_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.