FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148  
149   150   151   152   153   154   >>  
p to date. Why? Was it because I was a failure as a daddy? Looked so. And here was Auntie taxin' me with it. Would other folks find out, too? I begun thinkin' over the way different ones had taken the news. Old Hickory, for instance. I was wearin' a wide grin and still feelin' sort of chesty when I broke into his private office and handed him the bulletin. "Eh?" he grunts, squintin' at me from under them bushy eyebrows. "A father! You? Good Lord!" "Why not?" says I. "It's still being done, ain't it?" "Oh, I suppose so. Yes, yes," he goes on, starin' at me. "But somehow, young man, I can hardly think of you as--as---- Well, congratulations, Torchy. You have frequently surprised me by rising to the occasion. Perhaps you will in this also." "Thanks, Mr. Ellins," says I. "It's nice of you to cheer me up that way." Piddie, of course, said the right and elegant thing, just as if he'd learned it out of a book. He always does, you know. Makes a reg'lar little speech, and finishes by givin' me the fraternal handclasp and a pat on the shoulder. But a minute after I caught him gazin' at me wonderin', and he goes off shakin' his head. Then I runs across my newspaper friend Whitey Weeks, who used to know me when I was a cub office-boy on the Sunday editor's door. "Well, Torchy," says he, "what you got on your mind?" "Nothing you could make copy out of," says I, "but it's a whale of an event for me." "You don't say," says he. "Somebody died and left you the business?" "Just the opposite," says I. "I don't get you," says he. "Ah, what's usually in the next column?" says I. "It's a case of somebody bein' born." "Why--why," says he, openin' his mouth, "you don't mean that----" "Uh-huh," says I, tryin' to look modest. [Illustration: "I was down on my knees doin' a buckin' bronco act, when there comes a gasp from the doorway."] "Haw-haw!" roars Whitey, usin' the steam siren effect. And, as it's right on the corner of Forty-second and Broadway, he comes near collectin' a crowd. Four or five people turn around to see what the merriment is all about, and a couple of 'em stops short in their tracks. One guy I spotted for a vaudeville artist lookin' for stuff that might fat up his act. "Say," Whitey goes on, poundin' me on the back jovial, "that's rich, that is!" "Glad it amuses you," says I, startin' to move off. "Oh, come, old chap!" says he, followin' along. "Don't get crabby. What--what is
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148  
149   150   151   152   153   154   >>  



Top keywords:
Whitey
 

office

 

Torchy

 

openin

 

modest

 
Illustration
 
Nothing
 

Sunday

 
editor
 

buckin


column

 

opposite

 
Somebody
 

business

 
spotted
 

vaudeville

 
artist
 
lookin
 

tracks

 

couple


startin

 

amuses

 

poundin

 

jovial

 

followin

 

effect

 

corner

 

crabby

 

bronco

 

doorway


people

 
merriment
 

Broadway

 

collectin

 

bulletin

 
handed
 

grunts

 
squintin
 

private

 
feelin

chesty
 

suppose

 
eyebrows
 
father
 

wearin

 

Auntie

 
Looked
 

failure

 
Hickory
 

instance