The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-12-21

| ture and q daughter The furniture had
been very fine and had been very well
kept The daughter had once been very
pretty, but had not been well kept
mention the furniture first because
old Temperance Shape held it first in
value. She saw 1t safely slowed away in
the house before she let herself think that
Ursula might be tired and hungry. Then
she turned to her and snapped out dan
Lewis, the van driver-he was q jolly look
ing forty-year-old bachelor-heard her, and
told his favorite sister Of it in the even
iug):
"What are you a-walkin' round lookin'
| like ghost forl S'pose you're hankerin'
after somethin' to eat. never want any
thin to eat when there's work to be done.
never was q slave to creeter comforts.
Git along an feed yourself"
"Pcor thing" said Dan, meaning the
daughter, "she looked ready to faint. Pref
| ty woman, too, but awful thin. felt like
fetehin' the old UNI a regular smack. Those
old Turks of women always do make me
mad"
Ten years mother and daughter had lived
in the old-fashioned, two story and half
brick house, Of which they only occupied
the basement floor, the rest being let to
dodgers, when their front attic room be-
| came vacant, and q bill notifying the
passers-by Of the fact was hung outside the
parlor window. ITO a single gentleman
only" the bill had read, but q rude storm
coming along the very night it was put out
carried the "single gentleman" away and
| left only "a room to let" And the next
morning Ursula answered the bell to find
little woman in widows dress standing
l 4 ,,t, ftxvl Ia
albeit the tip of her dainty nose had been
tweaked by bleak November wind-un-
mannerly old chap-until it was nearly as
| red as her cheeks.
"You have a room to let" she began,
when Ursula interrupted her with ITO a
| single gentleman only"
But your bill does not say So" said the
little woman.
| ooh, yes it does" asserted Ursula
"Oh, no it DOESN'T" said the caller.
Ursula stepped out and looked up at It.
GOOD graciousI she exclaimed. 'The
single gentleman has been torn of by the
| wlnd.''
"Why can't you make believe I'm a single
gentlemaul" asked the small widow. "No
single gentleman could behave better than
do. And this is just the location I've
been looking for for a long time. Being near
the store for which make pin-cushiors and
sachets, would not have to leave my little
boy
She got no farther.
"Your little boyr' repeated Ursula, with
dilated eyes.
And she stepped inside the door again and
made as though she would close it at once.
But the pretty widow clasped her hands en-
treatingly. ''Piease, please let me come into
the hall and finish what / was about to say"
she begged.
Miss Shape opened the door Just wide
enough to admit her, saying, in scared
voice, as she did so: There's no use Of
your talking any longer. It's not me; it's
my mother. She wouldn't have a woman
in the house any more than she'd have "a
camel, and she wouldn't have a child
any more than she'd have whole meDag-
erie I'm sorry, but indeed she wouldn't !"
Pleasant old party" thought the little
widow But she didn't give up the ship"
to speak nautically.
On the contrary she coaxed more coax
ingly than ever. "Can't you persuade your
mother! Walter is very quiet child and
/ will promise she shall not even hear, let
alone see him. Do let me come. Your
face tells me you have a kind heart, and 1
am sure you would be my friend if you only
knew how much need friend. My hus-
bands death left me alone in this big city.
/ have no relatives to whom to look for help,
and-and-" and here she broke down utter
ly and began to cry in heartrending way.
| That settled it. Ursula's arms were
around her in moment.
There, there" she said, 'don't cry; you
shall have the room. But listen to me,
mother must not know it. You must be
sure and keep the child by you and when
you go out never pass the basement win
dows (mother and live in the BASEMENT
turn the other way. Ny mother has not
been able to leave her room since she fell
on the ice and broke her leg last winter. So
perhaps we can manage ii, but if we are
| found out won't answer for the conse-
quences, for my mother is very-a very
arbitrary woman; and now goodbye; she'll
be wondering where I've been all this time.
/ shall tell her the room is rented. Shell
never dream that I've dared to let it to a