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THE LINLN LIFE: iCSS'N.
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30
OCCUPIES MIDDLE GROUND BETWEEN THE "OLD LINE" OR
OLD FASHIONED LIFE COMPANIES AND "AFTER DEATH
ASSESSMENT"OR CREDIT SYSTEMS. ITIS3UESA CLEAN PLAIN
POLICY ON THE FIVE YEAR DISTRIBUTION AND FIFTEEN
YEAR SELF SUSTAINING PLANS
For full information apply to W. R. Proctor, Sec'y at home office rooms 304-5-6-7, Farmers and,
Merchants Insurance block or to Fred S. Clinton or Allen S. Green , general agents.
JKe Blue Thirg.
radship to tind him a BIuh Thing,
too. Sho failed to reply for a
month a month filled with indigo ara
besques, and spectral womon weaving
fatalities of tho Ring and Sno.vball
pattern. When she did write sho for
cot to mention tho Blue Thing. Other
things had become or importance. Sho
had just discovered tho first arbutus.
Her letters told of the discovery at pic
turesque length. This was obviously
An Adventure in Acstheticisra.
The Fraud had never seen the Other
Fraud. There were times when ho
wished he had never heard of ber, or of
her poems which happened to strike a
chord. (He was a literary editor.) But
until she inveigled him into buying the the method to render the Fraud frantic
Blue Thing he had never actually sworn wjth longing. His next, beseeching,
at her, boldly, above his breath, and brought recognition. She had been
3,000 miles away. hunting Blue Things, sho wrote, and
It was her Blue Thing that she raved had discovered some, but nono to bo
of firet in one of those letters of friend- mentioned with her own, and she could
ship wherewith she basely rewove her Uot make up her mind to send him one
spell at least once every six weeks. As less perfect. Before he could answer
he read, tho scene she suggested became
finished as a cameo to bis inward eye.
The long-raftered, weaving room in the
old eastern Virginia farm-house tho
this considerate letter, there camo a
second, brief and rapturous. "I have
found it," she wrote; "it is even better
than mine, and if I were not so poverty
antique, hand-made wooden loom, tho stricken just now I should be tempted
shapeless, talkative woman in home- to keep it myself. But as it is, I will bo
spun, shuttling her threads of blue and generous, it is yours."
white in the country sunshine, and-
but hero the Other Fraud came in and
blurred things. He had ber picture, it
is true, yet he had not the slightest idea
what sho looked like. Tho picture
looked serene and somewhat 6aintly.
But she couldn't be the other Fraud if
she looked that way, and she was un-
The Fraud received this communica
tion at the office. He was as happy as
a lover with his first hope of Her. In
an hour a grateful epistle, onclosing
the necessary coin of the realm, thun
dered southward. Tho Other Fraud
always left hurry to slaves. It was an
other six weeks before she managed to
doubtedly tho Other Fraud; and never get the Blue Thing expressed West,
more so than when she unconsciously The sun of May strove to enter the
beguiled him into imagining that he Fraud's dark den as he hastily cut tho
wanted a Blue Thing, too. strings and stood at last on tho thresh-
"A genuine, hand-woven, old, old- hold of possession,
fashioned 'Ring and Snowball Kiverlid," Yes, it was a delightful Blue Thing,
she hastened to write. "It is adorable, There wore the indigo arabesques, and
my Jear Fraud, and it is mine. Can there were the sincerity and the creamy
you conceive of the old-fashionedness, background. The Fraud draped it over
the quaintness, the sincerity of this bit tho foot of his Led and contemplated it,
of weaving? It is as genuine as a wall leaning back luxuriously in his big old
hanging of William Morris's, a book- chair. He was thinking of how certain
cover of Cobden Sanderson's. Tho blue- men of his acquaintance were going to
black indigo designs wander over tho envy him his bookcase curtain. He had
creamy background as imaginatively quite finished His pipe before a terrible
as Moorish arabesques. Since ester- suspicion intruded. He started up and
day it has been the delight of my room looked around at his shelves dear,
and tho curtain of my bookcase. And shabby, overflowing. Then ho critically
all this charm, all this gratification of considered ?no Blue Thing. After five
tha eyes and tne intellect for only some minutes or so, he carried it, trailing
half-score coin of tho realm." This wa9 across the Hoor, and tossed it over tho
her way of referring lo money, it will bookcase. If tho bookcase had been
be understood. She meant to convoy, three times as large it would have made
subtly, that tho Blue Thing had cost a very satisfactory curtain. The Fraud
her 310. draped tho foot board with it again.
This letter, of course, inspired th eAs a bookcase curtain it was largely
Fraud with an unquenchable desire to out of the question. And ho had never
pospess a Blue Thing of his owu. He thought of it as anything else. It is
ought to have looked at the complete difficult for men to readjust intentions,
set of Carlyle on his top book-shelf, During the ensuing weeks bis official
which he had bought because of her absentmindedness increased. He could
Carlyle letters, and whose beautiful, not discover poets and read proofs with
raggedy-edged pages he had never had the Blue Thing a wanderer in the desert
the moral energy to cut. He should of his den. He spent the day devising
certainly have given a thought to the new uses for it. In the evenings he ex-drunken-legged
spinet in tho corner perimented. There was either too much
which was always staggering under its of the Thing or there was not enough of
burden of magazines. He had pur- it He festooned it over his mantel
chased this once, fancying it must be shelf, but it swept to the coal bucket
like the one in her den, on which her and kept the late fire to itself. He
stately great-grand mothers had tinkled cleared his table of its ungodly accumu
in other centuries. But be neither lated treasures and flung the Blue
looked nor thought. The Other Fraud Thing over it. It lay in fold on the
could make even life desirable with the floor. It hid the waste basket. It wound
magical tip of that golden pen of hers, itself around his feet, and entangled the
He answered the letter, invoking her in legs of his chair. The next evening he
the name of their four years' com- removed it and tossed it carelessly over
his big chair. Then ho put on his
dressing-gown and occupied the chair.
The effect in the mirror opposito was
that of tho magician in Frank Stock
ton's fairy tales. Now, the Fraud had a
certain aspect of dignity to maintain.
Ho thought about it at tho office next
day and concluded that, whilo the Thing
might make a good rug, as a chair-cover
it robbed him of self-respect. That
evening was devoted to converting it
into a thing to walk on. But at mid
night it again decorated the foot of his
couch. It was too big for a rug and not
big enough for a carpet. By this time
it had worn him out. He wrote to the
Other Fraud confessing the situation,
and asking her how big tho bookcases
usually were down South. She was be
wildered. Sho said her Blue Thing had
made a quaint little curtain, and she
very much wished to know how small
they made bookcaseB out West. She
also said that he might throw it careles
sly over a divan. Now, tho Fraud had
not a divan in the world. Nay, more,
he had not een room for the begin
nings of a divan in that den of his.
This also he wrote.
"Why not," sho answered sweetly,
"make a window curtain of it, and put
a band of solid blue top and bottom?"
Arranged in this way it would bo even
more delightful than ever, 9he thought.
This was the moment when tho Fraud
wore. He forgot that sho could not
know how he had but the ono window
by the desk, and that was not of much
use to him, owing to the architectural
peculiarities of tho adjoining buildings.
Ho threw her pleasant little note of sug
gestions into the waste basket, and,
carefully averting his eyes from the
cause of his trouble, rushed from tho
room. He camo homo that evening, his
soul filled with the peace of resignation.
He had resolved to struggle with the
Thing no mors. Perhaps, in tho dim
days to come, it would find a reason for
itself. In the mean time, it could drape
the footboard of his bed, uncoerced. Ho
concluded to read "The Melancholy of
Stephen xVllard." Its calm despair seem
ed suitable. Perhaps Stephen Allard
also had uncut Carlyles, and staggering
Kpinets, and impishly arabesqued Blue
Things. True to his conclusions, he
settled down with this volume for com
rade; but its dark bluo cover unsettled
his mind. It was not long before he re
tired in the hope of sleep and forgett'ng.
During the night it became colder, and
he drowsily reached down for his over
coat, which had frequently served such
temporary emergencies. In the dark
ness he drew up the Blue Thing instead
and slept beneath it unconsciouely. An
early message from the office, in the
morning, hurried him away, and he did
not notice this. But the housemaid,
who came in to clean up as soou as the
street door closed on him, noticed it im
mediately. For weeks her fingers had been itch
ing to put the Blue Thing to its legiti
mate use. And now, for the first time,
she had an excuse. She was an Eng
lish girl, and her old grandmother at
home, in Hertfordshire, covered her
bed with Blue Things like that. She
pulled and patted and coaxed the
Fraud's couch into a thing of comfort.
Then she crowned it with iho "Kiverlid"
and made it also a thing of beauty.
When she stood tho great white pillows
againBt tho headboard, it was tho pic
ture of what a bed should be. The
Hertfordshire girl backed to tho door
admiringly. It seemed to her as if she
had created this work of art. Severa'
times during the day sho stole to tho
door to feast her eyes on it.
It made her homesick.
When the Fraud camo in the so
lution of tho problem dawned on him
jiko a daybieak of tho soul. It had never
entered his head to put the Blue Thing
to so uniquo a uec any more than it had
occurred to tho Other Fraud. Upon
recovering ha presence of mind, and
emerging from bis trance of admiration,
the Fraud rang for tho English houso
maid. When she timidly entered, with
a sidelong glance at the beautiful bed,
he gave her a coin of tho realm, but he
did not see fit to break his impreesivo
silence. Therefore, to this day she does
not know what merit tho .oin awarded.
And she has not tho remotest idea that
he considi rs her by far the cleverest
woman in America.
The Other Fraud doe not know of al
this. Sho is raving over an old pink
delf teapot at present, and the Fraud is
making tho effort of his life not to buy
a pink teapot, too. But ho knows that
it is ueeless, and that ho is really saving
coin of tho realm for this, and not for a
new top-coat, as ho touching!) imagines
during his inteivalsof sanity. The Collector.
Jones Failed? Why, I understood
that Snooks was a very wealthy man.
Brown He was; but he undertook to
keep a yacht.
Jones Ah, yes; his lloating debt was
too much for him.
SHE II BT TAKING IHE
&'
Actual time traveling.
31 hours to Salt Lake.
61 hours to San Francisco.
63 hours to Portland.
77 hours to Los Angeles.
-FROM
LINCOLN, NIB
City office, 1044 O street.
See the new Photochromes at Craa
cer & Curtice Co.'a, 267 South llta
street, the newest thine In picture.
H
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