The Opelousas courier., 1899-03-18

Clarissa template, very late :
Clarissa Collins-carried each pot t.
the back door and inverted it briskly
The little heap grew high and IN
stable. There were a good many pots,
and it was quite a distance from til.
sitting room window to the back door
Clarissa was tired when the stained
green-painted shelves were emptieC
and all the litter swept up.
"There!" she breathed with a little
gasp of relief, sinking into a rocker,
"I'm thankful that jobs done with
came"
Clarissa invariably spoke of the day,
a few weeks ago, when she and Jonas
drove from the minister's into the
little trim side-yard, as "when 1
came" Since that day there had been
q good m ny reforms at the Kemp
place. The heap Of discarded gerani-
ums and fuchsias was only one of
them.
81 can't and I won't abide a mess
of plants round, littering! There's
enough, goodness knows, that's got
to litter without putting up with what
amt got to. You've got to water 'em,
and you've got to putter with 'em
and coddle 'em, an there's always a
mussy, wet place under 'em and sprigs
and dry leaves. l can't abide EN- if
other folks can. Those that like 'em
are perfectly welcome-I don't"
Clarissa rocked backward and for
ward in the capacious, calico-softened
chair, communing aloud. Her come
~, middle-aged face had a look of re-
lief upon it. Once only a slight shade
of remorse quivered across it aud was
gone.
"He'd ought to know I'd do it,"
she muttered, "and he ought to have
got his mind made up by this time.
I've given him time enough ~ ever
since I came. [ told him, ten minutes
after, that I couldn't fellowship with
a mess of plants. I guess that was
good and fair warning!!'
The rockers took to sudden creaking
as if pleading in Jonas behalf. In
the sunny windows the green shelves
looked bare and lonesome. There
were little round circles, smaller and
larger, side by side along their lengths,
where the pots had stood. The big
gest circle of all spoke patheticalfy Of
Jonas pet cactus hat bore the dainty
pink flowers among its spines-that
"Alwildy' had set store by. Alwilda
was the wife that had driven from the
minister's into the trim yard first.
Even Jonas was hardly fonder of
plants than Alwilda had been.
'There's some sense to having
windows to sit by that you can see out
unused Clarissa contentedly, gaz-
ing out on the strip of meandering
roadway stretching bleakly away up
hill. "Now I can see the people
passing there's Deacon Pottle CON
ing already! I can tell it's the deacon
by the way the horse wags his head
and meeches along down the hill.
Seems to me I'd have a creature with
some kind of spirit to him. Why, no;
it's Jonas-as I live!"
With a sudden accession of nervous
ness, Clarissa Kemp snatched a rug
and hurried to the back door. Jonas
and the old horse were turning into
lane. She could hear the pound,
pound Of clumsy hoofs on the hard
She threw the rug over the
heap of broken plants and waited to
pull down one corner across the tiers
interlocked earthen pots beside it.
II don'twant it to come on him all in
heap" she murmured. "Jonas has
have time to get used to things. He
init a sudden man, Jonas amt. I've
ound that out since I came"
Then she hurried back to the rock
ng chair by the window. Jonas was
ust plodding past. !
"Why, amt you early, Jonas?" ,
Clarissa called, a little breathless with ,
lurrying. otis only 3 o'clock. [ !
wasn't looking for you back till sup
Der time"
eyes, I am early--whoa, back, Den :
lis. wh-o-a!-but the town meeting !
is early. We got through our doings !
ooner'n we expected to. They ap- ,
me moderator" :
Jonas voice had a ring of modest :
ride in it. Clarissa laughed appre- :
'iatively. :
II should say you'd moderate splen-
idly, Jonas, 'she said, ''but I shouldn't
We supposed you'd We moderated so
.
The old horse started up and went
on toward the barn, with the {
rail Of Clarissa's laughter in his wake.
"Clarissy's a real humorous {
'oman," pondered Jonas; "she's got J
II of it that Alwildy didn't have. n
Whoa, back, DENTIST" b
IfJonas noticed the unwieldy heap o
nder Clarissa's rug on his way back v
. the house he said nothing about 9
;. It was not Jonas Kemp's way to
~ things. In the trig little sitting
oom the barred shelves and the I'M il
'onted inflow of sunshine across them
ppealed dumbly to him, and Jonas Il
nswered as dumbly. His scanned K
Id face turned doggedly away from
windows, and the pain on it was a
visible to the faint, sweet face 81
Alwilda looking out of the daguer- IL
on the wall. Clarissa's keen Il
yes did not see it. il
Twenty years divided Jonas and
larissa Kemp, and Cla~issa was not I
Dung. She had tailored aud stitched pl
way all her young years in her small Ia
Lliage shop before she came, It had "
ssp assysa days wondas 10 glagisss's