The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-11-09

hasten either one way or the Otnef, ana
do not have to be nailed according to
the season, and furnace that is not
always coming to pieces in the coolest
weather, and a front door that has not
a gap of q. half-inch between door and
sill, and dining-room where the house
has not settled SO that there is an in
clined plane you could coast on from
the window to the stove" Iwound up,
breathlessly.
Apparently our united objections
had negatived the plan beyond ques-
ton. For full five minutes we sat In
silence. Then:
81 wonder if he would mind cold
dinner washing daysP' said voice
from the shadowy doorway.
HE will not be here to dinner or
through the day; that is the best of it, "
said Matilda. thoughtfully.
81 shall have nervous prostration if
VIE don't have somebody" threatened
Lou. II will not be left alone"
"But we will not have Just anybody.
If we are really to have boarder, we
must have one that will suit us exactly.
l will tell you the kind we want"
"But they don't keep intelligence
offices for boarders." objected Jack.
"That need make no difference. He
can be found" and leaning back in my
favorite low chair, l proceeded to give
the necessary qualifications in our de-
fender. "a thick, brown mustache.
There is nothing 1 dislike more than a
thin, sandy one. He is to show no sus-
picion of badness. What pity it is so
many young men are fast getting bald!
Easy to talk with, handsome teeth, me-
dunn height, and rather slender. There
is something positively oppressive IN a
big man about small house. Dark
eyes, too. / never did like pale ones.
And be sure his hat is nice. If it is not,
we shall have nothing to say to him, ="
quoting half to myself from my favorite
writer,
"'yirtue may struggle in bad cravat.
But man and nature scOrn the shocking
hat;'"
and before reached the end of the last
line it dawned upon me, to my sud-
den horror, that / had been describing
somebody the exact opposite of Jack
Walcott.
But luckily he had not noticed. He
was not one who did notice such things,
and indeed midway in my description
had begun to occupy himself in clean
ing his pipe, preparatory to another
good smoke, from the unusual amount
of care he seemed to be bestowing upon
it, till we were undeceived by his put
ting it in his pocket and rising. ''Not
goingP" in chorus. Yes, he must. Oh,
yes, he knew it was early, but he had
some writing to do at home; and he
went off, fondly accompanied by Billy
to the end of the street, leaving behind
him the promise that he would find the
desired boarder for us. We felt at ease
on that point, for what Jack promised,
though it had been the discovery of the
north pole, was as good as accom-
plished. Three days later Billy left us,
agreeing with manly indifference to
''come home when he could and write
when he had time" Not for worlds
would our brother have had it appear
he would want to see us as much as we
should him. His farewell present, with
a derisive grin, was a brass chain for
the front door. 1t was received, how
ever, in quite another spirit, and speed
lily became Louis greatest comfort, she
even putting it up when we were at
dinner, or she was left alone five min
utes in broad daylight.
For our Reign of Terror had begun,
and the brass chain was but one of the
many expedients of the fertile feminine
mind-of course it was the invention of
a feminine mind-has devised that
thieves shall enter not, and at which
burglar with any sense of humor must
smile as he calmly strips the house of
its valuables. Every night at shutdown
we made round of the house, and
locked all the windows we could. Upon
those which could not be locked-thanks
to our landlord again-were placed flat
irons. The back doors were likewise
secured by a continuance like huge
hair-pin placed over knob and through
key. There were nine of these. Lou
had them in charge. At bedtime a
careful inspection Of our chambers was
made in body, not even the cabinets
and small closets being overlooked, all
the dresses in the latter being probed,
that no man might lurk within their
folds. Every night all the silver was
placed in a basket and hidden under a
pile of comforters; the few valuables
that still remained-relics of other DAYS
were slowed away in various odd
places. They might almost as well
have been stolen, for the next morning
we never could remember where we had
put them, in our terror the night before,
while each of us had particular object
for which we cared, and about which
our fears tenderly lowered.
Every night, the last thing, Lou would
90 to the spare-room closet and look at
her best bonnet. Why, we did not
know, unless possessed by the idea that
the burglar wanted it for his wife. And
the visit was regularly accompanied, on
opening the closet door-after the exer-
else of much strength, for, like the rest
of our doors, it did not work rightly
shrieks; for, clad in Matilda's best black
silk, there confronted her-Harriet.
Harriet was the dummy wherein we
draped our dresses, after having ex-
hausted each others patience in our
amateur dressmaking. The object of
my care was a matchbox. l can not
explain that either. 1t was not a valua-
BILE one, only pretty French design of
a trunk, with pair of boots thrown on
top by way of handle. / did not give it
a thought daytimes, but with the ap-
proach of darkness my fears began to
gather around it, and by bedtime l
could not have slept if had not placed
my precious matchbox in the deepest
pigeon-hole of my desk underneath a
pile of old MSS. Matilda displayed
more reason in her fetch. it being a
heavy gold watch-chain that had been
presented to Daniel Webster by the
State of California on its admission to
the Union, and that had fallen to her
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