A Library Habitchoo
Hart, Philomena
November 10, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 15 A LIBRARY HABITCHOO By PHILOMENA HART EVERY public library has a group of them. The smaller the library, the more easily may they be recognized. It was...
...Oh," we chimed in chorus—"Sir Walter Raleigh...
...Allie sounded to us like a denizen of the juvenile department...
...We've trotted out all the seagoing children we can think of, but none seems to be named Allie...
...I want a book about Salt Water Allie, please...
...The boy returned to us with great hauteur...
...Sure"— our patron was pleased at this glow of intelligence—"she read us how he spread out his cloak for the queen to walk on...
...He had come to us first, a small boy, bent on a breathless errand for his teacher...
...Slow-moving folk, these library-teachers...
...We attacked Melville, McFee, Masefield, Conrad, and Kipling to no avail...
...Finally, our head had an inspiration: "Did your teacher tell you a story about him...
...Now, even that he is grown up and a library habitchoo by his own rating, he still reads by ear...
...I'm one of the library habitchoos...
...But since she narried a habitchoo, I guess she'll be nearly as happy as if ihe was right here with us...
...And he always spoke of a book on the inner life of Wilson's fidus Achates as "The Real Colonel Louse...
...Four Horses on the Acropolis" and "Mrs...
...Ask downstairs," we advised easily...
...We begged the boy for a more complete name...
...Wiggs of the Garbage Patch" were, he told us, strongly recommended by neighbors...
...It was one of the most prevalent ones in our library who gave himself the title...
...We even tried to shake his story...
...but Salt Water Allie and only Salt Water Allie was his platform and he stuck to it...
...None sang the saga of Salt Water Allie...
...Send him up, and we'll try," we offered with more valor than discretion...
...He feels an intensely personal interest in all the attendants in our department...
...A few minutes later there was a frantic ring on our departmental telephone...
...And we cursed our phonetics for having deserted us in our hour of need...
...When one of us married and left the circle, he was quite despondent for a time...
...What did he do...
...An unwitting new janitor had presumed to give him directions about a faulty step...
...Have you any idea what that child you sent us is looking for...
...I know all about it," he said with great hauteur...
...But when he learned that she had married an editor who had been a faithful borrower, he brightened immediately and told the others Aeerily, "Well, I'm sorry she got married...
Vol. 5 • November 1926 • No. 1
