The Sauk Centre herald., 1905-12-28
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MISS PIERS POPULARITY
By Della Campbell Mac Leod
Copyright 1870, by Daily Story Pub.co.)
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d. VanCamp,
M. C. Kelsey,
Attorneys,

Little Miss Peters toiled up the
three flights of steps to her tiny hall
bedroom She threw her bag on the
bed and walked deliberately to the
mirror, only stopping to throw open
the blind for more light. She sat
down deliberately before the hideous
little glass and began to take another
inventory of her good looks.
Not even one who loved her-she
smiled bitterly at that thought-could
| call her pretty. She was homely. Not
with that piquant sort of plainness
that is almost as attractive as beauty,
but with sort Of ugliness.
The forehead bulged, the eyes were
dull and sunken, the cheeks presented
no contours to speak Of, and the whole
expression was owlishly pathetic.
She examined each feature as cal
lously as if it were statue she were
appraising. The face was the same.
AS hateful to her as ever. She closed
her eyes wearily. She was plain, IN
attractive-ugly. And if one ever
wants good looks it is when she is
twenty. Miss Peters was barely that,
but she looked almost any age, up to
forty.
She slipped the pins out Of the tight
little knot at the back of her neck
an shook her hair down over her
shoulders. 1t was not pretty hair. 1t
was thin and scraggly and mouse col
T,, II, 4
to get a glimpse of her profile she
could see her bent little shoulders
reflected. A bookkeeper who bends
over her work from eight in the morn
ing until six at night rarely has pref
ty shoulders.
And seventy-five dollars is not much
to pay girl who does the work OF
two men. Miss Peters sent fifty dol
lars of this amount home every month.
After her board was paid, little was
| left to waste on feminine fnery.
81 wouldn't care" (she had fallen
into the habit of talking to herself),
81 wouldn't care if l were ugly and
! poor if any of them liked me-" She
buried her face in the pillows and be-
gan to cry. Il never have any fun. u
She lay staring'at the ceiling, thinking
hard. And her thoughts were even
more pathetic than her face. One by
one she took the girls in the boarding
house, and studied their faces from
memory-and their friends. There
was only one of them who had ever
manifested the slightest friendliness
for her and that was Miss Mathis.
She did not wonder that people loved
Miss Mathis and thought her beauti.
ful-she was. She reminded Miss Pet.
ers always of a queen who had stray.
ed somehow into a cheap boarding
house incognito, that she might learn
to know and love the least of her sub.
jects. Miss Mathis, with her gorgeous
hair and eyes. was SO beautiful and
magnetic no one could keep from low
ing her. But it was the others she
wondered about-the dozens of stem.
| ographers, book keepers and school
teachers. Very few of them were real
ly pretty, yet they had friends. The
landlady's daughter was no beauty.
but all the mer liked her.
". know" exclaimed Miss Peters.
with sudden energy, ''it's only the gay
| girls that are popular l will make
'em like me, tool" Her face had
emerged from the pillow. A new light
was in her eyes, the light of one who
determined to conquer. "A girl who
goes along, tending to her own busi-
ness and living up to her ideas of
what lady should be. What's com.
ing to her? Unconsciously she fell
into the slang of the other girls.
She rose with fresh determination
and began to dress for dinner. She
pulled out her best frock, the one kept
refgiously for Sundays, and her good
slippers. She would dress up like the
other girls. She would even make up"
like Daisy, the landlady's daughter.
To do this she had to inprovise cos
metics. A rose petal from her best
hat put color into her cheeks and lips.
She darkened her brows and lashes.
She almost fancied that she saw in the
face reflected likeness to Mrs. Live
Iy, the wife Of a drummer further
down the hall. Then she began to
comb her hair Not in the usual knot,