\TH£R£!S TODAYX
S» JOSEPHINE LAWRENCE /
l--- -*
CHAPTER III
Footsteps sounded in the kitch
en, the door clicked. “Morning,
Miz Fitts,” Belle, the cleaning
woman, called cheerfully.
Toni Fitts encountered old Mrs.
Peppercorn in the hall that ev
ening as she prepared to mount
the stairs to the third floor. Stair
climbing afforded an excellent
opportunity to slim the calves
and thighs, the beauty parlor in
structor had informed her, so
that when Mrs. Peppercorn had
reached the second landing on
her way to the street, the old
lady was a little alarmed to see
a tall, thin woman balancing her
self on one leg with her other
knee pressed against her chest.
“Oh—good evening.” Toni Fitts
resumed her normal stance. “I’m
on my way up to see your new
neighbors. 'I don’t suppose you
know whether the Thanes are at
home, Mrs. Peppercorn?”
The old lady shook her head,
she had a, good deal of very white
hair massed under her brown hat.
Though both hat and the black
coat she (wore were perfectly
neat, the one was too large and
the other too long to be mistaken
pt» for the season’s models. “They’re
nice, quiet folks,” Mrs. Pepper
1 corn volunteered. “It’s hard to
tell when they’re in or when
they’re out.” Under her arm a
bundle of silky white stirred and
the bright, mischievous eyes of
“Doggie,” her poodle, leered at
the efficient Toni.
“Well, I hope Mrs. Thane is at
home—I tried to phone, but they
have no telephone.” Toni had
been honestly startled by her dis
covery earlier that evening. “I do
wish you’d come down to the
workrooms, Mrs. Peppercorn, and
see what wonderful things are
nemg turned out. iou couian t
resist sewing for us, I’m sure.”
The old lady absently stroked
the dog’s curly head. “I’m not re
sisting, my dear.”
“Well—” Toni tentatively rais
ed a rather bony knee. “I must
run along. I left my husband
tending the phone and it’s never
long before a message follows
me, no matter where I go. Good j
night, Mrs. Peppercorn—Doggie’s
feeling fine, I see.”
She climbed the stairs correct
ly and arrived, very soldierly and
erect, at the door of 3-A. She
smiled and extended her hand
t- cordially as Andrew Thane open
ed the door. “Mr. Thane, of
course, I’m Mrs. Bertram Fitts—
your neighbor in 2-B. I’d love to
come in a few minutes and see
your wife, if she is at home.”
She was at home, the dark
young man was assuring her,
holding the door hospitably wide.
A step into the square hall, then
another into the large, pleasant
living room and a tiny figure
turned from the fire and crossed
•the rug to greet her guest.
“My wife, Mrs. Fitts.” Young
Thane spoAe as if he were pre
senting the Fairy Queen.
“You sew?”. Toni Fitts glanced
curiously about {he room.
She liad a book that showed
how to cut and make slip covers,
Candace said. “I haven’t a ma
chine and that handicaps me to
some extent. I get the covers
cut out and basted, then I fit
them and make alterations if
Ir necessary and then I take them to
a friend’s house where there is a
machine. The basting is tricky,
but I’m learning it.”
Toni listened half-absently. It
wasn’t the kind of room that ap
pealed to her, she decided, but
her tastes were modernistic.
“We love the apartment,” Can
dace Thane said, smiling above
the flowered cretonne that filled
her lap.
Candace said earnestly, “I’m
making slip covers for the faded
upholstery — we had it cleaned.
We painted the bookshelves and
Andy is going to do ^ lot more as
he has time. He’s really a geni
us with paint brushes.”
The rug, she pointed out, was a
Brussels carpet square, sprinkled
thickly with tiny wreaths of pink
and blue roses. “It was Andy’s
grandmother’s carpet. We found
it in his attic. I wish we had a
pair of those china dogs with cur
ly heads to sit on either side of
the fireplace.”
“Yes, I’ve seen them.” Toni
straightened. “Such things are all
very pleasant under normal con
ditions and in a normal world. I
may as well tell you, Mrs. Thane,
that I’m hoping to enlist you in a
cause that’s taking my time and
attention to the exclusion of ev
erything else. I refer to the
struggle being waged for democ
racy.” Toni Fitts took a gulp
from her glass, set it down with
such involuntary emphasis that
it threatened to .crack the crys
tal coaster.
“We need clerical help at the
workroom where we’re packing
boxes for Britain,” she went on.
“We need donations, but helpers
also. Just two evenings a week
of your time, Mrs. Thane, will,
give us a tremendous lift. And
how about parading? I’m to lead
the women who are grouping for
national defense. In time we’ll
have uniforms, but we don’t want
to spend thirty dollars on a uni-,
form, until we know what our
duties will be.”
Quiet people baffled Toni Fitts,
who believed it everyone’s duty
to keep conversation flowing as
freely as salt. “Surely you can
come to us for one evening a
week, Mrs. Thane?” TOni suggest
She was sorry, Candace Thane
said clearly. “We need our even
ings, Andy and I. Neither of us
makes an engagement that ties
us up in advance. My husband
studies three nights a week, here
at home. The rest of the time we
need to get our roorr^ in good
order.”
There was something old-fash
ioned about the setup, Toni de
cided. Aloud she said, “We’re all
making sacrifices. It might help j
you to do more for others, if you j
budgeted your time. Now, for
instance, if you had a telephone
They couldn’t afford a phone,
Candace demurred, turning a ra
diant face toward her husband.
“And the way we feel about our
time—well, everything is so un
certain, we place a high value on
the hours we can have together.”
The older woman shrugged her
thin shoulders. “You took an aw
ful chance, getting married be
fore your husband was called.
There’s been a lot of criticism of
men who married after the Act
was passed and then claimed ex
emption.”
“I’m not claiming exemption.”
Andrew Thane looked soberly at
the fire.
Toni sighed. “Well, I’ve wasted
an hour. And I dashed up here
without my knitting, so I’ve ac
complished just nothing. I don’t
suppose you’d agree to knit, Mrs.'
Thane? We supply wool at cost
to those who are able to pay for
it.”
“Perhaps a little later,” Can
dace smiled. “If a dollar will be
of any help to the wool fund, I’ll
be glad to give you that. You
have a dollar, haven’t you, An
dy?”
His curiously old, veined hands
brought out his new, saddle
stitched wallet and his • stubby,
blunt-tipped fingers extracted a
clean dollar bill.
“You ought to get your wife
one of our pins, Mr. Thane.” To
ni took the dollar with a brief
“Thanks.” The pins sold for as
little as two dollars and a half,
she continued, and were the sort
of thing that in time became heir
looms.
Someone wished to speak to
Mrs. Andrew Thane on the out
side phone, Sarah Daffodil an
Chestnut Extract Wood
Goes To War
From Chestnut wood domes the extract essential to
the tanning of good shoe leather. Our soldiers still fight
on their feet and need the best shoes that can be made.
Our armies must be supplied.
The O. P. A. office has made ceiling price of $10.50
for 160 cubic feet of chestnut wood delivered to the mill
by truck and that price is now being paid by the
who will take chestnut wood in any quantity and every
day except Sunday.
Tan bark will have very good market this coming
WILKES EXTRACT WORKS
North Wilkesboro, N. C.
ition given by: W. F. DECKER, Langren
Hotel, Asheville, N. C.
nounced on the house phone a
few evenings later. “I offered to
take the message, but it’s very
personal,” Sarah said cheerfully,
when Candace Thane came down.
‘There on my desk — I’ll be in
the kitchen, if you need me.”
The telephone conversation
lasted less than five minutes. Mo
lasses-colored lights gleamed in
Candace’s wide, deep waves as
she put her head in at the kitchen
door. “Thank you so much, Mrs.
Daffodil. It wasn’t so very per
sonal — a woman I’d never met.”
“My grandmother’s sewing
chair has a soothing effect on the
nerves.” Sarah seated herself on
the lovely carved sofa and wait
ed.
Candace’s steady fingers light
ed both cigarettes. “I’m not up
set, only annoyed: That call was
from the British workrooms.
They expected me down there
this evening, to straighten out
their files. A Mrs. Graham phtrn
ed and she insisted I am pledged
to work two evenings a week.”
“So?”
The simple truth is that I ve
refused from the first. Mrs.
Fitts asked me, then someone
named Myrtle Ryder wrote me
and tonight this director-in
charge calls. No one under
stands. Andy says it isn’t neces
sary that they do. Do you think
it is necessary, Mrs. Daffodil?”
Sarah put her roughened hand
over the smooth little palm up
turned on the girl’s lap. “Do I
think explanations necessary?
Not unless you need to convince
yourselves.”
“You have always understood,
haven’t you?” The quiet, clear
voice did not quicken or falter,
yet heartache and unshed tears
lay for a moment unconcealed be
hind the tranquil brown eyes.
“Aere are so many like us,”
Candace said. “We are young
now, but no one is young very
long.”
That’s it, thought Sarah. I’ve
wondered what it is so different
about them and now I know. It’s
their terrible awareness—no oth
er generation but took youth for
granted. We assumed it lasted
forever. They don’t; A fragment
of verse published in the world
war she remembered, still haunt
ed her. returned to her mind
now; “They give their youth. God
bless them, as lightly as a rose.”
But this generation of children,
Sarah reflected heavily, has
learned somehow what no young
ster should know — how briefly
we are young. Aloud she mur
mured, “You’re just beginning to
live, my dear.”
“We looked at it from all an
gles,” Candace Thane said. “And
we decided that no matter what
might happen we’d have a few
weeks or months or perhaps a
year of normal happy marriage.
If we waited until after the war.”
“We’re not at war.”
The girl said with a grave cer
tainly that chilled the older wo
man, “We shall be. But we fig
ured that if we waited, nothing
could ever be the same. Andy
might not come home at all. We’d
be older and there’d be all the
memories of our loneliness and
unhappy separation. Now al
ready we have had something
that nothing can take away; we
’ve been happy while we’re
young.”
“Andy and I don’t go about
sentimentally sighing that life is
beautiful—but we don’t take it
for granted, either. Every day
we have together is wonderful.
Just going to business and coming
home at night to each other,
means everything. There will be
plenty of time for me to do war
work. Until Andy goes, we plan
to keep our free time for each
other.”
She had not intended to stay
so long, Candace apologized, or
to say so much. Andy would
have finished his homework and
they had planned to take in,the
second run at the movies. “I
hope you won’t think we’re a
couple of softies who like to feel
sorry for ourselves.”
Miss Velda was young and
blonde and soothing. She said
that everyone was nervous these
days and that Mrs. Fetts ought
to take a little run down to At
lantic City. As she talked she
shook but snowy towels, draped
them about the gaunt, tense wo
man in the leather-padded chair.
‘Why don’t you take a short va
cation over Easter?” the girl urg
ed, deftly backing the chair and
its occupant up to the basin.
“First thing you know, you’ll be
having a breakdown.”
She couldn’t go away for Eas
ter, Toni murmured, closing her
eyes as the warm water began to
cascade over her hair. Perhaps
she had iwdertaken too much,
but she had promised to have
four British, seamen for dinner
that Sunday. “The committee
asked us to open our homes and
Ennice JNews
L W. Wagoner
Staff Correspondent
Mr. and Mrs. Alex Andrews,
who have been in Maryland for
several months, have returned.
Mrs. Andrews has been employed
in a defense plant there.
Mrs. Woodrow Galyean recent
ly left for Maryland to spend a
few weeks with relatives there.
Her husband, Sgt. Galyean, is in
service, somewhere overseas.
Mrs. Hobert Jones, who has
been in Missouri for several
months, where her husband has
been in training, has returned to
live with her mother, Mrs. E. H.
Smith. Mr. Jones was recently
transferred to New York.
David Easterling, Jr., who spent
the holidays with friends at Car
olina Beach and with his mother,
Mrs. Elizabeth Easterling, here,
has returned to resume his stud
ies at Chapel Hill, where he is a
sophomore this year.
Mrs. E. R. McMillan had as
dinner guests recently, Mr. and
Mrs. C. H. Higgins, of Oldtown,
Va.; McCamant Higgins, Mr. and
make the men feel as if we were
their own families. I’m asking
my niece and three of her friends
so the sailors will have some
companionship. It meant a lot
of work. Toni added, because
the newspapers had taken a great
interest in the plan and they
were sending up photographers
to take pictures of the dinner ta
ble and the guests.
“My, will you be in the picture
too?’’ Miss Velda’s firm long
fingers vigorously massaged her
client’s scalp.
Toni didn’t know, but she
thought it likely. “Of course I’m
not keen about it and I really
loathe publicity. Still, it’s for
the organization, not for me. We
hope that this is only the start—
that women throughout Garset
will be willing to follow our ex
ample. They say that these men
are pathetically grateful to their
hostesses and hosts. It means a
lot to a man far away from, home
to be a guest in a private home.
Don’t let the water run in my;
ear.”
Her cousin’s husband was with
the Canadian forces, Miss Velda
said. “He doesn’t care much for
the food, but then I’ve heard that
the U. S. has better cooks.”
(To be Continued)
Conservation
Farming News
By W. O. HOOPER
“That steep hill facing the
north is tender land,” said Bruce
Sturgill ,of Piney Creek, “but you
can see that it is covered with a
good blue grass sod. Well, it has
never been plowed and never will
be while I own it; because, if it
is once plowed, it will be impos
sible to get that sod back.”
“Now, you take this other hill
above here,” Mr. Sturgill contin
ued, “and you can see that it is
exactly the same type of soil, but
not. quite so steep. Still, there
isn’t any sod on it. That’s be
cause it was plowed several times
and enough top soil washed away
to make it impossible to get a
good sod started there. Of
course, it is getting worse all the
time and should be planted to
trees”, Mr. Sturgill concluded.
Burning over pasture land is a
bad practice, according to R. M.
Mabe, of Piney Creek. Year be
fore last, Mr. Mabe had a splen
did pasture field of white clover,
but the broom sedge was so bad
that he decided to burn it in the
fall. After being burned, the
broom sedge is stronger than ev
er, but there was no white clo
ver last summer.
Orderly marketing of hogs to
relieve a glutted market will help
to maintain prices.
oner, of High Point.
Mrs. L. C. McMillan and little
son, Mack, of Galax, are visiting
Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Gordan. Mr.
McMillan is somewhere overseas.
W. C. Higgins, who has been
seriously ill with pneumonia,, is
improving.
M. A. Higgins and S. J. Spur
lin went to North Wilkesboro,
Tuesday, where Mr. Higgins at
tended a directors’ meeting of the
Northwestern Bank.
Mrs. Kyle Todd and daughter,
Elizabeth Ann, of Galax; M. A.
Higgins and Miss Mildred Wag
Belk’s Dept. Store
“We Sell It For Less”
Sparta, N. C.
Terrace Lands
During Winter
During the winter is a good
time for building terraces and
they should be used on all fields
where the slopes are steeper than
4 per cent, recommends David S.
Weaver, head of the agricultural
engineering department at N. C.
State College.
He points out that terraces re
diice the speed of water flowing
down the hill, lowering the
amount of run-off and the carry
ing capacity of the water. The
faster the water travels, the more
soil it can carry, stripping fer
tile soil from rolling areas and
depositing it in the stream beds
or lower flat areas.
He calls attention to the fact
that the basic principles of ter
racing are the same today as
when they were announced by
P. H. Mangum of Wake Forest in
1895. Some changes have been
made in methods of terrace build
ing but the principles remain the
same.
“Many counties have terracing
units, which have rendered val
unable service, and increased in
terest has been shown in terrac
ing in recent years, but still
there are many thousands of
acres which should be properly
terraced,’’ Weaver says.
Terracing, combined with cov
INCOME ESTIMATED AT
AROUND 42 BILLIONS
Washington — With an 11
month total of $128,242,000,000,
substantially higher than for any
previous full year, Commerce
Secretary Jesse Jones estimated
this week the national income
was $142,000,000,000 in 1943.
The previous high for a full
year was $115,500,000,000 in 1942.
In 1939 it amounted to $70,900,
000.00.
Income payments (salaries and
wages, dividends and interest
rents and royalties, social securi
ty. benefits, etc.) totaled $12,420,
000,000 in November, 16 per cent
above November, 1942, but three
percent below October, 1943.
er crops and proper rotations,
can greatly increase yields and
improve the value of lands that
are now losing more and more
of their top soil each year.
Proper terracing requires the
services of a man trained in the
use of a modern level. Not only
is the proper lay-out of the ter
race essential but it must also be
properly built and maintained.
“Terraces too small in cross sec
tion and without sufficient car
rying capacity may prove to be
more harmful than beneficial,1*
Weaver says.
Farmers wishing help with
their terracing problems should
contact their county agents.
WANTED!
IVY and LAUREL BURLS
HIGHEST MARKET PRICE PAID!
Carolina Briar Corp.
OFFICE AND SAW MILL
WEST JEFFERSON, NORTH CAROLINA
Purchasing Agents:
TODD DRUG CO.
West Jefferson, N. C.
BROWNWOOD
W. H. Brown
Fleetwood, N. C.
BUY WAR BONDS!
Mt. Burley Tobacco Warehouse
At Boone, N. C.
WILL CLOSE THURSDAY, JAN. 20
(WE WILL SELL TOBACCO ON THAT DAY)
Hurry, Hurry And Bring Us Your Tobacco Before We Close.
THANKS Farmer Friends
WAREHOUSEMAN
WE WISH TO EXPRESS OUR APPRECIATION FOR THE WONDER
FUL SUPPORT GIVEN US BY OUR FARMER FRIENDS IN THIS THE
BEST YEAR OF THE BOONE MARKET.
The Boone Market Has
Broken All Records,
as we are definitely assured of selling over two and one-half million
pounds.
THIS HAS BEEN A BANNER YEAR FOR US BOTH IN POUNDS
SOLD AND—
ROSCOE COLEMAN
Dollars Paid The Farmers
Mountain Burley Tobacco
Warehouses, Nos. 1 & 2
Boone, North Carolina