she could still be considered very much a "brother" in certain ways. The recognition seemed to be mutual.

At Lou Ellen's home, after conventional social amenities had been exchanged and quite a bit of time had elapsed during which they had become better acquainted, the two new friends were again alone, sipping root beer floats under the shade of a large weeping willow tree in the garden.

"Boy, am I glad you're a girl!" Lou suddenly exclaimed, and both girls laughed again at the ambiguity of her words.

"If I'd only known," Lou continued, "I certainly would have been more anxious to carry on a correspondence with you. Your name sure fooled me, though come to think of it girls are sometimes named Leslie, too, and I thought if you thought I was a girl, you might that is, I didn't want to carry on an extensive correspondence with a . Lou broke off, confused and embarrassed.

"

"I understand," Leslie grinned. "As a matter of fact, I thought the same thing about you. Ed mentioned you once in a long-distance phone conversation to the family before he went overseas. And since you signed your name 'Lew' in your letter I thought your name was 'Llewellyn' was 'Llewellyn'. I never dreamed it would be the feminine 'Lou Ellen', though they both sound the same.

"And, incidentally," Les went on, "it wasn't my idea to visit you. My mother, always looking out for my interests, in si sted insisted that I pay you a sort of courtesy call. I guess she thought I might meet some nice young man

11

Lou Ellen linked her arm in Leslie's and looked mischievously up at her new-found friend. "Glad or sorry?"

Leslie replied with a wink, "What do you think?"

The problems of any minority are actually those of the surrounding majority which feels unable to deal with them appropriately.

Dr. Wolfgang E. Bredtschneider

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