The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-05-16
WHAT KATE DID.
How a Dear Little Girl Helped Re.
store Her Mothers Sight.

store Her Mothers Sight.
When it first flashed through her busy
brain and spread itself out in all sorts
Of pretty shapes and possible colorings.
it nearly took her breath away. 1t was
at recess, while all the other girls were
coaxing the boys to let them coast down
the famous incline behind the school
house on the Lions" '.Antelopes. !"
"Puritans," "Dexters' and "Ligh thing
Expresses" or whatsoever their sleds
happened to be named, and Katie had
the whole warm school room to herself
in which to think. Even Miss Hvacinth
had gone to Farmer Bassett's, across the
road lit had come her turn to board
round with htnt) for something she had
forgotten, and Katie and the old clock
had the whole warm school room all to
themselves. l doubt if Katie's heart.
when she first thought of it, didn't dis
lance the beating of the prim wooden
clock, which, with it's clone of Wash
ington'' painted in CHASTITY, chalky white
and fearful emerald green's on the lower
half of its glass door, stood in solitary
splendor on bracket-shelf just back of
and above Miss Hyacinth' s orderly desk.
But Katie's thoughts were upon neither
heart-beats nor clock-beats, so absorbed
was she in the charming idea that was
dawning into sweet and real POSSIBLE
ity with every seconds hurried fight.
All afternoon she found herself hay.
ing to do battle with it-for it crept be-
tween herself and the personal pro.
nouns, it sat upon the very curves that
kept the divisor and quotient from
slipping into the dividend, and hid even
the big straw -colored map of Africa!
You see, Katie was very ambitious
little girl, and very much of a Yankee,
as far as wholesome thriftiness, or a
getting on in the world, was concerned:
and though she went to school regularly,
She managed between times to do many
odd tasks for the childless neighbors in
that sparsely settled section that brought
her in good many pennies, and every
penny was needed, now that her mother
had become blind. But it wasn't pen
MES she was thinking of now-it was
nckelS and dimes and even quarters OF
dollar, that should grow, gradually,
into pile big enough to pay the famous
DR.. Optic to perform an operation on the
dear, dark eyes of her mother, whose
one cry was to look once again upon the
face of her only child!
1t was their own good doctor who had
unknowingly shown her the possible
way in which to earn the twenty dollars,
which, he said, he would persuade the
great man to accept for the difficult and
delicate work.
That was only yesterday, when, so
chilled through from his long journey
to see a patient out of town that he felt
he must stop to warm himself at Mrs
Keene's kitchen fire, DR.. Saltus had
gladly accepted the cup of hot coffee
Katie offered him lit being noon and
Katie having her mothers and her own
luncheon ready, and, slipping bright
new silver dino in to the cup before he
handed it back, had said:
Il fear I shall never be able to pass
this house hereafter without thinking
of that cup of coffee, Mrs. Keene; so, if
/ should become regular customer you
must not be surprised. Your little
daughter brews most excellent coffee,
and there's nothing more grateful to a
man alter long, cold ride"
So little ever happened at the home
OF the Keenes that, after the docto. had
kindly looked at Mrs. Keene's poor eyes
and told her that very speedy restora-
ton to sight was possible, had left the
house, clambered into his buggy set on
runners and driven away, Katie could
think of nothing but what the doctor
said
She saw his kind face in the very bot
tom of the bright dish-pan instead of
her own round, rosy little one, when,
the dishes washed, she wiped out that
useful utensil before hanging it on its
own particular peg. All that evening
she thought at intervals of their unusual
visitation, and at night she dreamed
that she was offering coffee to whole
army of grayhaired doctors, who, all
and severally, dropped dime into their
emptied cups with little metellic clang
but it was really only Jack Frost trying
to split the little mug of water she had
placed upon stand near her beds head
that made her dream Of that sort of a
noise.
All the way home from school next
day her project full-ledged and her
busy brain teeming, Katie counted so
many chickens before they were Matched
that she had become, in imagination, a
person of great wealth and distinction.
Nor did the sight of small frame house
that stood in such a ''poverty-stricken
fashion," as she had always before
thought. close up to the very road itself,
tend to daunt her gay spirit. For now
there was a splendid reason why the
house should set upon the roadside;
and [ am prone to believe that the
brightness and fitness of all things
seemed just then to enter Katie's mind.
That the green shutters were amazed
at what, not fifteen minutes later, they
saw done before their very Stats, l
shall not attempt to deny; that the
tin water spout at the corner of the
house was not astounded at the sudden
appearance and nearness of a smooth
pine board bearing these words:
HOT COFFEE HERE