The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1898-11-30
TALE OF AN
OPEN DOOR.

There -eally was no telling how long
she had been living there all alone ex-
cept for the two servants. Even the
servants themselves could not have
told. Susan, the cook, if you had ask
ed her about it, would have said;
Law, chile, don't ask me no seeh
questions. I've been shetu in dissher
house so long Pse got plum moldy."
And if the years had not left mold
on the mind and the heart of the lonely
old woman in the upper rooms it was
not because the time had been short
People wondered what kind of wom-
an she could have been when she was
young, but that did not really matter
They all knew very well what kind 0f
a woman she was now. Not that she
was so very old, either. Sne had sim
ply made herself old by sitting alone
and shutting out the sunlight and
thinking hard, bitter thoughts, and
getting wrinkles in her face and gray
hair on her head. Any one can do that
who tries very hard, but whether it is
the best thing to do, that is the ques-
ton.
Imaginative people said that she had
been embittered by great disappoint-
ment long ago, and that it had turned
her into a sour, gloomy old recluse.
hating the world aud erybody in il >
but, after all, when you came to ask
about these stories they were all hear
say.
OF the two servants in The kitchen.
one was Susan, who knew just when
to do everything and just how to do it.
because she did 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 ''disrememberin' every
thing that she was told, she would GER
tainly ''git her walkin' papers" !"
Perhaps the threat rad been repeated
too often, and had lost its effect Al
any rate Jane went on ''disremember-
in" with the csimness of perfect con-
fidence in her safety, and left door
open and forgot to lock gates, and was
altogether a trial TO the methodieal
Susan.
Year after year this old woman had
been alone. She had a great, fine
house, but she lived in little corner o.
it. She had great quantities Of money
but she used very little of it. She bad
no friends, or if she had, she never saw
them. In all Susan's recollection Ol
her she had never done anybody s
kindness. The servants had orders
never to feed tramp, and as for Civ
ing money to beggars, why, dear me
such thing was never dreamed of.
But it was Jane that ended it. Jane
had gone out TO the coalhouse and haa
come in with a scuttle Of coal, and per
haps it is needless to state, knowing
what We do of her, that she left every
dor open on her way up stairs. AZ
she set the scuttle down in the cornel
she heard the well-known command
"Shut the door as you go back, Jane. ,
And she gave the stereotyped reply
"Yes, Mis- Arnam, ten to it"
So she went back shutting all th'
d lors, but it was too late then. The
M 'schief was done. Something haC
waisked into the room before you couls
think, and before the echo of Jane
70 Dtsteps had died out of the room Their
was the roundest, funniest gray kitten
running up Mrs. Arnam's dress an'
scrambling into her lap. Once there
it looked her in the eyes, stretched on
its soft little paws and mewed in th
most wheedling, earessing manne
known to kittenhood.
The old woman did not throw tn
kitten down, or push it down, or shu
it outside the door. She started to d
all three, but instead she only sat there
looking at the little ball of gray Will
it closed and unelosed its paws on he
folded hands.
"weIl, what do you want ." she sal
presently.
The sound of her own voice startle
her. 1t had heen so long since she ha
heard it except in giving orders TO th
servants.
There never was such kitten. Th
moment she spoke to it, up it wen
hand over hand, over the bosom Of I'll
black dress, and before the old woma
could move a finger it was actually rul
bing its pink nose on her very ehiI
Not only that, but it mounted upon he
shoulder and purred in her ear an
smoothed its silky side against h'
cheek and actually clawed at her ha
and tumbled down into her lap 81
ran back to her shoulder again |
though it were the greatest fun in Il
world.
Something stirred in the stern, silen
grim old woman. The touch of a Ii
ing creature against that withered IA
went deeper than the face. She raiss
hand and stroked the kitten, an
spoke to it gently.
Such a frolic IS that kitten had Ho
it caught her hand and pretended
bite her fingers with its ridiculous lit
teeth and scratch them with all
claws at once. How it scamper
aho.,+ ,,fa,.ioc, bida and seek with