Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1904-11-30
Copyright. 1908, by Lee and shepard.1
CHAPTER xI.
AUNT COMFORTS ASYLUM.

<1O4N1 OON1H I'M = 49, LIZ M.
Meier! Nezer!" called Aunt Com
fort, from the kitchen door that June
Sunday morning, but nc answer came.
II declare / never see the beat O. tina.
boy" she muttered, returning to the
sitting room, hes never round ceptin'
meal times, N then he's allus under
foot
I What is it, auntie," inquired a
younger lady, dressed in gray cash
mere, and drawing on a well-worn
glove. anything l can do for you?"
II want sprig O. fennel and bunch
o. them laylocks to put on the pulpit,
n the last bell II be ringin' in
minute" the elder one responded in
clustered" tone, while glancing into
q small, gilt-framed mirror.
Without word Angie gathered her
skirts up, barely showing trim ankles,
and, tripping into the garden, soon re-
turned with cluster Of fennel still
moist with dew. Then. stepping out of
the front door, she broke long twigs of
lilac blossoms from the two luxuriant
bushes thanking the porch
"I'll go on ahead, auntie," she said,
placing her fragrant bouquet on the
stone step while she drew on the other
glove, land you and Hannah can come
when she is ready"
Angie had always 'gone ahead" in
Aunt Comforts home. ever since she
had reached the close of school days.
And now, little past "old maids cor
ner," but not looking it, she ruled the
household.
1t was an odd collection, too, for
Aunt Comfort, large of heart as per-
son, had, in the sixties, contributed
husband and only son to the nation,
and to console herself in part had es-
tablished a sort O. 'sylum for the
homeless" as Greenvale would put it.
First came Hannah Pettibone, hope
less spinster, so angular of temper and
features that no one but Aunt Com
fort would have her around. Then
Angie, a tot of six, who one morning
had awakened to complete orphanhood
and desertion in the house near the
mill, and scared, hungry, and in tears,
had to run to her aunt's with her tale
of woe and the first news of her
fathers disappearance. After Angie
CdAuC al ln1POAk, WIZ WdlhCO
barefoot into Greenvale one hot sum-
mer day, his possessions tied in red
bandanna, and he unable to speak a
word of English.
1t mattered not, however for as
Aunt Lorena" Thorp phrased it, IF g
tramp was lool1in' for hum, he'd find
Aunt Comforts door open"
Her last addition to this motley col
lection was Ebenezer Talmage, OF
Meier" whose father had been sent
to Jail for stealing. and whose mother
discouraged by poverty and cough
had gone hence, leaving him a towI
charge.
AS was customary in Greenvale
Meier was then bound out" to tn,
highest bidder. That is, some land
owner gave bond for the boys main
tenance, agreeing to allow him so man.
months schooling until he reached tn,
age of IA, and, in lieu thereof, to re
ceive his labor until of age In thi
case David Curtis became Nezer's pro
prietor, but as David's table-board wa
notorious for its "thiuness," the hun
cry boy was soon driven to secret Wis
its pantryward, to end in discovery, 2
whipping, and bread -and-water die
for three days.
But Meier was not the boy to en-
dure this for long. and one cold white
morn Anrt Comfort found him hal