Tish, The Chronicle of Her Escapades and Excursions

, for instance, which showed Tish in a pair of khaki trousers on her back under a racing-car was quite uncalled for. Tish did not wear the khaki trousers; she merely took

ll out of the car, and would no doubt have been k

, ostensibly for a rest, but really to get some cretonne at Liberty's. Eliza wr

d given it, being the initials of "Middle-Aged Trio." Not that I regard the late forties as middle-aged. But Tish, of course, is fifty. Charli

s mother

me from college with a feeling that I am old and decrepit and must be cared for. She maddens me with pillows and cups of tea and woolen shawls. She thinks Morris Valley selfish and idle, and

edly,

ed while I'm away I'll be very glad. She believ

it aloud. "Humph!" said Tish, putting down the stocking she was knitting and looking over her spec

ng at the letter. "I'm not anxious to

y, Lizzie," she said when she'd read it through. "But that young woman

cked out in chintz cushions,-the piazza, of course,-saw a dusty machine come up the driv

pretty girl in a white dress and bore no traces

't you go right upstairs and have some tea and lie down?" She had hardly taken her eyes

the garage and oil up while I'm dirty. I've got a short c

ng if we wouldn't wait until the gardener came. On Tish's saying she had no time to wait, because she wanted t

on my table and a couch was ready with pillows and a knitted slumber robe. Very gently

f drafts," she remarked. "Are

e said, "and we all had a little on the way. W

ge a

me, to hide where her hair is growing thin. In her cap Aggie is a sweet-faced woman of almos

f the nails spoiled a new tire. I told Miss Carberry the b

arm. "Do you mean to say," she quavered, "

er mind; "and only a foot or two of water below

elieved, "you had

s fishing under the bridge and he was most ungentlemanly. Quite refu

e y

gie, having adjusted her cap, was looking at it in the mirror. "But d

t a loss, and impatient at herself for bei

thank

you would prefer

with the exception of a little home-made wine used medicinally we

ever impulse she may have had to put the Presbyterian Psalter by the bed, she restrained it. By midnight Drummond's "Natu

l evening on the porch talking spark-plugs and carbureters. Bettina sat in a corner and looked at the moon. S

age, and he and Tish went out to look it over. They very politely asked us all t

an association of chaperons, used the opportun

nice boy is one who in summer wears fresh flannels outs

," sweetly

ery good

il him-to

ome around

a day. On Sunday, of co

early the young man from the next door

things?" she suggested. "Si

her arms over he

iscopalian; I'm a Presbyterian. He approves of suffrage for women; I do not. He is a Republican; I

"I hope you don't discu

just nice elderly ladies after all!" she said. "Of c

rtly, "we married first and di

girl I think I have ever seen, and that night she was beautiful. "And you raised enorm

g of the sort

ed to be married to a young man named Wiggins, a roofer by trade, who was killed in the act of i

said. "The day of blind love is gone, tha

ith Jasper, Aggie and I made a move toward bed. But Jasper not going, a

ntil one

st bedtime strolled off next door. Aggie was sound asleep in her chair and Tis

pt three or four hours when I was awakened by a shot. A moment later a dozen or more shots were fired in rapid succession

every limb, I found the light switch and looked at the

and whimpering. I opened the door hurr

!" she said, and collapse

nse

oom or in the house

ere was a sort of horrible stillness everywhere as

own after them, and this is what has happened!

eard anything. When we told her about Tish, she insisted on going downstairs, and wit

gone back to bed, and everything was still. Bettina in her dressing-gown went out on the

e by the garage," Bettin

Norfolk coat on over his pajamas and a pair of slippers, and he wa

yelled. "I saw him d

ng huddled in a porch chair, crying, and Bettina, in the hall, was trying to ge

per calling. "John!

orch. My heart stopped and then ru

ds off me!" sa

nted the steps. Jasper, with his mouth open, stood below looking up, an

ked neither to the right nor left, but stalked across the porch into the house an

Bettina. "She's been

ped Aggie. "Some one

Jasper had edged close to the

h for her. But think of her getting into that burglar-proof garage with her eyes

at me and I l

fler on it, the racket wakened her as well as th

ttina again. "I'm going

it of tea too. If you will put out the p

r's racing-car at dawn, forgetting that racers have no mufflers, and she had been, as one may say, h

o our knocks, preserving a sulky silence. Also she had locke

asleep when

about the way that Jasper boy said goo

ear him say

. I think"-she yawned-"