Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-09-04

Then, too, the air was throbbing with
rumors of Indian depredations along
the northward trails, and everything
pointed to serious outbreak any mo-
ment, and when it came he longed to
be on hand to take his share and win
his name, for with such troop his
chances were better for honors and
distinctions than those of any young
ster he knew. Therefore he longed to
keep afeld. On the other hand. the
visit paid by Jessie's school friend,
little "Pappoose" Folsom, was to be
returned in kind. John Folsom had
begged and their mother had consent
ed that after a week at home Jess
| should accompany her beloved friend
on visit to her far western home.
| They would be escorted as far as Oma-
lia, and there Folsom himself would
meet them. His handsome house was
ready, and, so said friends who had
been invited to the warming,
particularly we'll stocked as to larder
and cellar. There was just one thing
on which Gate City gossips were en-
abled to dilate that was not entirely
satisfactory to Folsom's friends, and
that was the new presiding goddess
of the establishment.
what on earth does John Folsom
want OF. housekeeper?" asked the
helpmates of his friends at Fort En-
DRY, and in the busy, busting town.
"Why don't he marry again?" queried
those who would gladly have seen some
unprovided sister, niece or daughter
thus cozily disposed of. 1t was years
since Elinor's mothers death. and yet
John Folsom seemed to mourn her as
fondly as ever. and except in midwin-
ter, barely a month went by in which
he did not make his pilgrimage to her
never-neglected grave. Yet, despite
his vigorous years in saddle, sunshine
or storm, and his thorough love for
outdoor life, Folsom, now we'll over so,
could no longer SO lightly bear the
hard life of the field. He was amazed
to see how his sleepless dash to head off
Red Cloud and his days and nights of
gallop back had told upon him. Wom-
en- at Fort Emory who looked with APP
proving eyes on his rudy face and
trim, erect figure. all so eloquent of
health, and who possibly contemplated,
too. his solid bank account. and that
fast-building house, the finest i'll Gate
City, had been telling him all winter
long he ought to have companion
an elder guide for Miss Elnor on her
return; he ought to have some one to
preside at his table; and honest John
had promptly answered: why, Nell
} will do all that which necessitated
} their limiting that although Miss Fol-
! som would be young lady in years,
she was only child in experience, and
/ would be much the better for some one
4 who could take mothers place mo
one could do that" said John. with
sudden swimming of his eyes. and that
put q sudden stop to their Screenings,
for the time at least, but only for the
time. Taking counsel together, and
thinking how lovely it would be now if
Mr.. Folsom would only see how much
there was in this unmarried damsel, or
that widowed dame, the coterie at EN-
Dry again returned to the subject, I'M
til John, in his perpleNity, got the idea
that propriety demanded that he
should have housekeeper against his
daughters coming, and then he did go
and do, in his masculine stupidity, just
exactly what they wouldn't have had
him do for worlds-invitea woman, of
whom none of their number had ever
heard, to come from Omaha and take
the domestic management of his hearth
and home. All he knew of hel was
what he heard there. She was the
widow of volunteer officer who had
died of disease contracted during the
war. She was childless. almost desti-
tute, accomplished, and so devoted to
her church duties. She was interest
Ing and refined and highly educated.
He heard the eulogiums pronounced
by the good priest and some of his
flock, and Mrs. Fletcher, a substantial
person of some 40 years at least, was
duly installed.
Fort Emory was filled with women
folk and consternation-most of the
men being afeld. The SETTLING ques-
ton of the hour was whether they
should call on her, whether she was to
be received at the fort, whether she
was to be acknowledged and recognized
at all, and then came, mirnbile dictu, a
great government official from WASH
ington to inspect the Union Pacific
and make speeches at various points
along the road, and Mrs. Fletcher,
mind you, walked to church the very
next Sunday on the honorable secre-
tary's arm, sat by his sidew when he drove
out to hear the band at Emory and re.
ceived with him on the colonel's veran-
da, and that settled it. Received and
acknowledged and visited she had to
be. She might well prove a woman
worth knowing.
Within a fortnight she had made the
new homestead blossom like the rose
Within month everything was in per,
feet order for the reception of Elinor
and her school friend-a busy. anxious
month, in which Folsom was fitting to
and fro to Reno and Frayne, as we have
seen; to Halls ranch in the Medicine
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