FOUR AND TWENTY BEDS
By
Nancy Vogel
New York: The Beechhurst Press
Copyright 1950, by Mrs. Nancy Vogel
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
About the Author
CHAPTER ONE
ANYONE CAN MANAGE a motel successfully--anyone who can subsist on mealssnatched a mouthful at a time, and requires no sleep; anyone who is amechanic, gardener, publicity agent, handyman, psychologist, carpenter,and midwife combined; anyone who can cheerfully greet as "Mrs.Beaulabottom" each of the various women who accompanies salesman Mr.Beulabottom on his frequent trips; anyone who is gregarious to thepoint of welcoming the strangers who will witness, interrupt, anddiscuss the intimate details of his life.
I'm shy, poor at dealing with people, helpless, lazy, and definitelythe clinging vine type. The extra-curricular activities of the averagehusband shock me. I like to eat leisurely meals, and to sleep nine orten hours a night; and the prime requirement of my soul is privacy.
I love the motel business.
My husband, Grant, is the one who possesses the qualifications thatmake our partnership in this business a success. He is efficient,patient (if there is money in it) and ingenious--and buying a motel washis idea in the first place.
It was all very sudden.
For a month Los Angeles had been having the kind of weather the Chamberof Commerce members mention only in whispers. Grant and I and our twochildren had colds, already a month old, which the fog and dampnesswere cherishing lovingly. Memorial Day and a weekend had been courteousenough to get together and arrange a three-day holiday; and so wedecided to take a trip to the desert.
We stopped in Banning, a little town on the edge of the Mojave desertwhich boasts both altitude (2350 feet) and dryness, and which ispopular with sufferers from all kinds of bronchial and respiratorytroubles. Banning is about ninety miles from Los Angeles, and has apopulation of under eight thousand. It has a lot of motels, and ofthese we selected the one we considered the most attractive, andengaged a cabin for the next three nights.
The Moonrise Motel was a big, new, sparkling-white, green-shutteredstructure, shaped a little like a horseshoe with its open end t