The Jennings daily record. [volume] (Jennings, La.) 1900-1903, 1902-05-03
Dhoeb' Ann's9
EASTER
y ANNIE HAMILTON DONNELL.
HE imperative clang Of the knocker

set the teaspoons on PnOeD' Ann
HOoper's supper table to juggling.
The two little corkscrew curls on
either side of Phoebs AIMS fore
head trembled. although that may have
been from the sudden, amazed start It
gave her. When had that rusty knocker
clanged before?
Land Of gracious!" exclaimed Phoeb'
Ann Land Of eraciousv' She threw her
sapron over the mea ger little supper array
nobody must see that! Phoeb' Ann was
Just proud as she was poor. The cork
screw cur]s she felt OF nervously.
The knocker clanged again. twice,
thrice. four times. impatiently.
Well" Phoeb' Ann breathed uneasfly,
II suppose I've got to go to the do o.
When she came back into the Kitchen
she had bandbox in her hand It dam
gled Imply from its pink tape handle, and
Phoeb' Ann was looking down at 1t IN
perpiexed delight
ut Amt bonnet. now OF course
'tain't," she assured herself. but 1t looks
so dreadfnlly like it, being band6ox SO.
And It feels real light and lacy. The boy
aaid it belonged here. He said he guessed
he knew where he was told to leave 1t at,
and he looked real smart boy on. my
land of gracious. supposing 1t was bon
net! / amt had q new bonnet for-hfteen
years."
words and set her thin lips into patient
lines of renunciation. "Of course 1t amt
a bonnet, but I'm going to suppose so.
I guess I've got right to do that"
She set the handbook on the table before
her and stood regarding 1t and lingering
the tapes. 1t was small and trig soft
frilling of pink tissle paper fringed its
gave certain little prophetic hints OF the
daintiness within There had been a card
attached to one of the tapes, but 1t had
fallen Off and there was nothing to indi-
the cover in large, angular letters.
In Phoeb Ann Hoopers simple under
standing it was gift little ISL short of
question it or waste any time wondering
who sent it. There was nobody in the
world to send a present to her But there
it was. on the table in front of her. and
she had right to it. The boy said so.
IT suppose it's bonnet-an Easter bon
net. Phoeb' Ann said slowly, wringtng
her thin fingers in her own peculiar way.
AN Easter bonnet for me! There's lace
it, real lace, and flowers. And it ties
under my chin with little narrer velvet
bows. There, I've supposed! Now I'll
open it and see. Oh, land of gracious, I
don't hardly dare tor
Her fingers bungled over the knots.
Her whole gaunt figure wavered with eX-
element. The gaunt shadow on the wall
wavered. too. The tissue paper frilling
cracked crisply under her nervous jerks.
neutrality-suspicious.. it Isl" Phoeb' Ann
exclaimed. shrilly.
She drew out the lovely little bonnet,
perfect in every dainty possibility of color
and material. Siivery lace lay upon it in
peeped from under and rioted luxuriantly
around it. Narrow velvet ties hung at its
sides. 1t perched on PhOeb' AIMS trem-
bling hand, a vision of loneliness and lux
ury that made her poor dazzled eyes
blink. The meager flame in the hand lamp
fickered suddenly, and grotesauely exag
gerated and distorted the bonnet on the
wall.
It's an Easter bonnet. See them vio-
lets-an it'll tie under my chin in narrer
little bows. But mebbe I'll tie it under
my earl do know. Angela Witherspoon
does hers. Land of gracious. amt 1t beau
tiful? Amt it beautiful? I'd try it on.
11xy 2<,y,
frail."
She laid it gently on the table, smooth
anS out the slender ties. Then she lighted
another lamp and holding it above her
head went TO the lookingglass The white,
prettily featured face looked back at her.
flushed into sudden beauty. Even the
corksCrew curls seemed endowed with mo-
mentary grace.
- Phoeb' Ann Hooper had always been
called goodlooking. and that was why
people said. Marshall Priest had chosen
her instead OF ANGELA Witherspoon thirty
years ago. Everybody knew ANGELA
would have had Marshall Priest. and she
could have brought him money and the
blue-blooded pride and honor of genera
fions OF Witherspoons. and the wither-
spoon ho"se itself. Well it didn't matter
much, air az people said, for Marshall
Priest had die" after a few short months
of happy courrship of Phoeb' Ann
Poor PhoeF Ann. She had had her
sweet triumph and her two three glad
months ANGELA Witherspoon had had
most of the rest
But Phoeb' Ann had lived out her thirty
poverty-strichen, patient. lonesome years
on the strength and courage of that little
one-chaptered love story of hers Her
pretty face had faded and her simple
mind grown, perhaps. simpler. but her
gentle heart had kept it's love and it's in
>Nocent pride.
She went back to the table and put on
the fragile little bonnet, then back to the
looking glass tfmfdIy to look at herself
In the shifting light she saw the face of
the young Phoeb Ann again, looking at
her out of the years, fresh and sweet as it
used to be when her straight, brave lover
looked into 1t, too, and murmured little
loving nonsense about it.
1t was long time before Phoeb' Ann
Hooper woke out of her dream and shiv-
cred with the sudden realization OF the
chill of the little kitchen and the dim
barrenness of It,
Land of gracious," she sighed to her
self. The face in the glass grew old again
and the silvery bonnet GROWING it looked
queerly out of place.
She took it off and put it back into its
oandbox unconscfously smelling the
beautiful violets she did it. Phoeb'
Ann did not know that they were costIv
howers-how costly-but she realized their
exquisite tints and instinctively tried to
draw in whiffs of the fragrance which was
all they la cked. She had no flowers That
after all, was the chief hardship of her
life. and she grieved over It. especially at
the Easter seasons, when all the rest of
the world seemed revealing in lilies and
beautiful blossoms. II Angelia's flowers
had only been on her side,
On EASTER morning ANGELA witherspoon
at her window was cross and disappoint-
ed. The delicate sweetness that crept |
out of the conservatory door and be-
sfeged her appeaiingfy only made her |
crosser. Had she not meant to carry the |
loveliest of the lilies herself to church !