o us as a friend of
the family from her home town. You can always spot these family friends
by the way the girl blushes when she introduces them. Miss Spencer wore
a fine new diamond ring and we knew what it meant. It was just another
case where the girl came to school and the man stayed at home and built
a seven-room house on a prominent corner four blocks from his hardware
store and waited--and tried not to get any more jealous than possible. I
suppose Miss Spencer used Ole as a sort of parachute to let Frankling
down easily at the last. Anyway, we wiped the whole affair off the slate
after that. She wasn't one of us, anyway. Made us shiver to think of
her. What if one of us had sailed in the Freshman year and cut Frankling
out!

[Illustration: You can always spot these family friends
_Page 252_]

CHAPTER X

VOTES FROM WOMEN

Do I believe in woman's suffrage? Certainly, if you do, Miss Allstairs.
As I sit here, where I couldn't help seeing you frown if I didn't please
you, I favor anything you favor. If you want the women to vote just hand
me the ax and show me the man who would prevent them. If you think the
women should play the baseball of our country it's all right with me.
I'll help pass a law making it illegal for Hans Wagner to hang around a
ball park except as water-boy. If you believe that women ought to wear
three-story hats in theaters--

No, I'm not making fun of you. I hope I may never be allowed to lug a
box of Frangipangi's best up your front steps again if I am. If you want
the women to vote, Miss Allstairs, just breathe the word, and I'll go
out and start a suffragette mob as soon as ever I can find a brick. And
I would be a powerful advocate, too. You can't tell me that women
wouldn't be able to handle the ballot. You can't tell me they would get
their party issues mixed up with their party gowns. I've seen them vote
and I've seen them play politics. And let me tell you, when woman gets
the vote man will totter right back to the kitchen and prepare the
asparagus for supper, just to be out of harm's way. His good old
arguments about the glory of the nation, the rising price of wheat and
the grand record of those sterling patriots who have succeeded in
getting their names on the government payroll won't get him to first
base when women vote. He'll have to learn the game all over again, and
the first ninety-nine years' course of study will be that famous
subject, "Woma