Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1888-09-26
OLD MRS. r. G1LTNER.
A Piece of News and How 1t AT.
i !. fected Her. !

Though the uneven stones of the viii
lase sidewalk were sunken and set
about with wide messy cracks, there
was certain congruity in their edges,
as if they were parts of a long slab of
rock that had once been laid down the
streets length entire, and then shat
tered by a mighty blow.
An old woman coming up the shady
walk was stepping heedfully over the
streaks morning rain had lett green
and spongy; she seemed to know every
stone by heart, for she seldom looked
down, her far-sighted gaze stretching
off to point where the streets near
ing sides met in blue smoke.
She was tall and gaunt; her long face
scantly hung in lean folds of flesh, her
expression sharply inquiring, from the
abrupt rise of her shaggy brows at
their Utmost ends.
There was a large bonnet over her
cap Of sheer lawn, whose strings made
a square bow under her clean-marked
chin; two puffy gray curls rounded out
each fallen temple after an ancient
vogue that fell in with the style of her
straight black gown, its cape reaching
the waist, its neck finished with a fall
of large-holed lace.
''I'm gittin' closer m Closer" she
muttered to herself as she picked her
footing along, carefully holding her
skirt up in front with fat-fngered
hand in a loose-netted mitt; Il oughter
be used to it, I reckon; but it pears
like kin skesly ha'bor the idee O. tibet
climb afore me.'
Presently she came to stand before
a little house that rose above the street
level by twelve stone steps sunk into a
steep slope of yard. The house below
had eight steps, the next but one had
four. and the gardens below that lay
flush with the pavement. -re.- f. =:
Old Mrs. Giltner had once taken Joy
of the fact that her house on it's rise of
ground was so much higher and drier
than it's neighbors; but after the grad
ing of the street her pride had changed
to mourning, for the process left her
cottage perched on a lofty bank &C
ccssible by a flight of steps SO upright
that when one stood at the bottom he
could see only the roof of the house
above, peering down at him with an
inquisitive wonder something like the
wonted look of it's mistress. .,.s..
Mrs. Giltner signed as she shot a
blinking glance up the fight; then
planting upon the lowest stone foot
in a beelless gaiter with wedges of
elastic let in the sides. she began the
ascent, forcing her body upward by
pressing both hands above the bent
knee. ~. .~..r-ss. @:}
AS she went on, always the same
foot foremost, like little child at
climbing, she counted the steps ina
kind of breathless undertone. Give
ali, six-ah. Thar wuz once q man
went crazy over once one is one.
reckon some o. these days II find me in
lunatic 'sylum a~tearin' my hair out
by the handfuls, an a-countin' up to
twelve an back fer everlastin'. I've
counted 'em ev'y last time I've clumb
'em since they wuz put we're; / can't
seem to hep is"
At the top she turned stinay, and re-
garded the ladder-like passage with
mingled vexation and triumph. Then
she went up aside path and let herself
into the house.
The open window Of the sitting-room
was screened with checked blue net
ting, through which the landscape re-
vealed itself in squares like q county
map. Sitting hard by, taking the'late
afternoon air with q mild oblivion of
the June loneliness without, was q
woman Of years that might lie any
where between thirty-fiye and fifty;
her face was small, her eyes bluish,
her dull hair strained back SO tightly