the mine. When he had graduated from the Coal City High School at seventeen, the man who had been his father's foreman at the time of the accident, and who was now the superintendent, had offered him a job. It was a dirty job in the mine, but the only opening they had, and there weren't many jobs for boys just out of high school with no experience.

With a final look at one of the gauges, Charlie's mind returned to his reminiscences of his childhood envy of girls, which had reached a sort of turning point when he was ten. The house next door had been rented for the summer by a young couple with an only child, an eleven year old girl, who was really a tomboy. Kathy spent as much time in jeans as she could but her mother insisted on her wearing dresses most of the time. This didn't deter her from her tomboy activities, such as climbing trees, so Charlie soon learned that she wore dress, slip and panties.

One Sunday afternoon Kathy stayed with Charlie while her parents visited friends. Charlie and Kathy were looking at his stamp collection, while Charlie's father watched television. Kathy remembered some letters she had received from her uncle who was in bus- iness in Canada, and offered to let Charlie have the stamps. They went over to her house to look for the letters. As Kathy ransacked her dresser drawers looking for them, Charlie gazed with fascination at the pretty panties and slips she was pawing through so unconcern- edly. A particularly delightful one in pink nylon and lace fell on the floor and Charlie picked it up to re- place it in the drawer.

"Here it is!" Kathy exclaimed.

When Charlie didn't answer she turned and saw him holding the panties in front of him, a rapt expression on his face.

"What's the matter, Charlie?" she asked.

"N-n-nothing," he stammered.

"I--they-you--

why, they're beautiful."

"What's beautiful? Oh--the panties?"

46.