The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1891-10-22

your friend Carlyle goes on don't take
much stock In him"
The old mans mouth puckered shrewd-
Iy He liked Hannah's spiciness and
thought she had q streak Of genius in
her what terrible critic you would
make. Hannah. You would not leave
the poor authors . shred Of vanity to
cover their nakedness."
II should like" sail Hannah grimly,
to make them novelists hop like hen
on hot griddle-them that food the
country with sentimental stuff out Of
their own heads when the world Is all
red hot with reality-suhering and tears
and groans and poverty and wickedness
and sin Il makes me mad that folks
can't write Gods truth II they must
write at all
She went out Of the old mans room
conscious that she had been rather rude
toward his literary aspirations, but she
did not hear him chuckling softly to
himself at the amusement Hannah's talk
had afforded him.
Now 1t was time to fold Judge Rivers
shirts and Mrs Prices baby linen and
pack them in the basket covered with
dainty blue mosquito netting for Dick to
take home when be returned from his
work When the kitchen was all cleaned
up, the ironing table set back, the clothes
horse put away, the irons placed In q
row on the pantry shelf, Hannah smooth
ed her hair and put on clean apron for
the afternoon rest. The April sunshine
was coming in at her western window.
making q warm, ruddy splash on the
plastered wall. Hannah drew her rock
ing chair and little work table into the
sunny corner, for rest did not mean idle
ness to her. She had pair Of Dicks
trousers TO patch. revealing Q comph.
Gated hole, six cornered and jagged. that
seemed almost as formidable to Hannah
as problem in Euclid. She was just
wrinkling her forehead over the task Of
trying to fill this aching void with .
round bit Of cloth too small to fit II
when there came tap on the door. and
before she had time to say "Come in
the door opened to admit the plump per
son Of Miss Ruby Armstrong.
Miss Ruby was Hannah's nearest neigh
Dor. She lived in q tiny white cottage
with q weedy old garden attached, and
kept her sister Jane, who had spells Of
being demented, when she fancied her.
self the angel Gabriel and would blow
shrill blasts on a tin horn out Of the
window to inform the benighted neigh
borhood that the end Of the world was
at hand But these spells were not very
numerous She was generally quiet and
harmless, and not without quick flashes
Of sense and insight and knowledge Of
what was going on about her that made
Ruby feel, as she said at times, very
''streaked." :" as II Jane were bewitched
Moreover, she had intervals Of remem.
bering things long past which everybody
else had forgotten, and suddenly drag.
ging them out to the light In Q eerie.
elfish way that gave poor Ruby creeping
sensations all the way down her spine.
Ruby never knew what was going on
in James mind. The poor old creature
would sit whole days together in the
sun, in bed ticking gown, made much
in the form Of . bag tied around the
waist with string, grooming senseless
little song and trying to catch imagi.
nary feathers she saw floating in the
air. Then she would FIX her strange
eyes on her sister and bring out some
thing from the depths Of her incoherent
thoughts that made the blood run cold
She was never violent, and at times
would take to her bed and sleep for days
curled up like dormouse, when again
she did not sleep wink for 0 week, but
wandered about at night, making q lit
tie, low, feeble wall like Q lost child
She had way Of purloining small arti.
cles and hiding them, and Of bringing
them out in unexpected moments much
to her sisters surprise. Ruby never
crossed her in anything except to keep
matches out Of her way lest she should
set herself on FIRE. So she went and
came, muttering to herself or singing
eeri,y, as she pleased. At times she
would pull out the old girlish fnery she
kept in her bureau drawers, and laying
of the bedtick would array herself fan.
tastically in q great scoop bonnet and q
big lowered shawl, and with bead bag
on her arm would go to visit some Of the
near neighbors, who always treated her
kindly and gave her food
James insanity was Of 90 mild type
it did not trouble Ruby much, but there
were other things quite apart from her
peculiar household and haphASard ways
Of getting along that caused her to take
dark views Of the world and society
These were principally the homeless vii.
lage cats and the Ill treatment Of horses.
and in fact Of all dumb animals by bru.
tai men and thoughtless boyG The
grasshopper was not so great burden,
but when Q NANCY, half starved kitten
with sore on Its hind leg came under
Miss Ruby's observation she lost faith
in the Providential government Of the
world and felt that the powers Of evil
were reveling much a. they pleased
One such waif and stray had been cher.
ished and reared by her and had now be.
come aS sacred In the Armstrong house
o. an old Egyptian cat divinity. Any
benighted creature In Littlefeld who did
not know and admire the virtues Of the
great tortoise shell Crumpet was i'm
mediately crossed OF Miss Ruby's boOkA
Miss Ruby was Stout-of that soft,
kind Of stoutness that easily
rolls itself into ball on q sofa and falls
into q catnap on the slightest provocar
ton. Even early In the morning she
was always slightly yawning behind her
plump hand. as II Just aroused from
forty winkA She kept no maid, and her
little house and untidy garden went
along In an accidental, lazy fashion pe-