m. WWW J'4 WJISBPpi THE plANT SNOWBALL By Florence Lillian Henderson (Copyright, 1917, W. G. Chapman.) Regularly once a year Jed Barson "celebrated," and that was upon his birthday. He did it in what he con sidered to be quite a respectable way. He lived at Bowesville, but it was at Milton that he went through his an nual program. Abstemious and walking a straight chalk line for 364 days of the year, upon the other about dusk Jed pre sented himself at the tavern at Mil ton and hired the little card room at the rear of the bar for the exclusive use of himself and his friends. These friends were" never the same on suc ceeding occasions. Jed simply picked up half a dozen of the loungers about the place, and, with a table supplied fully with, edibles and drinkables, locked all hands in the room with himself and proceeded to celebrate. The little party of convivialists were given their fill of cigar, eatables and flowing bowls. Except for the latter, it was only a mildly dissipated group. It was an occasion for Jed to spread himself and he about mo nopolized the function. Ordinarily Jed was a mild-mannered, composed young man, never boisterous, always reliable in a business way. On the occasion of his birthday festivity he vividly recalled two points in his life and let loose on them. Once he had been appointed the local orator in a mild political campaign. He believed he had found his mission until a rival expert in the same line squelched him completely, both as to argument and eloquence. Later, in a sneaking sort of way, Jed did some amateur dramatic work with a stalled tragedy company. It proved a dismal failure, but the taint of this histrionic effort never quite left him. So, shut up in a little tavern room with an obliging audience, Jed de tailed his past glories as orator and actor. He recited all of his former speeches, he spouted half of Hamlet in bringing in the several few lines he had spoken on the stage. Faith fully at midnight the drowsy Con clave broke up. Jed went to bed and reappeared, in his home town the next day with a slight headache, but fully satisfied to pursue the straight and narrow road untit another 21st of February had Tolled around. Now Jed had become uite an im portant and trustworthy person i i i Gaining Momentum Each Succeed ing Moment. about Bowesville. He did a little real estate business and a good deal in the way of mortgage "loans and col lections. He went to and fro as to several towns in the vdistrict, acting as a sort of special mesenger for the banks. On the especial birthday -occasion where he met his" Waterloo he had transacted considerable busi ness that day and its results crowded .sjt&j;M v