Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-02-27
/ .ETlTlA'S !,
5 DAUGHTER.
8 BY ZOE ANDERSON NORRIS.
Copyright, 1899. bg Zoe A. Norris.

Eliza was in spasm OF suspense.
''What did she do that want
smart?" she begged to know.
Tabitha had finished darning the
stocking. She laid it across her knee.
smiled complacently at the deftness of
her own handiwork and slipped the
darning ball into its mate.
"She brought that big girl of hers
home out of the boardin school," she
announced with an information of dis
gust THAT'S what she did,
''And Tom fell in love with herr"
"Of course! What else could she
have expected, I'd like to know? Lett
tias pretty, but her daughter is pref
tier. Besides, she is II years younger,
and that makes a good deal Of differ
ence with man.
''Tom Jones is every bit and grain as
old as Letitia Kinsman," declared Eli
"a Indignantly.
She shipped off stray thread with
her scissors.
"And was right" she went on. "It
was. From that time on it was Tom
and Letitia's daughter a-settin out on
the porch together and hangin on the
gate together, and it was the girl that
got the little bokays and put 'em in
the vase on the mantelpiece in the par
lor where they could scent up the
whole house while Letitia stood by
and looked on.
when she first come, Letitia was so
bright and CHEEKY you'd taken 'em for
sisters il you'd seen 'em settin side by
side, but 1t WANT many weeks before
Letitia begun to get hollow eyed and
white and showed her age, every day
of it, Jest when she'd oughter been
a-bloomin her very prettiest il she
wanted to be any sort Of match for the
girl at all. 1t was pitiful to see the
change in her. She got SO she didn't
make any more Of her cute little Jokes,
and she never laughed any more. I
missed that laugh Of hers. I used to
like to hear y, settin here by the vim
dow SEWN. The girl laughed a-plenty,
but Letitia she got qnieter and. quieter
until at last you'd thought it was a
ghost Of woman creepin about the
house at her work, laggin sort of tired
like and worn out as II she'd somehow
come to the end Of her row."
She sighed as she unwound the darn
ing cotton from black hafi, bit of the
end and once more threaded the large
eye of her needle.
Don't know that? But he's q man,
remember, and men don't get old, they
say. Anyway, the older they get the
better they likes to hang around a girl
that's jest about fryin size. And that's
the reason says the mint I see that
young thing jump out Of the bus and
run up the walk to the house, her
cheeks a-bloomin like roses and her
eyes a-shinin, It's all up with Lett
tia! Them was my. very words, It's
all up with Letitiav
Gone night last week." she continu-
ed, II saw Tom and the girl out in the
moonlight together as usual hangin on
the gate. could hear it creakin,
swingin backwards and forwards. The
girls laugh come foatin to me once in
awhile, too, pretty laugh like Lett
tia's, only younger and gayer. So I
thought now Letitia is in the house in
the dark all by herself, and I'll so in
and keep her company. had borrow
ed spoonful of tea from her the day
before. 1t would be a good excuse to
pretend I'd come to pay it back. I
went around to the kitchen door. 1t
was the nearest way; besides, them
two was out in front, and knew they
wouldn't want to be disturbed. The
door was open. Letitia and me has
been neighbors SO long that I didn't
think nothin Of walkin right on In. I
went through the dinin room to the set
tin room and stood still inethe middle
of it lookin around for Letitia. There
was couch by the window, with the
moonlight streamin over it, and Letitia
was layin on 1t face down, like some