Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-12-05
A TIMID WOMAN.
A GREAT BREAK IN A LIES
MONOTONY.
WRITTEN FOB THE EVENING Star BIZ
OCTAVE THAHET.
(Copyrishtedl
CHAPTER L

Crest's life. The last day she went out to a
little knoll edged by sycamore trees only to
gaze about the farm for the sheer Joy of pos
session. Yet she was not used to love the farm:
born timid and gregarious soul. she was OPP
pressed by solitude. For twenty-five years that
long hedge Of poplars had looked to her as she
fancied prison stockade might look to a con-
Wet. Her eyes wearied Of the billowy levels,
tossing like an ocean about the trig, four
roomed house and huge implanted barns; they
wearied OF the dusty currant bushes and the
unfruitfnl orchard. Most of all thew wearied
OF the one everlasting relentless face Of nature.
Therefore she spent hours daily nursing a
pitiful little show of flowers such as had grown
In the moist seashore garlens of her youth and
wilted under the fierce Iowa summers. In
doors she cut out pictures from the illustrated
Journals that at rare intervals came into her
hands and pasted them on her upholstered
walls. She learned to make paper flowers.
She hankered after the dazzling but unattain-
able loneliness Of wax flowers in oval glass
cases. She subscribed to a semi weekly house
hold magazine named the Homestead. reading
and rereading Gin her hunger for companion
snip the Correspondence Column" wherein
subscribers exchanged impair TALLY their domes-
tic trials their spiritual wrestlings the puzzles
OF rural etiquette and the best fashions of wash
ing blankets or raising II sponge
Occasionally in that oft-studied column would
appear paragraph like this: Il would like to
ask the sister from Mari if she makes her choco-
late frosting with the whites of eggs or boils it,
and please send a recipe for preventing rabbits
gnawing the rosebushes. LUCETTA."
Or, II dearly love to get the Homestead.
enjoy all the sisters say. Erminie writes most
beautifully! Please write again, Erminie. and
let us know how to bear our crosses III the right
spirit would be obliged. also, for a remedy
how to prevent hair falling out. LUCETTA."
When she read these Mrs. Crest would blush
with pleasure and feel the intoxicating delights
OF fame, for she was Lucetta.
But for most Of the time there was only
work to break the loneliness. To be sure there
was plenty of work and had been all through
the twenty-five years. Joshua, her husband,
was good farmer, but for a long while ''un-
merciful disaster followed fast and followed
faster" Once he had been swept clean of all
save hope by cyclone; once he had escaped
only by hairs breadth losing his farm
through the fraud of friend.
Twenty-Five years ago he had said: Never
mind, Judy, just let me make few thousand
dollars and you shan't have to work on the
farm. Ill sell out and buy store in town and
be postmaster"
All his life Joshua had craved the leisurely
honors of Office. He, too, was social He liked
to talk and he had gift for telling stories.
creatures had stocked that store will not try
to count At first every Sunday night. They
bought book on bookkeeping and an arithme-
tic. and it was Out principle would not allow
anything so like game on Sunday an exciting
diversion to practice making change with the
numbered counters of pasteboard left by
tramping farm hand. They did not dream
that the dingy red and blue and white disks
were no less than wicked poker chips. Judith
hacked them into the proper sizes and num-
sented all the subsidiary coin. By CON
sequence Mrs. Crests extraordinary swift
ness and accuracy in changing dollar for, say.
three dozen eggsat 1717 cents a dozen, or three
pounds Of butter at % cents n pound, were the
marvel of the Delmar shopkeepers From coin
to bank notes the transition is easy-in theory;
a scarcity of notes made it less easy in prac-
tice, but by dint of years study the pair came
to know the look and feel of bank note we'll
enough to enable Joshua to detect a very poor
counterfeit two-dollar bill at a county fair.
From that day dated reputation for shrewd-
ness tina. he no more deserved than he did the
gallows.
But the years slowly had dragged hope and
dreams away together. The little children
came; they died. one after another, and the
desolate mother felt, deep down in her heart,
that a doctor near enough to come daily might
have saved them. Then when the keenness of
their grief was blunted and they went for COM
fort to their old fancies, time and again their
savings had been wrenched from them. The
man would have given up the fight in despair,
but the woman chung to her shadowy hopes the
more tenaciously. Finally their patience and
industry conquered. The great crop Of 1891
had increased their savings beyond the amount
necessary to pay off the last installment of the
mortgage; they would actually have some hun
dreds in money. Six thousand dollars and over
stood to Joshua Crests credit at the bank.
"Only." said Judith to Myron Dwight, 81
cayn't help feeling kinder scary till the Sd of
October is past and gone"
MyrOn was considered the cleverest Young
man in Delmar or the county. He had been
to Iowa City to the university; he went every
year to Chicago to buy his goods, which added
TO his knowledge Of the world and improved
his toilets: he was talked about for the legisla-
ture. He was to be Joshuas partner. Myron
was almost like to Judith. She had
loved him, petted him. prayed for him, and
one except his mother knew so well whats
things he liked best to eat Myron's mother
was Judith's best friend-why should 1 make
q secret OF it, She was the admired Erminie
Of the Homestead. She was q widow with
this one child, whom she had educated out of
the proceeds OF tiny bake shop and an inf
mite ingenuity. They lived in Delmar. To
live in Delmar may not seem to the world
brilliant lot, Delmar being a Hat inland Iowa
town. but beside the lonely farm life a town
with two churches, bank and shops looked
like a populous paradise. In Delmar one
could see people every day just by looking out
OF the window.
''Seems like couldn't wait to get to Del
mar, said Judith, but l caynt feel to be quite
happy till after the 3d."
Myron looks at her kindly from the height Of
his six feet two inches. She is such a wee
creature, in a black frock made (but he does not
knowiD after pattern from the Honest ead,
with her little peaked. wistful, timid face. her
mild blue eyes and forehead, wrinkled by the
constant lifting of her eyebrows. peering out to
see distant objects on those wide and lonely
plains. Her eyebrows are thin and gray, and 80
il her hair. which she curls on a slate pencil to
would be pretty hair if she would not disfig-
ure it.
Yes" says Myron, 'Lollard is hard man
to deal with, but you have the money in the
Delmar Bank all right
1T amt in the Delmar Bank, it is in the
other bank, Mr.. Starlings bank at Ranford."
Myron's black brows met. ''Why, Uncle
Joshua certainly told me he was going to put
it in the Delmar Bank"
"Well, he did start to put 1t there, but he
happened to hear Mr.. Maxwell was drinking
man
Maxwell! Why, he never was drunk in his
iife' He is as temperate man ~ ever lived
and as honest
Joshua didn't hear anything about his hon.
esty, but 1t was this way, Joshua had gone to
Deimar with that money and he met Mr..
Starting in town; well. l guess Mr.. Startling
come up to him and congratulated him on the
high price he got for his wheat and it's being
likely our corn would do we'll, too; and Joshua
told him what he got and how he was on his
way to put II in the bank. And someway, that
led them into talking bout Mr. Maxwell and
Mr.. Starting said he was sorry Maxwell, was