Wichita eagle., 1888-02-26
MISS BECKY'S HOME.


was nothing else for her to do, it seemed
Who would think of Offering any other hom
to a poor almost helpless old woman, VIII
had outlived her usefulness. Having passec
her days in other peoples houses, so to speak
she might not mind it as much, perhaps, as
more fortunate being.
YES" she said, there's a vacancy in tn,
odd Ladies' home and the 500 thai
Parson Amory left me will pay my way
in, but it wouldn't last long if l began t.
spend it, you know, and shall have a warn
bed and my regular meals without worrying
about where the next ones coming from. I'm
most tired worrying about ways ard means
Seems as though had been about it all my
life; ever since father was taken with hear:
disease hearing the class in algebra. Now that
the rheumatism has got the better of me, Sc
that l can't work in cold weather, and the
doctor says it'll draw my fingers so that
can't use them soon, it doesn't seem as if there
was anything left for me in this world but
the Homeland / ought to be thankful for
that"
Miss Becky had had other expectations in
her heyday, when young Larry Rogers met
her and carried her basket; when his strong
arm padded her down the broad river to
church on Sunday mornings; when they
sang together in the choir from the same
hymn book; when they loitered homeward
in the fragrant summer dusk, and heard the
whip-poor-will complain and startled the
frefiies in the hedges as they brushed by
1t sometimes seemed to Miss Becky as if all
this had happened in another planet. She
was young then, with bloom on her cheek :;
but, although the rheumatism had bent her
figure and rendered her more or less hopeless
at times, yet her dark, velvety eyes looked
out like soft stars, and the ghost of a dimple
still fiickered on her cheek and chin in spite
of her sixty odd years. Miss Becky's father
had been the district school teacher in those
far off days Of her girlhood. He had taught
her the simple lore at his command, but it
was Larry Rogers who had taught her music;
hour after hour in the empty school house
they had practiced together, while he wrote
the score on the blackboard
But all this had not sufficed to enable her
TO earn a livelihood Her education, must
cal and otherwise, had stopped short of any
commercial value. In those days she never
expected to earn her living by the sweat of
her brow. Larry was going to give her
everything. How trivial the little quarrel
seemed today which circumvented this final
resolve of his. But what magnitude it had
assumed at the time! On his return from a
trip to a neighboring city some busybody
had whispered to Larry that Miss Becky had
been driving with Squire Eustis' son Sam
behind his trotters. Sam was Just home from
college, harum scarum fellow, they said.
who made love right and left and gambled a
bit; and when Larry reproached her with it
she had not denied; she had simply said:
"What then! If you choose to listen to Cos
sip rather than wait till your
But you didn't tell me, and I've been here
a week.
81 had forgotten all about it till you re-
minded me-" said Becky
"It's such an every day affair for YOU to
drive with Sam Eustis!' which incredulitv
SO stung Becky that she would not conde-
scend to explain that she had carried some
needlework up to Squire Eustis', which she
had been doing for his wife, and that as she
left to walk home Sam was Just starting off
with his smart chaise and new dapple grays,
and the squire had said: Take Miss Becky
home, Sam, and show her their paces:n and
how she had been ashamed TO refuse their
kindness, although preferring to walk thou
sand times; and how, once in the chaise, Sam
had been the very pink Of courtesy, and
begged her to drive over with him to Parson
Amory, three miles out of her way. that
Lucy Amory may see you don't disdain my
company. For you see" said Sam who was
not as black as he was painted, or as many
liked to suppose, Lucy can make me what
she will; without her / shall be nothing and
nobody; but they've told her all kinds Of
wild things about me; they've told her she
might as well jump into the river as marry
such scapegrace. And, perhaps, if made |
her little jealous-you know there's no |
harm in that, is there? AIS fair in love:
and, perhaps, if the old folks see me driving |
about with Becky Thorne my stock may go |
up, and may be saved from the burning |
as ParSon Amory says"
And Becky had consented. How could
she refuse to do a service for such a true
lover! So slight thing, tool She had often
traversed the same road since on foot, ~
her daily rounds of toll and mercy. Sam
Eustis had married Lucy Amory Years ago.
and was the foremost man i'll the county to-
lay. Strange how that drive had interfered
with Miss Becky's prospects; how that SIM
pie fact of carrying home Mrs Eustis' nee
ilework should have determined her fate and
devoted her to q life of hardship and the
Did Ladies home at the end, Talk of trihes,
Poor Miss Becky! She remembered once or
vice the opportunity had offered when she
night have made it up with Larry; but
,ride, or a sort of fine reserve had locked
Ter lips. Larry ought to know that she was
hove silly firtations Once, when they met
It Lucy Amory's wedding, when they all
vent out into the orchard while the bride
planted young tree and the guests looked
OF four laaved clovers, she had found herself
whether by accident or design she could |
lot tell-on the grass beside Larry: their fin
,ers met on the same lucky clover, their eyes |
net above IT. and for an instant she had il |
N her tongues end TO confess all about the
rive ana Its results, To put pride in her
rocket; but just then Nell Amory called to
AIRY.
"oh, horrid spider-on my arm, Larryl
Kill him quick-do! Oh! oh, ohi-I shall
ie-I shall faint.n
And that was the end of it.
The old orchard, with its fragrant ounce
ushes, Its gnarled apple trees, its four leaved
lovers, was a thing of the past: a c,,tton
all roared and Numbered all day long where
be birds built and the trees blossomed thirty
id years ago. 1t no longer hlossomed eI-
ept III Miss Beckys memory She had !
armed her thoughts to raising plants when
40 was left to her own resources, but one
ruel winters night killed all her slips, and
ne capital was lacking by which she might :
enew her stock. Since then she had gone
ut for daily sewing, had watched the sick,
ad been in demand for temporary house .
eeper whenever tired matron wished an
lting; but lately her eyes no longer served
er for fine work. and sewing machines had
zen introduced; she was not SO alert in the {
elk room as Of yore; she moved more slowly,
I'd Der housekeeping tal,mt was 10 longer N