The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-16
MISS PETERS POPULARITY
BY DELLA CAMPBELL MACLEOD.

(Copyright, 1905, by Daily Story Puo Company) Little Miss Peters toiled mp the three flights of steps to her tiny hall ped- room. She threw her bag on the bed and walked deliberately to the mirror. only stopping to throw open the pima for more light. She sat down deiioer- atefy before the hideous little glass ana
 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 homeiy. Not with that piQuant sort of plainness that i is almost as attractive as beauty. but with a 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 | iously as if 1t were a statue she were
 appraising. The face was the same. As hateful to her as ever. She closed
 her eyes wearily, She was plain. un- tattractive-ugly. And if one eveI
 wants good looks 1t Is when she Is twenty. Miss Peters was barely that but she looked almost any age, up ito | forty.
 | She slipped the pins out of the tight little knot at the back of her neck and
 shook her hair down over her shoulders.
 It was not pretty hair. It was thin and scraggly and mouse colored. In the
 hand mirror she raised to get a glimpse i of her profile she could see her bent little shoulders reflected. book keeper who bends over her work from | eight in the morning until six at night
 rarely has pretty shoulders.
 l And $75 Is not much to pay girl who does the work of two men. Miss Peters sent $50 of this amount home
 every month. After her board was
 paid, little was left to waste on | ssminine finery
 T wouldn't care,' (she had fallen into
 the habit of talking to hersel). T
 wouldn't care if were ugly and poor | if any of them liked me-" She buried
 her face in the pillows and began to cry q never have any fun" She lay staring at the ceiling, thinking hard l And her thoughts were even more pathetic than her face. One by one she l 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 beautiful-she was. She reminded Miss Peters always of queen who had strayed somehow into chear bearing house incognito. that she might llearn to know and love the least oi her subjects. Miss Mathis. with hei lRorgeous hair and eyes was so beautiful and magnetic no one could keep from loving her But 1t was the others she wondered about-the dozens Of sten, | ographers, bookkeepers and school l teachers. Vrey few of them were real lily pretty. yet they had friends. The llandIady's daughter was no beauty bu' all the men liked her.
 q know" exclaimed Miss Peters
 with sudden energy. Its only the gay I oirIs that are popular. I will make 'en l ike me. too" Her face had emerged from the pillow A new light was in her eyes. the light of one who deter mined to conquer. "A girl who goes along, tending to her own business and living up to her ideas of what Iady should be- Whats coming to herF