Middletown transcript., 1906-05-26

uGI H6W NublCo WtUAl % AeSN
helped to redeem her ignorance.
Fat, coarsely red, butin6nitely
kind, Kate Kearney beamed upon
her slender protegee like a yeri-
table star of wisdom.
She taught Margaret many
tricks of the trade-how to use
harmless washing fluids. and how
to boil just to the magic point,
which if you pass leaves the last
state worse than the first. And
many time and oft she wrnng
out the heavier pieces herself, in
spite of Margaret's protests.
Sure it's but a snip of a gurl
yez are, Kate would say, good
humoredly. Little of elbow
grease have yez ever had to ex-
pand on anything. Give yersilf
time to harden, ashore.
Margaret paused by her tub,
her slim fingers touching idly
the iridescent bubbles cresting
the suds' foam
It seems strange, she said,
slowly, that there should be SO
little mending to do on my wash
ings, and so much on yours. Mr..
Eastman's friends areQvery easy
on their garments.
Kate smothered something
very like a cough. When East
man appeared the following Mon
day with his bundles, she hailed
him with much apparent inno-
cence.
Miss Margaret do be afther
saying thin fri n S of yours must
be a lazy lot; bekase they don't
never wear no holes in their
gyarments Sure now, there's
old Pater McGill, that I washes
for, the drawers of him do be
busted and ripped to PAGES livery
wake wild the wrastling of the
critter in his shaft.
Eastman blushed scarlet.
1 ain not responsible for the
condition of the underclothes, he
said, with murderous look at
Kate as he dropped his load at
Miss Graham S feet.
But the Irishwoman merely
chuckled.
No doubt it's bekase they been
going it rayther aisy, she sug-
gested. Mkt week there S worst
shafts to drive, and they'll be as
hard on their thingsas y're afther
being yersilf.
Eastman retired in confusion.
For he could not tell what gar
ments of his own Kate might
choose to emphasize. But as he
escaped, he carried a problem
with him, the solving of which
came close to running his reputa-
tion for sanity.
Tuesday night, Margaret sat
darning Eastman's socks. She
handled each thread lovingly.
The commonplace task, now in
its fourth week, had become a
dreamy delight to her; such mir
acles can Dan Cupid work even
when he has no better mode of
a Western river
tits strange, smiled the girl to
herself, weaving her needle deft-
ly over the rent made by East
mans big toe, that he should
make holes in his socks, and the
others make none. But, some
how, I don't mid. I'd rather
have it so.
It proved, however, that Kate
was no mean prophet. The rack
and strain she had foreseen for
the hitherto holeless garments
Of the other men, suddenly befell
those unsuspecting fabrics.
For the two ensuing weeks,
Margaret toiled energetically
over the excess of mending; al
ways saving Eastman's clothes
until the last. The thought of
service ahead for him sweetened
her labor for her unknown Gus
toners.
Judge, then, her dismay when
she discovered most abruptly
thather secretly adored employer
had gone irrefutably mad
It was Saturday afternoon
Margaret had resolved on the
luxury of an idle stroll, and had
wandered farther than she
thought. Not dangerously far;
but the camp was belted with
foothills which made location
difficult.
There was no fear of getting
lost, for old Kate was with her,
the latter armed with a pail ready
for such few berry stragglers as
might remain past the legitimate
Ho4a HILL