The high school lad came to school decked out in his Sunday best. In a town high school this would be no uncommon sight. But in a small rural high school where clean overalls and print dresses are accepted wear. It was unusual to see a boy all dressed up. Upon seeing him someone recalled that this was the day the itinerant photographer was expected. Johnny was dressed up to have his picture taken. It was an event in his young life. He was going to send the picture to his big brother in the far Pacific, that big brother who had teased and tormented him but who had always been his pattern.
Few of the students had remembered the day.
Immediately the girls began to primp and add more lipstick and the boys to comb their hair.
The picture man did not come on the appointed day or the next. He did call and say he would be there late in the week. The lad continued to wear his white shirt and tie and suit. He wanted to be ready when the man came. Then came the great day. The photo-grapher arrived with all his paraphernalia and his line of chatter. Was there ever an itinerant photographer who did not have an incessant flow of patter? It is part of the stock in trade no doubt. He lined up all the eager customers along the schoolhouse wall and snapped them in quick succession. Girls did not have nearly enough time to primp.
Soon the man was on his way again with the promise that the pictures would be delivered in a few days. When the pictures came Johnny’s was the best of the lot. Today that picture is winging its way via air mail to an outpost somewhere in the Pacific. Big brother will be amazed o see how the stripling has grown and changed in the two years since he last saw him. This picture that little brother waited so many days to have taken probably will go up alongside the favorite pinup girl or in his billfold with pictures of his best girl and his mother.
Now little brother is wondering how long it will take to get an answer, that the picture really arrived.
