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AN EXPERIMENT
By Frank Filson.
(Copyright by W. G. Chapman.)
"Yes, ma'am, we can board you on
the farm if you don't mind eating
with Hi and me a"nd the hired man.
Six dollars a week, that's our price.
You thought it was nine? It used to
be nine, ma'am, but that was when
Linbofough used to be artistic, and
when folks wants art, they have to
pay for it.
"How did we stop being artistic?
That's quite a story, ma'am. Our
"What's the Matter, Min?"
being artistic came on us quite like
a flash, ma'am. One summer we was
just folks, same as we are now, and
the next we was-artistic.
"You don't like our furniture? I'm
certainly not surprised to hear you
say that, ma'am. Mrs. Higginbotham
and Minnie used to have convulsions
whenever they looked at it. Mrs.
Higginbotham ran that art colony up
on the hill the big barn that's falling
to ruin. No, we haven't been artistic
for three or four years "now, and the
colony has moved to Greenfield.
"Minnie? O, Minnie's our daughter.
Sort of a fine girl, Hi and I thought
her, and that's why we sent her to
college. Sam Bunn, the plumber, was
sweet on her, and Hi and I hoped they
would hitch up together when she
come home, for Sam's a nice, quiet
sort of fellow, and always was sav
ing. Well eddicated, too, but of
course, a plumber don't know about
being artistic. It stands to reason,
for they didn't have plumbing in them
artistic times.
"Well, ma'am, Minnie came home
from college, and Hi and I noticed
she sort of sniffed the first evening.
" 'What's the matter, Min?' asked
her father. 'Have you got a, touch
of catarrh?'
" 'No, pa,' answered Minnie. 'I was
just looking at the furniture.'
" 'Well, you don't need to smell it,
do you?' asked Hi, not understand
ing. " 'Father,' said Minnie, 'now that I
am home, I am going to improve
things a little.'
"Well, that suited Hi and me first
rate, for we naturally thought she
means that she was going to help us
old folks out with the chores. There
was a whole heap of cleaning to be
done, and it always took my strength
polishing the stove. But Minnie didn't
mean that at all. What she meant
was being artistic. .
"She'd got to be fast friends with
that Higginbotham woman, and next
day she broke the news to" us that
they'd rented the old Hopps place for
an art colony and some 50 students l
of both sexes was coming. S.ure
enough, they did come within the
week, about half apd half as to the
sexes, although it wasn't always easy
to tell which was which from the way
they looked.
"The townspeople was glad, for
things were a bit dull in Linborough.
The only person who wasn't glad,
outside our house, was Sam Bunn.
Minnie seemed to have sourecLon the
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