Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1896-01-18
a WARTIME FEAST.
Three PitifuI Little Sausages ON Rioh-
mond Dinner Table.

mond Dinner Table.
ut was brisk winters day, and our
walk out Franklin street ADDED to the
insistence of youthful appet1tes. jim
mine declared that if old Esther didn't
hurry up the dinner when we
got back, he should have To
read the cookerybook to stay his
hunger. But, secretly, we were dwell
ing in imagination upon the rich treat
that was soon to come; and. on reach
ing home, both of US abandoned cere-
mony to rush pell-mell down the base
ment stairs. Jimmie opened the door
with a sort of mild Indian war-whoop
of delight. / responded in the same
fashion, and then-there, ON the win
Gow-sill, was indeed our plate of nut
candy as we had left it; but sitting in
the middle of it, her little red tongue
industriously travelling over every por-
ton within her reach, was also AS
chenquittel! Two cats, friends of hers,
on their hind legs upon a barrel in the
ard, their heads upon a level with the
plate, were engaged in licking what the
selfish hostess had left accessible to
their attack
''That mean little Aschenputtel!"
cried Claude, Indignantly.
"Poor little Uncle Jimmie, and poor
little disappointed mother!" com
mented Hal, giving his mothers waist
a loving squeeze.
Mamma, what did you do?' asked
Kathleen.
I'm afraid | cried-just little bit
Jimmie, very red in the face, drove
away the cats, and, taking up the plate,
was just preparing to throw the whole
thing into the yard, when a couple of
small darby children came running
down the street, looking so longingly
at the dish that he changed his mind.
Look here, you youngsters he said,
the cats have been licking this; but if
you choose to take it and pump on it,
your welcome to the lot With grins
and hobs, the little negroes took plate
and all, and scampered away. A mo-
ment later, my dear father came in
from his Office. AS he shook hands with
Jimmie and kissed me, we saw by his
shining eyes that he had good news in
store. First we thought it was VIC
tory of our army; but it turned out tic
be little pot of strawberry jam which
q clerk for whom he had done a kind
ness had sent as a present to his little
girl"
81 am so glad" said Claude, with
emphasis.
$50 were we," answered his mother
II laid the cloth, and when presently old
Esther brought in the dinner, what
should she do but set before her fMarse
Jimmie, a dish containing three hot
sausages! Where they came from, we
could not induce her to reveal. It has
always been my idea that out of the old
creatures little store of CONS laid by
for a rainy day. she purchased the
dainties to regale her pet. And so,
that day at least, we Toasted like kings;
every morsel put upon the table was
eaten with hearty relish, and to this
hour l love the memory of our poor
little pinched refugee banquet, where
so much affection and gratitude and
self-sacrifce went to furnish the mea-
ger board. One thing, especially, re-
member of it. My father, pausing
with morsel of sausage upon his fork,
sighed deeply and seemed to be looking
at something we could not see. Jimmie
and I knew he was thinking about his
other children; the two boys who, upon
bareback and raw bacon, were then
wearing out the end of bitter and
hard-fought struggle-the sons whom
never again he was to welcome under
his roof."-Constance Cary Harrison,
in ST. Nicholas.