Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 114, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 May 1912 — “Two Old Pokes” [ARTICLE]

“Two Old Pokes”

By CLYDE JOHNSON

(Copyright, 1912, by Associated Literary Press.) “Well, we are going to have neighbors,” observed Mr. Rathbone, the broker, as be shoved his chair back from the dinner table one evening after his return from the city. “Do you mean that some one has taken the Smith place?” asked the wife. “Yes, an insurance man named Franklin. Nice family. Leased it for five years. Going to move in next week. Glad of it.” “I don’t know whether I am or not,” said Miss Nellie, the daughter. “If they are* a couple of pokes the house might as well stand empty.” "I know they have no daughter.” “Of course not. If they had she’d be Just as disagreeable as she could. Just two old pokes, and I did hope ’’ “Well?” “That wouldn’t be pokes. I Just know how it will be. They’ll wander over here of an evening, and he and you will sit and smoke and talk politics, and she and mamma will swap recipes for dyeing old skirts, and where’ll I come in? Do you know, Dad Rathbone, there isn’t a young man worth cat meat within three) miles of this old country house?" “Oh, I see," replied the father, “You are thinking of matrimony instead of practicing your music." “I’ve banged till I’m sick of it No, I’m not thinking of jhat, but I do wish there was a young man around here I could make eyes at I was almost a-mind to flirt with one.; going by in an auto this afternoon.” “Poor girl! Well, I guess I’ll tell you the rest of the story. Those two old pokes, as you call them, have a son.”

“And he’s five years old and lisps?"’ "He’s twenty-three or thereabouts and speaks straight from the shoulder. He’s a sculptor, I believe been working on a statue for the last . three years.” "Well, he’s got tousled hair, is always looking into the clouds and can’t tell a handsome girl from a homely one. I know the kind.” "Guess you don’t,” smiled the father. “Rex Franklin is right up to date. Talks well, dresses well, and no pretty girls get away from him. I expect to have him for a son-in-law within a year. Always hoped you’d marry a sculptor so that your mother and I could be done in marble. He’s going to come and go on the train, and of course I shall meet him and speak a good word for you." "Thanks, muchly. He’ll run after I look at him twice.” The Franklins moved in. They didn’t look like pokes ’ after all, and Miss Nellie felt encouraged. She was not peeping out of the front windows morning and evening for a sight of that young man, or wondering what sort of a bait to use to trap him. She just waited to know that there was an eligible party around in case she wanted to go fishing. He might be all her father said, and yet she wouldn’t like him. Be would have disagreeable traits. Three weeks had passed and Rex Franklin hadn’t been even sighted from a distance. He was to drop in some evening with his parents in return for a call. It was so said, and Miss Nellie took care to have on her prettiest gown every evening, but nbt on his accounf —no, str! Just because she felt like dressing up a bit. She practiced the airs of two or three songs in harmony with her voice, but that'had nothing to do with his coming. She just liked to hear her own voice., And on a certain morning Miss Nellie Rathbone got up feeling out of sorts with the world. She fell out of bed instead of hopping out like a cricket Then her hair tangled as she brushed it Then she found that her powder rag had been chewed up by her Boston bulldog, and about half a dozen things had gone wrong when she tripped as she was going down to breakfast and rolled clear down to the hall flbor. Of course, she said things, and singularly enough she said most of them about the new young man next door. He was a ninny; he was no sculptor; he was homely and awkward. ~ If he ever dared call she would make him look small. If Rex Franklin had known this he would have thundered back a “no!** when his mother asked him to- use hammer and a nail to secure a shelf. The hammer was broke®, but at her suggestion be gaily trotted over to the Rathbone house. And right there was the turning point of his life. Miss Nellie had found the oatmeal underdone and the coffee muddy, and had laid both at the jtaor of th e new young man. when she started out to

feed the doves. There was a large, flock of them, and the feeding took place twice a day. Poised over her head like an. aviator on his way from New York to St Louis, was a henhawk. Although a henhawk, he was not averse to dining on a dove now and then for a chance. He had been maneuvering for ten minutes for position. and it was when the feeding doves got bunched that he closed Ms wings and dropped to gobble one in each claw. The henhawk seldom gets off in his calculations, but this one made a bad error. He came on Miss Nellie Rathbone’s head? Her hair was colled up, and he got his talons entangled and couldn't release them. Scream? Why, they heard her half a mile away? Cavort? Why a colt couldn’t have beaten her gallop around the yard! The hawk clawed and pecked, and the girl yelled and danced, and, of course,. Providence seized upon that very minute to lead forward the new young , man. He had never seen a chicken hawk trying to carry off a 125-pound girl before, but he was equal to the occasion. He grabbed the bird and choked its life out and then released the tangle: with a. morning dress .on that wasn’t A bit pretty—with her chestnut hair full of kinks and knots and flowing down to her knees—with her heart beating with fright and one ear bleeding from a bite, why—why, anyone can imagine just how the maiden,felt! She made three jumps for the kitchen door and was out of sight And the son of the old pokes was nice about it. He didn’t ask the cook for a hammer, but went home and told his mother that they’d have to use a brickbat to pound with. _ Some young men would have run right back within the hour to see If a doctor was wanted, and to express the hope that the affair would not have a fatal termination, but Rex Franklin didn’t. He had trespassed and come lady with an old gown and a grouch on, and he had the sense not to offer any consolation. He had intended to call that evening, but he put it off until three evenings later, and ’then he never referred to the heroic rescue until Miss Nellie introduced the sub-' ject. She didn’t find him poky, and neither did he say too much nor stay too long. She expected to bear great things about- his work, but she had to ask questions to draw him out, and then he dodged most of them. When the young man had taken ins leave Mr. Rathbone asked of his daughter:

“Well, you’ve seen the new young man kt last?” “Yes.” "Disappointed in him?” “Kind o’ that way.? “But why?" "Mother, what an old goose daddy is! He can’t realize that a girl wants to have three or four half-fool young men around to amuse her for a time before a sensible* one comes along and asks her to be his wife. I’m looking for the half-fools just now.” “How long are you going to be at it?’’ persisted the father. The daughter made up a face at him and left the room with her book, and after a long silence the mother said:

“Joshua, you'd better leave it all to that henhawk.” “Shouldn’t wonder if I had,” he replied; and thence on he had no more to say. He might not have had at the end of the twelve months had not Miss Nellie suddenly jumped across the room one evening and kissed him and exclaimed: “Oh, I’d forgotten to tell you that Mr. Franklin and I are engaged!” “But he hasn’t asked me for your hand.” “I told him he needn’t, as he’s had ft ever since that hawk tried to abduct me!” 4