New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1905-05-03
Ole Wisdo1n Of
f elbow
By RUBY DOUGLAS
= Copyright, 1905, by Ruby Douglas
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1
wouldn't have cared" sobbed Ethel,
burying her face deeper into the
cushions.
A tap at her studio door brought
her to sitting posture, and, wiping
her eyes with bit of lace edged linen,
| she called to the visitor to enter.
Beg pardon-oh, Miss Benton be-
gan the big, motherly looking woman,
did you send for me?''
She was the janiter's wife and lived
| i'll the basement Of the studio building.
Ethel shifted and continued to dry her
eyes.
Yes" she said Some one has
stolen my nice m-.A2f And she
burst into fresh food of tears.
"There-tlere now ceInforted the
woman, patting Etbel's heaving shout
ders Dry your pretty eyes and tell
me about it,
There's nothing to tell except that
it's stolen. IL just went out this
morning for a walk and when l came
back it was gone
1T was here when I cleared up the
room this morning" said the woman
ut was big and brown and long
haired, wasn't it?'
| Ethel nodded
Have you looked everywhere for
| it?'
Ethel nodded again. Yes, every
where. I-they could have taken any
thing else but-but that
Mrs. Carriers eyes scanned the
room, an expression of distress and
surprise on her good natured face.
They had never had any trouble Of
this sort in the building, and she felt
| personally responsible.
II have the only keys except your
own, and
ooh, Mrs. Carter interrupted
Ethel hastily, don't for an instant
think that l blame you! l only sent
for you so you might investigate in
quiet way"
| There's only one new tenant in the
building-a man on the next floor, but
| he seems like a gentleman I've not
had much talk with him, but I mind
| his dog for him sometimes when he's
out"
Il don't believe any one in the build
| ing would take it, but-well, it is gone.
| 1t was not the value of the muff, butt
Ethel hesitated and deeper color
| flooded her face-"it was all had left
| that "a very dear friend gave me-"
Even dense Mrs. Garter noticed the
nh 81 hn Old tha
slight hesitation as to the fitness of the
| word friend"
TN keep my eyes open, Miss Ben
| ton, and in the meantime don't spoil
| your eyes crying"
"All right" replied Ethel family as
the door closed on the janitors wife.
But she did cry! How wildly she re-
called the day Bert Cameron had given
her the muff. Hawkins, his old chum,
had sent the skin from Idaho, and the
| muff had been made to match Bert's
| gloves and cap! They had been en-
gagged then only few months and
well, when they had broken their en-
gagement it was summer, and, in re.
| turning his ring and the other things
he had given her, the muff, packed in a
cedar chest for the warm months, had
been forgotten. When she had brought
it out again it was too late, and she
had kept it. Often when her pupils had
been hopelessly out Of tune, when they
had seemed not to know one note from
another nor piano from any other
| plaything, she had come home all ex
| hausted to bury her face in the shaggy
warm fur and regret many things
Now it was gone, like it's donor, from
her life. -
/ # -
Cameron opened the door Of his room
with little enthusiasm. He did not
fancy this place much more than many
other abodes he had taken up in the
last year. He was sorry he had left
the home town, after all, for there at
least he had home. And yet he could
not bear the place after she had gone.
| Hello, Fellow he said to the frisky
fox terrier, who had gone into ecstasies
Of delight on hearing his masters key
in the lock-
| WHAT'S Cameron picked up a
brown muff from the sofa. He put his
hands into it, and his face paled. Sc
| she had returned even that one last
remembrance of him. He had cherish.
| ed the thought that perhaps she would
think of him when she used the muff
inasmuch as she had. kept it. But
now
A flash Of establishment crossed his
face. Where was she? That she was
in the great city he had known when
he came, but where? He felt within the
muff's soft lining for note, a word
a clew of some sort, but there was nc
sign. Then he closed his eyes in the
depths Of the shaggy brown fur. He
felt sentimental, bit foolish, when he
did it, but who save Fellow would see
him?
| 'Miss Benton" began Mrs. Carter
entering Ethel's studio just as thai
young woman, trim in her brown walk
ing suit. was leaving for a lesson, 'I've
found your muff."
| 1sThatT, cria1 FthaI