Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1912 — Fresh Air [ARTICLE]

Fresh Air

Young Catterburt groaned. Then he shuddered as he regarded the frost on the windows. For he was about to plunge out into the biting cold. It is usually a girl who rouses a young man to deeds heroic or foolish and It was a particularly pretty, fluffy girl named Ethel who was responsible for young Catterburt's risking his peace of mind, to say nothing of his" life, out among the pneumonia germs in the freezing air. If Ethel had been the sort of girl who is content to make magazine cover pictures of herself before a blazing log fire, or if she had loved to preside over steamy chafing dishes young Catterburt would have been extremely happy in her company. But Ethel had a mania for outdoor exercise. Apparently she never remained in the house if she could create an excuse to get out, and young Catterburt, being her constant shadow, had to go along. He didn’t dare not to go, for fear some of his rivals would spring in and usurp his place. This winter Ethel had led him a merry pace. He had not dreamed when he became acquainted with her in the summer than she was going to turn out to be that kind, for she had seemed particularly fragile and clinging. The things she could not invent now to do out of doors could have been recited in half a minute. Sunday afternoons when young Catterburt would drop in for a comfortable call Ethel would greet him with energy. “I’m so glad you’ve come,” she would say. ‘lsn’t it the most perfect day for a walk! I’m simply dy-y-ing to get out. Don’t take off your coat, for I’ll have my things on in a jiffy!” Then she would make young Catterburt tramp nine or eleven miles with a thousand stinging needles of cold jabbing into his agonized countenance and his feet growing so numb that he knew he would have to excuse himself the instant he got back to her door and say, “Beg pardon—l’ll be back just as soon as I get my toes amputated.” She would lead him to the arctic shores of the lake and* ask him if it didnt’ look lovely, while gallons of icy breeze sneaked down his collar. If he asked her to go to the theater she would beg him to take her skating instead. Skating as an amusement appealed to young Catterburt as a very special kind of progressive insanity.

This particular evening another skating expedition was on tjie carpet. Young Catterburt’s face was so cold when he reached Ethel’s that he couldn’t talk. He didn’t want to talk, anyhow, for he was feeling considerably abused and harried by fate. Ethel, so bundled in furs that she looked like an Eskimo, was full of gay chatter. It added to his resentment. Finally even she bent her head to the bitter night wind and plodded on in silence, which was broken only by the clang of their swinging skates. Suddenly Ethel halted. She got around back of young Catterburt, much as though he were an inanimate windbreak, and made queer little noises. They sounded like frozen sobs.

Wbaz zhu matter?” Chatterburt got out. He couldn’t force his numb lips open far enough really to talk. “O-o-oh!” Ethel wept. “It’s simply horrid of you! It’s all your fault! It’s no way to treat a girl! It’s brutal—making me go outdoors in w-w-weather like th-th-this!” •“I —make you?” Catterburt stattered, aghast. “You were d-d-dying to go!” ‘Til prob-prob’ly die, all right,” Ethel told him indignantly, “but it’s your fault! You said once you 1-1-liked athletic, outdoor girls—and I’ve been one all winter, and I hate it, and I simply won’t any more, and I don’t care if I never s-s-see you again! O-o-oh! My eye-lashes are all fr-fr-frozen togeth-gether!” "Ethel,” young Catterburt chattered wildly, “I f-f-feel now that I can love you madly. After we get somewhere and drink about two quarts of hot coffee apiece I’m g-g-golng to t-t-tell you ab-b-bout it!”—Chicago Dally News.