Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1906-08-22
THE ONLY WAY
--o,~
. F course it was planned before.

~ r course II WAS pluHneu uSloie
hand, he knew who would do 1t
best, I'm sure, and perhaps II the
girls had known what the prize was
to be, they would have tried harder for
IT. although l think none of us would
have gotten that one.
1t came about this way: Ten Of us
girls have a sewing club and meet once
a week. We do not accomplish much,
Ned says because we do too much Cos
sipping, but then, Ned is horrid, any
way.
Right across the way young DR..
Thornton has his Office, and on warm
day when the windows were open, he
could hear everything we said, but we
did not realize that until afterward
We were all slightly acquainted with
him and were dying to know him bet
ter-he is awfully good-looliing, you
know, but all taken up with his work,
which made him even more attractive
to us.
One day we were busy as bees-if
not with fingers, with our chatterlng-
when the door opened, and In walked
DR.. Thornton. He held bundle in his
hand, and after greeting us, he walked
M to Maude, who is our president (al-
though how he knew didn't find out
until later), and said: Miss Williams,
have rather a peculiar request to
make, but perhaps you will overlook
Its popularity, as you know am a
lone bachelor am In an even more
lonely state than usual, as my house
keeper ls away, and there Is no one to
do my mending for me. This bundle
contains ten pairs of socks which need
mending most awfully (the girls looked
scandallzed), and it struck me to-day
that possibly as yours was a sewing
club, you would take pity OH the lone
bachelor and each darn pair for me,
perhaps one pair each will not be too
much Of tax on you, and ! shall not
need them until next week"
OF course we could not refuse, for his
loneliness and (apparent helplessness
appealed to us.
The doctor stayed long enough for
us to feel that he was not so unap-
proachable as he had seemed. l re-
membered afterward that he never
once looked toward Claire or spoke to
her during his stay. Claire Is our shy
one, with the great brown eyes and
dusky hair with touch Of sunshine
In tive call her our wood anemone-
the most domestic of us ALL
The doctor started to go, but turned
back and said, as In after-thought II
never thought about payment" We all
protested, Mortified at his Wishing to
pay for what we considered pleas
ure." WELL" said he, "since you re-
fuse payment, l will let you do the
work on one condition-that the one
who darns her pair the neatest shall
accept prize, and will take whatever
/ offer for prize-of whatever value"
We agreed to this, and he said, laugh
ing, "Will you consider this promise
binding7" We promised solemnly that
we would, laughing all the while, as
we thought 1t all an excellent joke
The next week when we met we COM
pared our work, and Claire's mending,
as we expected, was so daintily done
that you could hardly tell where the
darns were.
Then the doctor came In, and when
we showed him the socks he declared
: Glaire's the best, and. said that the
prize was nottquite ready, but begged
to be allowed to call on Miss Claire
that evening to bestow 1t upon her She
reluctantly said that he might and the
doctor suggested meeting next day,
in order that We might (his eyes
twinkling wickedly) see how we liked