--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Unknown collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 33 number: 7 published: 1930-05 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Unknown, “The Corsage,” *Improvement Era* 33, no. 7 (May 1930): 490–490." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3307unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera3307unse start_page: 490 end_page: 490 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1930-05) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3307unse publication_year: 1930 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1930, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Corsage cIhe Corsage w. ALT'S steps lagged as he neared the florist's window. Within his pocket, the fingers of his right hand circled two pieces of silver — one dollar and fifty cents — the sum total of his financial resources until May tenth, three days hence, when he would receive from the university his monthly $25.00 check, earned by nearly a hundred hours of after- school sweeping and dusting. One dollar and fifty cents, saved by such strategies as denying him- self the Saturday movie in which he sometimes indulged, doing Tom Langton's sweeping the night his girl friend was in town and (by the aid of mirrors) , trimming his own hair. One dollar and fifty cents — saved to buy carnations to send his mother for Mother's Day — and now — . ELSIE C. CARROLL one thing. They made for Walt a decision he had been trying for two days to make. His money would have to be spent for a cor- sage instead of carnations for his mother. M. sure he was going to get a bid from her. He's been hanging around her all quarter. You haven't stepped her much, have you, Walt?" "No- two." -just to — a class party or H: E had been so sur- prised and thrilled when Marian Schofield invited him to be her partner at the Girls' Day Dance that he hadn't realized the possi- bility of any embarrassment until Fred Manners, with whom he was studying economics when Marian and Bessie had issued their invi- tations, had asked— "What color is your dress, Bes- sie?— For the corsage you know." "Mine's yellow and Marian's is orchid," Bessie had replied, and suddenly Walt's problem had pre- sented itself. Of course the fel- lows always sent flowers on such occasions. "Hello, Walt." Fred Manners emerged from the florist's shop, smiling, "You better hurry. The flowers are getting well picked over. They've still got some swell sweet peas and roses though that will match Marian's dress. And they fix you up a mighty decent corsage for a dollar and a quarter — lacy flummadoes and every- thing." Walt could feel his ears burning. Why had he said "class party?" He didn't need to publish to fel- lows like Fred that he couldn't afford to sport a girl. "Well, she's a peach of a kid and old Dick's so down in the mouth I don't know but what he'll find some excuse yet not to go with Ethel. Fred started on, then stopped. "I guess you know that after the dance the whole bunch of us are going to Bessie's for supper. The girls always put up a feed after the Girls' Day Dance. I've been helping Bess all morning to get things ready. If Dick's car wasn't on the blink Bess and I would call for you and Marian, but I guess Dick will be counting on me." "Oh that's all right," Walt stammered. .OTHER would un- derstand anyway, he told himself. She knew how hard it was for him to get along on that $25.00 and would not be expecting flow- ers. He'd hurry home and write her a long letter before the dance. Ten minutes later Walt was watching the skillful fingers of the florist's assistant arranging pink tinted rosebuds and lavender sweet peas upon a lace frilled card-board to show him the effect. "Did you want to take it or have it sent?" the girl asked, and Walt, his eyes upon the show case where tall pink and white and red carnations held their heads erect in tall containers, absently an- swered, "Yes, I'll take it." Somehow those pink carnations in the corner of the case looked like mother — so delicate and fra- grant. W. B W. ALT was silent. "You ought to feel all puffed up — Marian asking you," Fred went on. "Dick Ballanger was UT as Fred breezed away, Walt's spirits slumped down a few extra degrees. All of Ma- rian's crowd would, of course, go to the dance in automobiles. He almost wished Marian had asked Dick Ballanger. But no! He wouldn't quite admit that. Marian was too fine for lazy, conceited, snobbish Dick Ballanger. At least Fred's words had done ALT remembered the pink of his mother's cheeks when he and Betty had brought her their first carnations — five years ago. He had been fourteen then — and Father dead less than a year. How they bad saved, he and Betty, for those three flowers. And how happy they had seemed to make mother. He thought of the courage and forced cheerfulness of his mother during the years, and his heart swelled with apprecia- tion. His eyes, veiled with a mist, were still upon the carnations when the girl brought him the brightly col- ored box containing the corsage. "There you are — one dollar and twenty-five cents." Walt placed the two pieces of silver upon the counter before her. As she handed him back twenty-five cents, his (Continued on page 512)