Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1896-11-26
TALEOF ANOPEN DOOR

There really was no telling how long she
had been living there all alone except for
the two servants. Even the servants them
selves could not have told. Susan, the
cook If you had asked her about 1t, would
have said:
Law, chile, dom ask me no sech ques-
lions. Use been shet up in dissher house
SO long sc got plum moldy."
And If the years had not left mold on
the mind ard the heart of the lonely old
woman In the upper rooms 1t was not be-
cause the time had been too short People
wondered what kind of woman she could
have been when she was young, but that
did not really matter They all knew very
well what kind of woman she was now.
Not that she was so very old, either. She
had simply made herself old by sitting
alone and shutting out the sunlight and
thinking hard, bitter thoughts and get
ting wrinkles in her face and gray In her
hair Any one can do that who tries very
hard, but whether it is the best thing to
do that is the question.
Imaginative people said that she had
been imbittered by great disappointment
long ago and that il had turned her into q
sour, gloomy old recluse, hating the world
and everybody in it, but, after all, when
you came to ask about these stories, they
We're all hearsay.
OF the two servants In the kitchen, one
was Susan, who knew just when TO do ev
erything and just how to do 1t, because she
had done the same things at the same time
every day during all those years when she
was growing "moldy." The other was
Jane, the housemaid. Jane had been there
only six years, and Susan told her every
day that If she didn't quit "disremember-
in" everything that she was told she would
certainly git her walkin papers.
Perhaps the threat had been repeated too
often and had lost its effect At any rate
Jane went on "disrememberin" with the
calmness of perfect confidence in her safety
and left doors open and forgot to lock gates
and was altogether u trial TO the method
ical Susan.
Year after year this old woman had been
alone She had IA great, fine house, but
she lived in little corner of it. She had
great quantities of money, but she used
very little of It, She had no friends, or, If
she had she never saw them. In all SUI
sans recollection of her she had never done
anybody kindness. The servants had or
ders never to feed tramp, and as for CIV
ing money to beggars, why, dear me, such
"a thing was never dreamed of.
But il was Jane that ended II. Jane
had gone out TO the coalhouse and had
come in with "A scuttle of coal, and perhaps
1t is needless TO state, knowing what we
do of her, that she left every door open on
her way up stairs. AS she set the scuttle
down in the corner she heard the we'll
known command:
"Shut the doors as you go back, Jane"
And she gave the stereotyped reply:
Eyes, Mis- Arnam, ten TO it. -
So she went back, shutting all the doors,
but it was too late then. The mischief
was done. Something had whisked into
the room before you could think, and be-
fore the echo of James footsteps had died
out of the room there was the roundest,
funniest gray kitten running up Mrs. Ar
MANS dress and scrambling into her lap.
Once there, it looked her in the eyes,
stretched out its soft little paws and mewed
IN the most wheedling, caressing manner
known To kittenhood
The old woman did not throw the kitten
down, or push it down. or shut it outside
the door. She started to do all three, but
instead she only sat there, looking at the
little ball of gray while il closed and I'M
closed its paws on her folded hands.
"Well, what do you want" she said
presently.
The sound of her own voice startled her.
1t had been so long since she had heard it
except in giving orders to the servants.
There never was such a kitten The
moment she spoke to it, up it went, hand
over hand, over the bosom of the black
dress, and before the old woman could move
a finger IL was actually rubbing its pink
nose on her very chin. Not only that, but
IL mounted upon her shoulder and purred
In her ear and smoothed its silky side
against her cheek and actually clawed at
her hair and tumbled down into her lap
and ran back to her shoulder again as
though 1t were the greatest fun In the
world
Something stirred in the stern, silent,
grim old woman. The touch of living
creature against that withered face went
deeper than the face She raised a hand
and stroked the kitten and spoke to it
gently
Such frolic as that kitten had How
1t caught her hand and pretended to bite
her fingers with its ridiculous little teeth
and TO scratch them with all its claws at
oncel How it scampered about, playing
hide and seek with its own tall How it
up liO anu INC JaDlO
covers and looked ut itself in the glass and
rolled itself up in the Persian rug and en-
joyed every minute Of the timel In short
II ever there were n kitten that just simply
took possession of room and made itself
thoroughly at home there, this was that
kitten.
When Jane went up stairs to announce
the next meal, as was her custom, she re-
turned To the kitchen almost lettering and
with distended eyes.
Il bleebe Mis- Arnam done gone crazyr
she cried. "Shc sottin UP dore wifi Kit
ten in her lap, an she say for you to fotch
her dinner up TO 'er an IA sasscr % milk
for dc kittenr'
"G'way from here, niggahl'' cried SUI
san, and she hurried To- her mistress roop~
30 disprove James story. She returned
with slower footsteps and frightened
face. Mrs. Arnam had said to her: