The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-02-14


shall take your place in the store.''
"You can not do the work"
81 can. And you can keep house.
shall expect warm meals at regular
hours"
"a blind mans housekeeping"
'.Oh, you shall have an assistant"
"a servantq We cannot afford one"
mo. a dog"
'Laura!"
"Yes, dear-it will be ever so larky.
Haven't we always envied the blind
men who stood on corners with dog
to guide them?'
''And hand organs to grind. and a
tin cup to carry" Harlow was posi-
lively laughing.
ST will carry the tin cup, dear, and
I'LL 1t, too"
''Brave little girl I thought my
life was ended. Laura, can you
| bear it?''
1T will be perfect picnic" she
said, with tears running down her
cheeks-but she managed to keep
them out of her voice.
1t was perfect picnic in more ways
than one. 1t always rains at picnics.
| ana Jn6rG Was d rain VI GEdES 4OT Ln1S,
but also an intermittent sunshine that
soon dried them.
1t was decided at the store, when
Harlow's blindness was announced,
that he was to have a vacation until
such time as the firm saw FIT to sup
ply his place, and for the present his
salary was to be continued.
That is what his misfortune did for
soulless corporation drew
them out to deed of
beautiful charity. Then friends
came in to offer assistance, which so
far was not needed. They came tear
full and full of conventional SYM
pathy, and went away wondering and
rather plqued
1.-TWO children who do not appre-
ciate the gravity of the situation, D
said one sympathizer, with a sniff.
''Why, she talked about it as if sud
den blindness was a real blessing, "
said another.
But no one saw how exquisite1y pa
thetic the situation really was. The
two children" as they called them,
clinging together to the wreck OF
their happiness, both willfully blind
together to the awful realities of the
situation, but keeping up their cour-
age by a fiction in which they were
the principal actors.
They were getting used to the situ-
alton in this romantic way, and Laura
had their lives planned out She was
to be the working member of the
firm, and come home at night full Of
news for him, and they could still
take long walks together on Sundays
after church, and he was to have g
guitar, and learn to play; she had
always laughed him out of it, but
now it would be his one resource.
''But what is there for me to dc
while you work, Laura?"
sLearn to wait, dear, like Milton il
his blindness. They also serve who
only stand and watt"
Brave little woman" he said
''when will it end?'
sOh, soon enough, dear, picnic'
never last long. Well get so used t.
it we wouldn't have it different if We
could
Then she went upstairs and CRIED
herself to sleep
The next morning she was awak
ened by JOYOUS shout
.LauraI The sun is shiningl I cal
see. Thank God. / can see."
1T was true. The clot had gone.
the painless pain was ended. Like
man who had been once tried for hi
Life and acquitted it could never b.
done over again.
s'There won't be any more of tina
picnic" said Laura, almost regret
fully, although it had been such al
awful strain to live up to for twenty
four hours
''No, thank heaven" said Harlow
'T won't have to keep house"
Sand we won't need the dog"
"Well, we haven't got him yet, 5
he's no great loss"
ssNor the tin cup"
eyes, you can carry that, and wei
see how soon it will be full"
That's picnic" answered Laura
sit shall be our bank"