Page:Burgess--Aint Angie awful.djvu/21



N the good old days when girls wore ears and lacquered their faces only in the privacy of their own homes,  Angela Bish held the proud position of 23rd  assistant gum-chewer in a six-cent store. Also, between times, she sold hardware very hard—such as cast-iron screwdrivers, tin  saws, imitation hammers, and gimlets that  wouldn’t gim.

All day long behind the counter she stood on one leg or the other, and sometimes on  all of them; and the longer she stood, the  less she could stand it.

Black was Angela’s hair, and her black eyes were black. Now some, says Confucius, are born with black eyes, and some acquire  black eyes; but Angela’s ebon orbs were a 15