The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1900-08-31
The Girl and the Woman.

Wrlge 20 ION heuE-. lou see now 4
hope
@This was too much for me. never
did have any diplomacy, so snapped
out, We'll, I just did write to Tom Kent,
anyway L guess I've got a whole stack
Of his letters in my trunk right now
sMy stepmother rose in her wrath
and read me a lecture full Of unappre-
ciated elOquence.
81 could hardly study that day at
school, and as soon as l got home ] ran
to my room and did what most girls
would have dOne-had a good cry.
Then opened my trunk to take out
Toms letters and read them all over.
"They we're gone, every one Of them.
Ny stepmother had burned them, and
1 think to this day it was a mean thing
to do.
swell, Tom had been such a good
fellow before his trouble and the firm
had thought so much of him that they
fOrgave him and did not arrest him.
His family made up the amount and
be left the city and started out new
somewhere else, but he never wrote to
me again.
ave moved west soon after and I
lost all track of him and he Of me
Then married and after my husband
died I was busy enough for years sup
porting and educating my two boys.
LAST year stopped work and made
up my mind, that as the boys had
grown up and I had laid by enough to
live comfortably on, I would rest and
enjoy myself for the remainder Of my
life. I took a trip east to revisit old
scenes and hunt up such old friends as
RENAMED, and I cannot tell you how I
enjoyed it.
"One day happened to be in the
city where Tom had lived and where he
had had his trouble. 1 was passing the
Kents' old home one day. 1t was still
dignifed and comfortable though a
trif1e old fashioned. I wondered who
lived there now. When I had passed
it 1 just couldn't help turning round
and going slowly past it again. I
wanted to 60 up and ring the bell and
some way felt as if the Kents lived
there still. But it seemed absurd to
suppose they did after all these years.
"When 1 had passed and repassed
two or three times my courage rose
and my curiosity got the better of my
timidity. My heart beat rapidly as 1
climbed the steps and when I rang the
bell an elderly lady came to the door.
knew her at once. It was Toms
sister.
81 spoke to her and asked her if she
remembered me. She looked surprised
at first, then as she looked at me again
she said, why, Lou Rodgers, is it
really your
"She scarcely could believe her eyes
I had changed so from a slender girl to
stout old woman. She invited me in
and we talked over old times and old
friends. Finally I took courage to ask
about Tom.
"She looked troubled, thought, but
she said he was living at the old home
with her, as he had never married.
SIS be at home now?' 1 asked.
Yes she answered, 'he never goes
out any more
81 mustered up all my courage for
final effort to gain the end Of my call.
"'Msy L see him. L said, we were old
friends, you know
ayes, Lou, but he is sick. I will
take you to him
"She led the way up stairs and into
large room on the south.
ST cannot tell you how pitiful a sight
he was, the man whom had known as
handsome, active young fellow. I
almost cried when I saw him.
"'Lou,' be said, SIS it you?'
she knew me in spite Of my increased
weight and gray hair"
The wOman's eyes we're bright with
tears as she went on.
at seemed terrible that a man only
in his fifties and still brilliant in in
tellect should be a helpless invalid.
He had been afflicted with a creeping
paralysis for years, brought on by over
work while overseeing lumber camps.
Little by little it had nUmbed and
disabled him until there be lay shut
out from the world and all its activities.
But still he chung to life and read and
studied, keeping in touch with that
busy world from which he was Danish
ed forever. One arm was shrunken
and shriveled and drawn close to his
side.
"Oh, it is too pathetic to think about
''And it was then, only then, that I
learned how he had cared, how all
these years he had never forgotten me,
how he could not bear to write to me
after his disgrace, but had always kept