The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 23, 1915, Page 14

P AT e T B o S s S ¥ g 8 ¥ i i FOURTEEN to do it. own man, copyrldfl, q,n . [T fumoanye “ a1 feel sure that it was just my own | *he g v pajamas always Tked fo have frivolous streak that called out the | it sirong and fresh for the julep of his frivolous in Polk, Jane dear.’' T an-|ancostors. 1 hope she won't forget to swered, with trepidation, hoping and | take that pattern of Japanese extrac- praying that the inquisition would not | fion with her and make some for Crag much further and trying to remem- | now and then, for it will save time. %zr just what I had written her about Horrors! Polk. 5 “We have fully decided on our course It may have been that,” Jane an- of action, Jane, and Evelina, dears,” swered in a most naively relieved tone | said Cousin Jasmine in a positive little of voice. “But you don’t know how | manner that she would have been as bhappy I am, dear, to see that that|incapable of a month ago as is a pet streak is only an occasional charming | kitten of barking at the family dog, veln that shows in you, but that you |“put we dg so dread to break it to are now settling down steadily to your | dear James, because we feel that he profession. 1 feel sure that when|may think we are not happy under his these garden drawings are done you |roof and be distressed. -Do you believe and Mr. Hall will have found your|iye shall be able to' make him see that correct places in each other's lives, | we must pursue our independent life, and it will be just @ glorious example | though always needing the support of of how superbly a man and woman | his affection and interest?” hY can work together at the same pro-| “I believe you will, Cousin Jasmine,” fession. Mr. Hardin and I were talk- | ] said, wanting to both laugh and cry ing about it just last night out on the ! to see the Crag’s burdens begin to roll slde porch, and, though he said very | off his shoulders like this. And the little, I could see how gratified he was | tears that didn’t rise would have been at the honors that had come to you |real onmes, too, for [ found that down and how much he likes Mr. Hall.” in the corner of my heart I had adored That scttled it, and I made up my | the picture of my oak with the tender mind that when the harvest lady left | jittle old vines clinging around him. . us tonight to sink behind old Harpeth | 1t \was the producing gourd I had most she wasn't going to leave me weakly | ghjected to, and I couldn’t see’but she lonesome. She doesn’t set until 2| would be there until I unclasped her o’clock, and I'm going to take all the | ¢endrils. : time I need. But I was forgetting that in the And as serious and solemn as I feel | modern theory of thought waves it is over taking such a step for two as I|the simplest minds that get the rip- am deciding on I can’t help looking | ples first and hardest. Sallie came over forward to scribbling a terse and im- | just as soon as the other delegation personal account of my having propos- | haq got home to take the twins off her ed to the man of my choice In this | hangs, Jane had gone upstairs to strong minded book, adding a few | make more calculations on our recon- words of sage advice for the five, lock- | gtryetion, and 1 was trying to get a ing it and handing it, key and all, to large, deep breath. Jane, with a dramatic dem®nd thatshe | «<pvyelina,” she said as she sank in a put her $100,000 in the trust company | chajr near me and fastened her large, and begin to choose the five from those | very young-in-soul eyes on mine, “were she has had in mind. you just joking, Nell, or did you mean Then before she has had time toread | it when you said the other day that it I am going sneakily to get it back | yoy thought it would be cowardly of and blot or tear out some of the things | 3 woman not to show a man that she I have written. I can decide later|jgveq him if he for any reason was not what will be data and what will be | wiing to make the first advances to dangerous to the canse. her?’ Sallie is perfectly lovely in the And you will be glad to have me— | rying Javender and pink things that come and live for a time in your home | yone made her decide to get in one life, dear?’ Jane recalled me to the | conversation, whereas while Nell and question in hand by saying wistfully. | caroline and I had been looking up “T feel that I have never had such |gang pringing her surreptitious sam- good friends before, anywhere, as|ples of all colors from the store all these of yours are to me, Evelina,” she | gymmer. added. “Well, I don’t know that I exactly That’s one time I got Jane complete- | meant Nell to take it all to heart,” I ly in my arms and showed her what & | gnswered without the slightest suspi- really good hugging means south of | ¢jon of what was coming. “But I 'do Mason and Dixon’s line. From later | think, Sallie, it would be no more than developments I am glad she had that | nonest, fearless and within a woman's slight initiation. It must have been | own greater rights.” ; serviceable to her New England dispo- «Mr. Haley was saying the other sition, <| evening that a wornan’s sweet de- Then, justas I was going to ask some | pendence was a man’s most precious of the plans she—and Polk—had made, heritage,” Sallie gently mused out ' on over came Cousin Jasmine, with Cous- | the atmosphere that was beginning to in Annie and Mary, with Mrs. Har- | pe pretty highly charged. grove puffihg along behind them. They | “Doesn’t a woman have to depend on had come to see Jane, but I was al- | her husband’s tenderness and care all lowed to stay and have my breath | of the time—time she is bearing a child, knocked out by their mission. . | Salle, even up to the asafetida spoon It seems Jane had got a great big | crisis?’ I asked, with my cheeks in a book from some firm in New York that | flame, but determined to stand my tells all about herb growing and how | ground. “It does seem to me that na- difficult it is to get the ones needed | ture puts her in a position to demand for condiments and perfumes and of- | g0 much support from him in those fering to buy first class lavender and | times that she ought to rely on herself thyme and bergamot and sweet fern | when she can, especially as she is like- and things of that kind in any quantl- | Iy to bring an indefinite number of ties at a good price. She had shown | such crises into their joint existence.” it to the little ladies, who had been | Sallie laughed, for she remembered secretly grieving at the separation | the high horse I had mounted on the from their garden out on their poorly | subject of Mamie and Ned Hall the rented farm, and the leaven had work- | day after the assembly dance. ‘ ed—on Mrs. Hargrove also. They go And as I laughed suddenly a picture back to the farm and she with them. | I had seen down at the Hall's flashed She had decided on raising mint to | across my mind. I had gone down to both dry and ship fresh because he of tell Mamie something Aunt Augusta Neh . wanted her to propose next day at a earth. Amen! we get them. help! paid her. meeting of the Equality Tleague about drinking water in the public school building. Mamie has learned to make. with pink cheeks and shining eyes, the quaintest little speeches that always carry the house and even made one at a public meeting when we invited the men to hand over our $50 for the mon- ument. Ned’s face was a picture as he held a ruffle of her muslin gown be- tween his fingers while she stood up But the picture that flashed through my mind was dearer than that, and I put it away in that jewel box that I am going to open some day for my Both Mamie's nurse and cook had gone to the third funeral of the sea- son, and Mamie was feeding the entire family in the back yard. The kiddies were sitting in a row along the top of the back steps, eating cookies and milk, with bibs around their necks, from the twelve-year-old Jennie, who had tied on hers for fun, down to the chubby-kins next to the baby—and Ma- mie was sitting flat on the grass in front of them nursing little Ned, with big Ned sitting beside her with Lis- arm around both her and the baby. He was looking first down into her face, and then at the industrious kiddie get- ting his supper fount, and then at the handsome bunch on the steps, as he alternately munch- ed a bite of his cooky and fed Mamie one, to the delight of the children. The expression on his face as he looked at them and her and ate and laughed is what is back of all that gees to make the American nation the greatest on «Qallie,” I said as I reached out and took her plump white hand in mine, “our men are the most wonderful in the world, and they are ours any way They don’t care how it is done, and neither do we, just so we belong in the right way.” “Then you don’t think it would be any harm for me to tell Mr. Haley 1 think I could live on $1,800 a year un- til he gets sent to a larger church?’ was the bomb that, thus encouraged. Sallie exploded in my face. I'm awfully glad that I didn’t get a chance to answer, for I don’t want to be responsible for the future failure or success of Mr. Haley’s ministry. Just then Henrietta burst into the room with the kitten in her arms. “Keep her for me, Evelina, please, ma’am,” she said, with the dearest lit- tle chuckle, but not forgetting the po- lite “please,” which Jane had had to suggest to her just once. What you've done for that wayward, unmanageahle genius of a child, Jane, dear, makes you deserve ten of your own. That is— *“Cousin Augusta and Nell and Dickle and me is a-going out to watch the man put the dyn’mite in the hole to blow the creek right up, and Glendale too, so they can see if they is enough clean water to put in the waterworks,” she continued to explain. “Nell is a-going to take Dickie in her car, and Cousin Augusta is a-going to take me and Uncle Peter in her buggy. Dilste have got the kit, and Cousin Marfy is a-watching to see she don’t do nothing Oh, may I go, Sallie? Jane said I must always ask you.” “Yes, dearest,” answered Sallie, im- mensely flattered by the deference thus wrong with her. “How wonderful an influence the lit- tle talks Mr. Haley has had with Hen- rietta have had on her!” she said, with such a happy glow on her face as the reformed one departed that I succeed- ed in suppressing the laugh that rose in me at the memory of Henrietta’s ac- count of the first one of the series. Men need not fear that the time will ever come when they will cease to get the credit for making eafth’s wheels go around from the female inhabitants thereof. So I smiled to myself and buried my face in the fragrance under the bubbly puppy girl’s chin and coax- ed her arms to clasp around my neck. They are the holy throb of a wom- an’s life —babies. wouldn’t satisfy me unless well scat- tered in ages, Jane. On some ques- tions I am not modern. “Still I do feel so miserable leaving Cousin James so alone all winter,” Sal- le continued, with the most beautiful sympathy in her voice as she looked out of the window toward Widegables. “I wonder if I ought to make up my mind to stay with him? He loves the children so, and you know the plans of Cousin Jasmine and the others to 80 back to their farm.” “But he'll have his mother left,” I sald quietly, but very encouragingly. I seemed to see the lit b e “u} . that ‘had unclasped from the oak turn- . ing on its stem -and winding tight again. . “Miss Mathers was encouraging Cousin Martha to go to Colorado to see Elizabeth and her family for a long visit this winter.. She hasn’t-seen Eliz- abeth since her mother died, and she was -so. much interested in the easy . way of traveling these days, as Miss Mathers described it, that she asked . her to write for a time table and what a ticket costs, just this morning. I really ought. not to desert Cousin James.” “But think how lonely Mr. Haley is down in the parsonage and of his in- fluence on Henrietta,” I urged. “Yes, I do feel drawn in both ways,” sighed the poor tender gourd. - “And then you will be here by yourself, so - you can watch over Cousin James as much as your work will allow you, can’'t you, Evelina?’ “Yes, I'll try to keep him from being tco much alene,” I answered with the most deceitful unconcern. “L see him coming to supper and I must go, for I want to be with him all I can, if I am to leave him so soon. I may not make up my mind to it,” with which threat Sallie departed and left me alone in the gloaming, a sit- uation which seems to be becoming chronic with me now. If I had it I'd give another $1C0,000 to the cause to hear that interview between Sallie and the dominje. I wager he'll never know what happened and would swear it didn’t, if confront- ed with a witness. And also I felt so nervous with all this asking in marriage surging in the atmosphere that it was with difficulty that I sat through supper and listened to Jane and Polk, who had come in * with her, plan town sewerage. To- morrow night I knew the moon wouldn’t rise until 11 o’clock, and how did I know anyway that Sallie’s emancipation might not get started on the wrong track and run into my Crag? g His chivalry would never let him re- fuse a woman who proposed to him, y e and he’ll be in danger until I can do e it and tell the town about it. i Jane and Polk had promised Dickie and Nell to motor down Providence road as far as Cloverbend in the moon- light, and I think Caroline and Lee were going too. Polk looked positively agonized with embarrassed sorrow at leaving me all alone, and it was with difficulty that I gotthem off. I plead- ed the greatest fatigue, and my impa- tience amounted to crossness. the maternal CHAPTER XVIil. “Eve” and “Adam.” FTER Jane and Polk had gone I dismissed Jasper and Petunia ; and locked the back doors, put iy out all the lights in the house ~ 1 and retired to the side steps, deter- : mined to be invisible no matter who called—and wait. And for one mortal hour there I sat alone in that waning old moonlight that grew colder and paler by the min- ate, while the stiff breeze that poured down from Old Harpeth began to be vicious and icy as it nipped my ears i and bands and nose and sent a chill down to my very toes. Nobody came, and there I sat. - i Finally, with the tears tangling icily in my lashes, I got up and went into > the house and lighted the fat pine un- Al der the logs in the hall. They had - B lain all ready for the torch for a whole. 4 vear, just as I had lain for a lifetime until a few weeks ago. Then suddenly they blazed—as 1 had done. _ (To be continued.) It Is Possible?—The ceremony was over when an elderly friend of the . bride waddled-up to extend his goéd, wishes and congratulations. . Unfor- . tunately he could not distinguish be- 5, tween the bridegroom and an unsuec- cessful suitor and congratulated the latter. % Less than ten| Witnessing the young man’s embary - rassment, the bride turned quickly, ; it saying: ; “Oh, 'm so sorry he isn’t the man to be congratulated, Mr. B——, Here is my husband over here.” ¢ Doesn’t Have to Talk,—'Does the baby talk yet?” inquired the friend of the family of the little brother. ~ “Naw,” said that disgusted youth. ! “He don’t have .to talk. I have to = .= wait for Christmas to get anything,. = but all he has to do is yell and he gets everything in the house” . = “green tendril