their rifts like the poured fire at Yose-
mite Park.
Janet was more silent than usual,
and suddenly Walter said, “A penny
for those thoughts, Janet.”
“Well, I was thinking our camping
season 1s nearly closed.”
“Will you be sorry, Janet?”
“Yes, Walter; I have enjoyed it
beyond my expectations.”
“Has our friendship helped toward
your enjoyment?”’
Janet played with her walking
stick a few moments, and then looked
up a bit coquettishly at Walter and
answered, ‘‘ Yes, Walter, it has had a
great deal to do with 1t!”’
“You know my plans for the next
five years; I have no one to help me
financially; therefore I have no home
or comforts to offer you. If I had, I
would ask you to be my wife. As Iam,
I feel I have no right to do this; but I
do want to tell you before we part, you
have been my ideal modern girl, and
I will never forget you.”
Both were quiet, until Walter said
again, ‘‘Another penny for your
thoughts.”
Janet was glad for the roar of the sea,
and the gathering shadows; they seemed
to give courage to her embarrassment,
as she said, “It isn’t leap year, but may
I remind you I have supported myself
for four years, and even saved a bit; I
could do so again. Don’t make me say
more,—you say it!”
“Well, my brave girl, I do have the
clean, pure love of a young man’s
heart to offer you. Will you accept,
with the ambition to some day make
vou queen of my home?”
They walked back to camp, under
the “southern moon,” Janet giving
him interesting bits of California his-
tory 1m ‘““Adobe Days,” singing
snatches of songs, and talking of their
future.
®
Before the medical college opened,
Walter and Janet were married. Both
went to Chicago, and Janet continued
as wage earner.
It did not seem advisable for them
to live together, as their work was
in different parts of the city; only
their week-ends they spent together,
and then they continually cheered
themselves by saying, “It won't be
long that we’ll live like this.”
Walter studied hard; and added to
Janet’s hard work of her school were
many domestic extras—looking after
laundry, mending, and so forth. So it
July, 1935 eo - -
was a great relief to both of them when
Walter’s student days were over.
At the end of those strenuous five
years it was a very happy young doctor
and his wife who settled in a pretty
modern duplex in San Gabriel, Cali-
fornia.
Janet entered into this life with the
same unselfish zeal she had shown in
Walter's student days. Some of her
joy and buoyancy dampened however,
as month after month passed, and she
tried unaided to fit her strength to the
unaccustomed duties of housekeeper
and office nurse.
®
“Janet, will you go with me to a
dinner where the doctors are taking
their wives?” asked Walter one day.
“Of course, I will!” Janet took from
her wardrobe a becoming and once
appropriate evening gown. She fresh-
ened the lace and did her best to re-
model it. When she put it on and stood
before Walter for his inspection, he
looked at her, and jokingly said, “You
have done well, my girl, but it looks a
bit as if it were your mother’s!”
She tried not to care, but the real
pleasure was taken from the evening,
and she made an excuse and did not go
the next time he asked her. She knew
her clothes were out of date, but her
sense of honor made her neglect her-
self when there were debts to pay. By
nature she was social, loved music and
art, but these days she was too tired to
appreciate even a call, and her piano
and paint brush were never touched.
Walter sometimes looked at Janet
wonderingly and contrasted this some-
what languid and worn, old-young
woman with the bright, animated
teacher he had seen bounding down
an embankment only five years ago.
He was in perfect health, and his
mind full of roseate dreams of their
future. He loved Janet as much as
ever, but he was thoughtless; he ap-
preciated all she had done to help him,
but he could not realize all it had cost
her.
One afternoon Walter told Janet
he would be away the rest of the day.
She felt so tired, she resolved she would
let the telephone and bell go un-
(Continued on page 18)
A Home Maker
ANSWEDLS
PARENTS’ QUESTIONS
Perplexing questions on married life,
ome management, and child training
will be answered here by a specialist
on the home and its ideals. Queries
may be sent to the editor.
Children Sleeping Together
Is it all right for children to invite
their little friends to sleep with them?
My Uttle girl vs looking forward to the
time when she may invite a girl friend to
stay all night or may go to stay with a
friend.
Let us who are parents have keen
msight and due sympathy with this
characteristic urge of childhood, es-
pecially girlhood. Yet let us be wise
in dealing with it. Such ardency of
anticipation in the coming of a friend,
the sharing of benefits, from little
cakes to comfy bed; such esctasy of
intimate companionship, whispered
confidences, snuggly sleep! And yet—
the discipline of life must take hold
even In infancy. Little children can-
not. grasp the principle or the reasons
now, but they may learn by experience
that friendships are fostered by re-
serves as well as by confidences.
It is unwise in most cases to allow
children to visit over night with friends
and sleep together. If children were
all ideally innocent, with irreproach-
able training and utmost purity of
mind, there might be little danger,
though still the experience would be
enhanced by its infrequency. But the
plain fact is that most children are
infected with moral misapprehensions,
and this is most true of the children
of parents supremely confident of their
innocence. The intimacies of night
association conduce to impartation of
moral obliquity. Little children need
not be told this, for it cannot be told
without unhappy suggestions; yet par-
ents may build an ideal of home suf-
ficiency in social enjoymeut, and firmly
but kindly resist the importunities of
children (which will not long continue)
and the possible reproaches and re-
sentments of other households. Parents
of a community or a connection should
have an understanding together and a
sound social science policy.
If visiting is‘ ever practiced, it is
better to have it by families, including
adults,—Uncle Joe, Aunt Jennie, and
their ten healthy kiddies; or dear Mrs.
Morgan and her lone chick Gwendo-
line; and always separate beds and due
parental supervision.
Page Thirteen