Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-05-24
The Daily Short Story
THE ExILEs.

the waiting room at the depot.
"Mornin, Mis- Robinson" said Mr..
Holden. taking of his hat to the judges
wife. who had just entered the wait
ing room, bringing with her a welcome
breath of fresh air. She was going to
the city for days shopping.
Good morning." she said briskly,
shaking hands with both husband and
wife, grasping Mrs. Holden's limp fin
gers in a way that brought the color to
her cheeks. I've brought you a few
flowers, Mrs. Holden. L hope they
won't be in your way, with all the
things you have to carry. But l knew
how fond you were of them"
She laid a goodly bunch of dollhouse
carnations in the others lap.
Mrs. Holden expressed her thanks a
trihe stiffly, but her husband cried in
the heartiest tones:
'Now, that's what 1 call kindl But
Mis- Robinson allus was a great hand
10 think of her neighbors. oh, we shall
miss you very, very muchr'
Mrs. Holden smiled perfunctorily.
But hope you'll change your mind
before long and come back"
"Oh, no, nor cried the little woman,
with perceptible shudder. I'VE shan't
never come back, Dan1 and me-least-
wise without we should decide to come
back to be buried"
"Oh, can't have you talk that way.
you know cried the persistently
cheerful Mrs. Robinson. "Of course
you feel blue this morning. Oh, here's
the train! You must let US hear from
you, you know. Goodby. Good luck to
you bothr' And Mrs. Robinson was
off,
She Joined a young girl whom she
had left in order TO speak with the
Holdens. and the two in a leisurely
fashion got aboard the solitary parlor
car.
flectIvely as she settled herself in her
chair, that is a rural tragedy"
"What do you mean?"
CT mean what 1 say. 1 did all 1
could. 1 talked and talked, but no one
would listen to me-"
But what did their neighbOrs do to
them?"
What did they not do? You have
heard bit about our last years minis
ter, 1 expect He was an experiment
and strikingly unsuccessful one. The
younger members OF the congregation
insisted on having some one progress
sive and up TO date. They mistook Mr..
Siddon'S loud dress, loud manners and
louder sermons for the thing they We're
in search of. They found out their err
ror, am happy to say, and the Siddon
tribe have sought more congenial hunt
ing grounds
when the Siddons first came, they
were received by Elder Holden, and
the six little Siddons overran his neat
establishment and trampled down the
fiowerbeds unrebuked for n matter Of
three or four weeks. When they were
settled at last in the parsonage, daily
intercourse was still kept up. Mrs.
Siddon was disposed to be very friend
ly toward Mrs. Holden, who could hard
" be expected to make fine -distinc-
lions. A minister's wife was a minis
ter's wife to her, to be reverenced as
such. The poor soul was obviously
flattered by the notice taken of her.
Before long the good people began
to observe that Mrs. Siddon was
strangely, uncannily familiar with the
skeletons in their several closets-old,
old skeletons that had been buried 20.
so, 40 years. She knew all about the
poor girl who went wrong and broke
her fathers and mothers hearts 3D.
years ago, and the marital unfaithful-
ness that was hushed up and forgiven
quarter of a century back, and the
dishonesty of a trusted public servant
OF nffn oSx-s nd
ten years by his grandson's hearth,
helpless paralytic. How did she learn
these things? There must be traitor
in the camp, scandalmonger in the
congregation. People were very indig-
nant and asked themselves who it
could be. Suspicion fell on poor Mrs.
Holden. There was no real evidence
against her. 1t was merely their firm
opinion that it must be she. No one else
was so intimate with the minister's
wife, and no one else had so few
friends to take her part when accused.
"They called her up before the cid
ers-that sensitive, shrinking little wo-
mani She felt the disgrace of it as you
or I would feel the sting of the lash.
Her voice was so choked with tears
that they could hardly understand
what she said. They thought she was
shilly shallying. They believed her
guilty. They had no other scapegoat.
So they passed a vote of censure on
their erring sister.
THE poor little soul was utterly
crushed. She dropped and grew pale
and shut herself up and avoided peo-
pies eyes. Her husband resigned his
eldership and lowered helplessly over
her. Nobody went near them or had
anything to do with them. People
thought the way Amanda Holden was
acting was mean spirited acknowl-
edgment Of guilt.
"At last her husband saw it was
breaking her heart and decided to take
her away. They are going out west.
Imagine those two doves out westi
Am wrong to call it a tragedy"
l,a-