Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1902-01-25
THE EMISSARY OF LOVE.

nllnOuS cneese-COth buster, soft as WOOL
from long use and frequent washing
and she swept it over and under and
around the three chairs on the piazza
with the same pains that she took with
her parlor furniture itself. Every team
that passed in the powdery road sent 4
cloud of dust over the piazza, but thot
did not disturb Mrs. Minturn 1t was
her custom to dust the chairs on the
porch every morning, after sweeping and
busting her kitchen, and she never failed
to do it, so long as her husband insisted
on having the chairs stand there, which
was, generally, from the first of April
until the last of November. Even when
the Snow was driving over them, in the
late fall, and the wild wind Itself was
busting them as no softest and most
searching dust-Goth could, Mrs. Minturn
would come forth regularly to tip for
ward the porch chairs and sweep over
and under and around them with her
cheese-Cloth. 1t was simply one of those
services which she had learned to pay,
religi0usly, at the altar OF immaculate
neatness-an altar before which she wor-
SHIPPED daily.
On this dry and tindery summer morn
ing, when the whole landscape seemed
blowing away in dust and haze, Mrs.
Minturn went step further than usual
IN her Partingtonian zeal. She busted
the pillars of the porch as high as she
could reach, and then she stepped down,
IN an absent-minded way, and busted
the smooth b0le of a maple tree that
stood close to the house. 1t was while
she was gravely Furnishing her cheese
cloth around the trunk of the tree that
she heard Adna Lewis painting in the
distance. Adna was the village station
agent and whenever he came mp the
hill from the depot to "the street." his
painting could be heard a long distance
away. Adna was largeframed and
Heshy and asthmatic. His breath was
wholly inadequate to his body; and yet
he seemed TO regard the disparity with
entire unconcern, never riding when he
could walk, and always being in such
pesky hurry" as he expressed it, that
he must travel at the most rapid pace
permitted him by nature.
lie was laboring uphill from the depot,
this morning, with telegram in his
hand. The receipt of a telegram at
Jericho was such a rare event that Adnd
always delivered the message himself. in
addition to taking it off ne wire-and
this quite without regard to the extreme
improDability of another message arriv-
ing in his absence. He would invariably
lock his little ticket office and march up
to the street as soon after receiving
4 telegram as his other duties would al
low. And so the villagers used to won
der, with country peoples vague dread
of kilograms, who was to be the victim
when they heard Adna Lewis painting
mp the hill in mid-morning or mid-after-
noon.
Adna came straight up the street tow
ards the Minturn house this morning, his
shirt sleeves iiuttering in the dry, hot
wind. Mrs. Minturn stood watching him
with a kind of helpless fascination, her
dust cloth still resting in one hand,
wall swami exclaimed Adna, ap-
preaching. Dustin all outdoors-be
ye?"
Little Miss Minturn's smile was forced
as she nodded her head. 1t seemed to
her no time to joke when n man was APP
Comm here, AdnyT she asked anxious
Yep. Got a--telegram for the-school-
master. Bcm' Sat'day. Thought I'd
find him to-his boardin' place
No he amt here today Adny." re
piled Mrs. Minturn, relieved TO know that
the telegram was not for her husband
or herself He's off fishin' up to Dodds
pond. Started fore daylight. Went all
alone. too
Hunt said Adna Lewis reflectively.
''Dodd's pond. eh? That's long ways
oif-upwsrds of twelve miles. Go with
a teamY
"Say when he was comm hack?"
Probably not till 8 or half-past to-
night Said he was goin' to drive back
in the cool of the evenin."
"Shom calculated Adna. "Now that's
bad! You see. Mis- Minturn, | know
what's in that telegram-of course. 1t
say: Yours received On my way
h"'le 10 Denver. Meet me Lapham June
| ton 2:30 today. Florence. Now, that
| looks to me kind Of urgcnt-dont it TO
YOU? Florence | take it. S that gal
| they say has Tilted him. Now something
| s happened that makes her ready to
patch it up, per'aps, if Harris comes
right to the scratch, duly prompt, hum
bile, and so forth. And there he is twelve
miles away in the woods to Dodds pond.
and the train leaves for Lapham juno
ton at 11:45. He won't be there She'll
be in an awful huff-and, prob'bly, that'll
| be an end o the hull thing"
Dear, dear dear" exclaimed Mrs.
Minurn. Her face was full of mother
ly distress. Its such pity, Adny!'
She cried. Poor Harris!Iand he's so
broke up over it! You jest ought TO see
how he's lost flesh Goes mopin' around
and can't eat hardly thing. Forsets
whAt he was goin' to do the minute he
SEES out 10 do t, Won't set with us in
the eyenin'-Sets in his room He's took
her picture out o the frame on his fable
and hid il away SomewhereS Poor Har-
ris-if he'd only ben expeetiu' teIe-
gram There amt no way we can git
him to Lapham Junction today, is there.
Adny?"
"Nop-not 5 l see" replied the station
agent gloomily. The fastest ho.s
couldn't get To the pond and git him hock
by train time. And them Hill roads are
awful"
"Adny" exclaimed little Miss Mintnrn
with sudden resolution. I'm goin' IN
Lapham Junction myself"
| What, cried the station agent. in.
creduously. You? You hain't hen
| away fom home for fifteen yearr'
! Il know it. Adny--I know in" renljad
| the little gray-haived woman, Il never
| seq foot nu train o cars hut once ana
| that was when the road was first hniIt
| and my husband wanted me to go with
| him and the other stockholders and their
wives ON the openm excursion. | was
shook M SO chen that hain't well got
over II ylt. and / vowed I'd never ride ON
The ears again. But | don't care. Adny
I'm goin' now, sure, Fin a-goin' ~ ID
II for Harris sake. Why. he's lest like
one o my own boys, Adny, the way
a vsslg a