleeve for a

all," she sm

," he said. "Why, whe

lse bottom in one of the small drawer

-" began

and her face aglow. "It's for a coop and chickens," she continued, execut

t afterward, when he was alone, he began to wonder w

, "for the poor and deserving to move