Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1894-11-30
BISSELL,.
By AUGUSTA HARMED.

| ! The Young doctor occupied the head of
| the table. and Anne filled Ter mothers
| place with easy assurance, as if nothing
ever went wrong in the Bissell establish
ment 1t was shame, Miss Carver
| thought, for Anne to look as cool and
unruffled as ice cream while her mother
was stewing over the kitchen fire. And
| then she was 50 undeniably, 50 eXasper-
atingly pretty. Her auburn hair-peo-
| pie caHed red hair red when Miss Carver
was young-rippled i'll mass across her
white forehead and down the slope of
| her round neck, and was gathered in a
great fluffy, curly nest at the back, just
defining itself in loose coils. The pale
| pink of her gown suited well with her
| dazzling complexion and dark hazel eyes,
dancing in the light of innocent mis-
chief. She talked all the time as if the
| light flow of her girlish chatter could
cover up the Deficiencies of the table ser
vice and the irregularity with which the
courses came in. Miss Carver, intrenched
! in aggressive silence, felt that Anne was
\ sham and wondered how far she would
succeed in pulling the wool over the
young doctors eyes.
But the doctor had no starch about
him. He seemed to find some amuse-
ment in the difficulties Of the situation.
He made himself thoroughly at home
and told so many funny stories about a
healthy old town where he had tried to
establish himself, and had been starved
| out for lack of patients, that Miss Carver
found herself laughing until the tears
came under her glasses. The Holmes
children were grinning from ear to ear
and stretching their lipless mouths like
india rubber bands over the doctors
funny stories. The table grew SO merry
that tired Mrs. Bissell in the kitchen
stopped to listen, while the old man, put
ting his brown, crooked hand up to his
good ear, did likewise.
He'll be popular said Miss Carver
to herself as she went slowly up stairs.
Hell make friends as easy as water
runs down hill. Father always said we
must distrust easy popularity l do
hope he'll see through Anne Bissell. Ii
her mother had any judgment with the
girl she wouldn't let her throw herself
at that mans head"
Miss Carver spent most of the after
noon spying out Of the window to see
the doctors Office furniture come-heavy
mahogany and rosewood, all the best
and handsomest: desks, chairs, cabinets
and pictures, implying the cultivated
and rather luxurious tastes of young
man of pretty good length of purse.
Miss Carver opened her eyes when she
remembered the depths of poverty to
which he had declared himself reduced
by the unnatural healthfulness Of ket-
tletas. Guess he's eXtravagant, she
thought to herself, as she tied on her
bonnet at nightfall to go and call on her
particular friend, the Widow Harkaway,
and, though the widow was deaf Of one
ear and partly blind, before the next
night the whole of Littlefeld knew that
Young Dr. Tibbets was humorst; that
he had been frozen out Of Kettletas by
the longevity of the people, and had
come to Lttlefeld without any visible
means, but with a large amount of hand
some Office furniture, and that Anne
Bissell-well, it is easy to conjecture
what was whispered about Anne Bissell.
The office was all in apple pie order
when Miss Carver reached home at tea
time. The Office door stood open, and
there was the doctor with his coat off
arranging his medical cabinets and
whistling softly to himself. Mrs. Bis
sell had put new muslin curtains to the
windows, and Anne had filled a vase
with moss roses for the center table
| those precious roses she cherished like
| gold-an attention Miss Carver never
| had received in all the years she had
| lived in Mrs Bisselrs house.
"The sun is going to rise and set on
his head" thought Miss Carver as she
took her way up to her room, smelling
! the tea biscuits from the open kitchen
/ door, But she could not hate the young
| doctor. There was something engaging
about the creature, she acknowledged
inwardly, as she laid off her things.
DR.. Tbbets certainly was a CHEEKY
soul, and he seemed to infuse a breezy
| life and temper into the rather distracted
| Bissell menage. Mrs Bissell felt her
work lighter, and Anne seemed to take
| new interest in home and to talk less
about the dullness of Littlefeld. Some
people pitied Anne and felt that she oc-
cupied false position. She had been
| graduated at the normal school, and had
taught year or two in country town,
but it was beside all the traditions of
the Littlefeldians to take mechanics
daughter, whose mother kept a cheap
/ boarding house, into the best set. She
was prettler than most of the daughters
of the wealthy old families, but Annes
beauty did not seem an advantage in the
eyes of the Littlefield dowagers, and
her independent, free ways appeared
rather lacking in reverence to the pure
Littlefield blue blood, whose pretenslons