Gentle Julia

Gentle Julia, by Booth
Tarkington

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Title: Gentle Julia
Author: Booth Tarkington
Illustrator: C. Allan Gilbert and Worth Brehm
Release Date: April 26, 2006 [EBook #18259]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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JULIA ***

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[Illustration: Gentle Julia]

GENTLE JULIA
BY BOOTH TARKINGTON
AUTHOR OF PENROD, PENROD AND SAM, THE TURMOIL,
ETC.
ILLUSTRATED BY C. ALLAN GILBERT and WORTH BREHM
GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
Made in the United States of America
* * * * *
COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY P. F. COLLIER AND SON COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE PICTORIAL REVIEW COMPANY
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES AT THE COUNTRY LIFE
PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
* * * * *
TO M. L. K.
* * * * *
GENTLE JULIA
"Rising to the point of order, this one said that since the morgue was
not yet established as the central monument and inspiration of our
settlement, and true philosophy was as well expounded in the convivial
manner as in the miserable, he claimed for himself, not the license, but
the right, to sing a ballad, if he chose, upon even so solemn a matter as
the misuse of the town pump by witches."

* * * * *

GENTLE JULIA
CHAPTER ONE
Superciliousness is not safe after all, because a person who forms the
habit of wearing it may some day find his lower lip grown permanently
projected beyond the upper, so that he can't get it back, and must go
through life looking like the King of Spain. This was once foretold as a
probable culmination of Florence Atwater's still plastic profile, if
Florence didn't change her way of thinking; and upon Florence's
remarking dreamily that the King of Spain was an awf'ly han'some man,
her mother retorted: "But not for a girl!" She meant, of course, that a
girl who looked too much like the King of Spain would not be
handsome, but her daughter decided to misunderstand her.
"Why, mamma, he's my Very Ideal! I'd marry him to-morrow!"
Mrs. Atwater paused in her darning, and let the stocking collapse
flaccidly into the work-basket in her lap. "Not at barely thirteen, would
you?" she said. "It seems to me you're just a shade too young to be
marrying a man who's already got a wife and several children. Where
did you pick up that 'I'd-marry-him-to-morrow,' Florence?"
"Oh, I hear that everywhere!" returned the damsel, lightly. "Everybody
says things like that. I heard Aunt Julia say it. I heard Kitty Silver say
it."
"About the King of Spain?" Mrs. Atwater inquired.
"I don't know who they were saying it about," said Florence, "but they
were saying it. I don't mean they were saying it together; I heard one
say it one time and the other say it some other time. I think Kitty Silver
was saying it about some coloured man. She proba'ly wouldn't want to
marry any white man; at least I don't expect she would. She's been

married to a couple of coloured men, anyhow; and she was married
twice to one of 'em, and the other one died in between. Anyhow, that's
what she told me. She weighed over two hunderd pounds the first time
she was married, and she weighed over two hunderd-and-seventy the
last time she was married to the first one over again, but she says she
don't know how much she weighed when she was married to the one in
between. She says she never got weighed all the time she was married
to that one. Did Kitty Silver ever tell you that, mamma?"
"Yes, often!" Mrs. Atwater replied. "I don't think it's very entertaining;
and it's not what we were talking about. I was trying to tell you----"
"I know," Florence interrupted. "You said I'd get my face so's my
underlip wouldn't go back where it ought to, if I didn't quit turning up
my nose at people I think are beneath contemp'. I guess the best thing
would be to just feel that way without letting on by my face, and then
there wouldn't be any danger."
"No," said Mrs. Atwater. "That's not what I meant. You mustn't let your
feelings get their nose turned up, or their underlip out, either, because
feelings can grow warped just as well as----"
But her remarks