The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1900-12-21
HIS CONSECUTIVE LETTERS.
They Became Mixed and His Wife at the
Seaside Had Hard Time.

IOA, no uC1 AuoOdAu pun OA1OO hoAo
bags in the seat beside her in the
sleeper and handed over six baggage
checks, 81 want you to be sure and
write to me every day, and tell me
everything you think, just how much
yon miss me, and all about the way
the servants get along.
"Oh. I'll keep you posted, . he re-
piled. ''You go ahead and have a
good time and don't worry about me.
I'll get along some way. OF course
it'll be lonely and all that, but I'll
manage to pass the time. It'll be
rather dismal for me to sit on the front
porch alone when it begins to get
dark, thinking of you in the gay
crowd having good time, and never
giving thought to"
Arthur Darlington. his pretty
wife interrupted, "if you continue to
talk that way just sha'n't go. You
know 1 shall think of you every min
ute I'm away, and if the doctor hadn t
said the sea air would be good for me
l wouldn't have thought of accepting
Aunt Laura's invitation. Please don t
fret me, love, will you? Remember
that wherever may be, and no mat
ter how gay my surroundings, shall
be thinking of you and" Towering her
voice to a whisper) my soul will still
be communing with your soul. .
They threw kisses at each other as
the train moved away. Then Bar
rington went to his Office and began
writing letters They were to his
wife. He wrote fourteen of them
enough to last two weeks. In general
outline the letters were about the
same. He started each by filling a
sheet with endearing words and declar-
ations that he was very lonely with
out his darling. Then followed the
local color she wanted in the form of
comments on occurrences of the day
in and around the home. The letters
were not dated, but he sealed and ad-
dressed them, and arranged them in
a bunch, so that his stenographer
could take off the top one day after
day and drop it into the mail box.
She had been gone nearly a week
when there came telegram for him.
Of course kilograms had to be opened,
and, When Miss Wildreth. the steno-
grapher, read the message she turned
pale:
'Why don't you answer my ques-
tions about tine housemaid's ankle and
your liver2 Am awfully worried. -
That was what Elizabeth Barring
ton had telegraphed. After studying
the matter for while Miss Wildreth
decided that it was necessary for her
to act. She was clever enough to hold
a position that not more than one man
out of fifty could have filled, and she
had the habit of keeping her eyes and
ears open. Still, she said to herself ::
The housemaid's ankleP l can
see how he might know something
about his own liver but-and why
should his wife, of all people, want
him to see about it2 Well, if 1 ever
get married.
But instead of finishing what she
had started to say she wrote the fol-
lowing dispatch:
"Leg and liver o. K. Don't worry. :"
1t was about 10 o'clock the next
day when another telegram for Arthur
harrington was received. 1t read:
Yesterdays letter contradicts tele-
gram. Why are you deceiving me?
Are you better today2 Shall I come
homer
The senographer's reply was as fol-
lows:
cam true as steel. Don't think of
coming home. =
Miss Wildreth had just begun to feel
that she had succeeded in settling the
disagreeable business when messen-
ger boy arrived with another tele-
gram, in which her employers wife
said:
Don't understand. What do you
mean by being true as steel? Some
thing tells me you are worse. Wire i'm
mediatley'
The stenographer replied:
"Never mind reference to steel Am
all right. -,
Mrs. harrington watched eagerly
for the postman on the following day,
and when he handed her Arthur
letter she opened it with trembling
fingers. Eagerly she scanned the first
page and was about half through the
local color when she jumped up and
ran to her aunt crying:
tMerciful goodness, what can this
mean? Three days ago Arthur wrote
that the housemaid was still laid up
with her lame ankle, which I have
tried in vain to get him to tell me
about, and that he was not feeling
well and the doctor had told him his
liver was out of order. Yet here in
today's letter he tells me that the
housemaid has just fallen out of a
cherry tree, spraining her ankle, and
that he made himself Welsh rarebit
night before last and ate so much of it
that his liver was upset. Why on
earth did the housemaid climb a
cherry tree when she had lame
ankle, and what ever possessed Ar
thur to eat Welsh rarebit when the