Life — December 14, 1928 — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

SKIPPY’S Dear Sooky: They wasn’t nothin to do after supper cept meander up to the Post Office and watch the post- Percy L. Crosby master play solitaire with left over mail. He looked at me over his glasses when the bell over the door tinkled me in. He never pays any more attention to me than to a draft comin through the keyhole. Almost every night ya can find some- one hanging over the coal scuttle, but to- night there wasn’t a soul sittin around. I picked up the snow prints I tracked in an let them fizz on the stove. Then I opened the stove door an put my hands before the hot coals to see how near I could come without gettin burnt. When it got so I had to stand on one foot an then the other, I cut it out. Sometimes ya can stand more near than other some- times. The door starts ting-a-lingin an in walks Otis Evans, the church janitor’s son. He’s one of sixteen kids the father has—an the mother too, of course. Everybody around here knows that the government gives them a pension for hav- ing sixteen children. At first it caused a lot of jealousy until fourteen of them was taken down with the measles all at oncet. Otis comes right over to me an hands me a great big apple. I knew he never expected to see me there an was goin to eat it himself. Everybody that knows Otis, though, has him down as a guy that gives away everything he has—an that ain't much cause the little money he does make sawin up cord-wood, he turns over to his father. There's somethin awful girlish about the guy—maybe it’s cause his voice is so soft. Then he looks at you so timid sorta—keeps dartin his head in LETTERS an out of a great big coat, like a chip- munk afraid to come out an play. But don't get rollin up your sleeves an feelin mussy, cause this Otis ain’t no weak sister. Well, I took a bite outa the apple an then set the kid up to a nickel’s worth of jelly beans. After that we got very chummy. He sorta come out of himself when he saw that I had all friendness about me, an showed me some fish hooks that he had in his pockets. Ya could see that the worms was never used—one was almost, so there must be fish around some- where. I opened up the stove door an for a long time we looked at the fire. Then we walked over to the door an stood blowin our breaths on the glass an listenin to the sleigh bells. From that moment on, conversation began to stir. I asked him if he believed in Santy Claus an he said yes he did, cause he believed in God, an God made Santy Claus. He listened to all the things I was goin to get for Christmas—anyway all the things I asked for—but when I got through he never said nothin, just blew on the glass an rubbed it out with his finger again. I asked him what he was goin to get an he said he hoped he'd get glasses so that he wouldn’t stub his toes so much, walkin home at night. I said, “Where does glasses come in with stubbin your toes?” An he said that he never told nobody for a long time cause he was afraid they'd kid him, but he couldn't see so good. He told me he kept it a secret until one time he came home with a bloody nose an his father licked him cause he thought he was fightin, It was really because he fell down. I found out for the first time that Otis don’t like to ask for nothin, not even at Christmas time. “Well,” I says, “how about these glasses—are they goin to get them for ya?” He said he thought so, but there were so many things they had to buy, his father hated to buy knick-knacks, but he said he supposed he'd have z cause twice already Otis had spilled the milk pail, an losin the milk would cost more in the end. ¢ I didn’t know What to say, but under my breath I told God he could take all my toys if he'd only give Otis the glasses, First 1 was goin to say half my toys, but I was afraid God might not like it if it looked like I was holdin back. The cat came purrin an rubbin against | my legs so I picked him up an says, “How much do ya think he weighs?” Otis says, “Put him on the scales an let’s sce.” The postmaster must have heard Otis’s voice | cause he came out. I guess he didn’t know | Otis was there before. He says to him, “When's your father goin to pay that bill?” Otis’s face gets a terrible shamed red on it an he looks at me like he wants me to go. “Ya needn't come around here askin for any more trust till that bill is paid,” the postmaster says, an Otis looks at the floor as if he could never look any- one in the face again. It’s the first time in my life, Sook, that I ever put my arms around a guy's shoulder. I just whispered in his ear, “Otis, don’t forget to look in on me Christmas morning—I've got somethin for ya." Then I sce he had a lot of explainin to do, so I sneaked out. But I banged the door so hard that I nearly knocked the bell off, an when the postmaster frowned at me, I stick my fingers to my nose, just to show him that | LT had other places to go. Gee, V'll fave to go up for the mail tomorrow an I don’t know what to do | “What was that last crack?” comicbooks.com