g, but
he asked no Questions.

Ever after that Jim bought all his Goods of this one House. He had to.

MORAL: _Scatter Seeds of Kindness_.

_THE_ FABLE _OF_ LUTIE, _THE_ FALSE ALARM, _AND_ HOW SHE FINISHED ABOUT
_THE_ TIME _THAT_ SHE STARTED

Lutie was an Only Child. When Lutie was eighteen her Mother said they
ought to do something with Lutie's Voice. The Neighbors thought so, too.
Some recommended killing the Nerve, while others allowed that it ought
to be Pulled.

But what Mamma meant was that Lutie ought to have it Cultivated by a
Professor. She suspected that Lutie had a Career awaiting her, and would
travel with an Elocutionist some day and have her Picture on the
Programme.

Lutie's Father did not warm up to the Suggestion. He was rather Near
when it came to frivoling away the National Bank Lithographs. But pshaw!
The Astute Reader knows what happens in a Family when Mother and the
Only Child put their Heads together to whipsaw the Producer. One Day
they shouldered him into a Corner and extorted a Promise. Next Day Lutie
started to Take.

She bought a red leather Cylinder marked "Music," so that people would
not take it to be Lunch. Every Morning about 9 o'clock she would wave
the Housework to one side and tear for a Trolley.

Her Lessons cost the Family about twenty cents a Minute. She took them
in a large Building full of Vocal Studios. People who didn't know used
to stop in front of the Place and listen, and think it was a Surgical
Institute.

There were enough Soprani in this one Plant to keep Maurice Grau stocked
up for a Hundred Years. Every one thought she was the Particular One who
would sooner or later send Melba back to Australia and drive Sembrich
into the Continuous. Lutie was just about as Nifty as the Next One.

When she was at Home she would suck Lemons and complain about Draughts
and tell why she didn't like the Other Girls' Voices. She began to act
like a Prima Donna, and her Mother was encouraged a Lot. Lutie certainly
had the Artistic Temperament bigger than a Church Debt.

Now before Lutie started in to do Things to her Voice she occasionally
Held Hands with a Young Man in the Insurance Business, named Oliver.
This Young Man thought that Lutie was all the Merchandise, and she
regarded him as Permanent Car-Fare.

But when Lutie began to hang out at the Studios she took up with the
Musical Set that couldn't talk about anything but Technique and Shading
and the Motif and t