The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-02-25
THE EVENING STOR Y
In the Fire Light
by Margaret Lester.

For a minute it seemed to him as IL
his beautiful plans were tumelne
about his ears, just as the card mouse
| of his childhood had fallen flat at the
moment when victory perched on their
gable ends. But as the boy had pa
| tiently rebuilt the card houses, SO now
Tom Graham resolutely set 10 rear
anew his air castles of matrlmonlai
| happiness.
| "Of course, Nellie, I'd rather you
wouldn't work at all. No real man
/ likes his wife to earn her living. But
i if you're set on staying at the Factory
a few months longer, why, let's get
married anyhow, and you and can 90
| the work together night and morning
| somehow and take our dinners at the
hotel on Sundays-
mot much.' replied pretty Nellie
/ Dunsmore, patting the carpet nervous
| " with her beaded slipper. I'D be a
bright in no time, trying to work DAY
and night. AS soon as you get twenty
a week, twice what I'm getting now,
I'm ready to give up my job. After
| having ten a week to spend just on
myself, there's no use talking ABOUT
the two CT us living on $3.50 per, with
| taxes and insurance to pay ana the
cottage needing painting II you rear
| Iy loved me, you'd sell the place. Tim
Sullivan's just dying to buy it. Then
we'd furnish up a couple of rooms
| here in the hotel and live in style. Mrs.
| Conroy'd give US special rate
"Of fourteen a week, leaving three
| fifty for clothes and incidentals-"
We'll, there's the money you get for
| the place." Graham's face turned
stern and Nellie added hastily: "Or L q
| stay at the factory until you got your
raise and then maybe we could And
another place. Anyhow, we'd be put
ting money in bank
Tom Graham bent over and took
both the girls hands in his.
Nellie, dear, I've some old-fash-
toned ideas about marriage and-you.
I don't want you to live in hotel af-
ter we're married, with nothing to do
but listen to the gossip of Mrs. -Conroy
and her sort I want a home
Nellie flung aside his hands angrily.
ooh, well, of course, if you want a
home and not a wife--you might hire
one of the Mccarthy sisters-theyre
past forty and won't make gossip-to
keep house for you. But as for me, 1
don't marry until I see something be-
sides dish-washing in a shabby cottage
before me-"
Graham was very white now. In the
days gone by they had played in that
shabby cottage" oh, how happily! 1t
had been Nellie's one refuge from an
unhappy, fearful mother, who had first
driven her husband to drink and then
followed him to premature grave
Something like an Illuminating mes
sage flashed through his being. If he
peared distasteful to her, she might
become as dissatisfied and fearful as
her mother. He rose abruptly. He
could not picture Nellie in tears, but
there were little lines around her
mouth at this moment that he did not
like. He loved her but he did not
propose to wreck two lives in a futile
attempt to try out the Iove-in-a-cot-
tage plan. Neither would he give up
his tiny ancestral home, sole legacy of
loving parents.
Nellie had been happy there only
a few months before, when she had
boarded with his widowed mother, but
when the latter had died. Nellie had
taken up her quarters with a NUM-
Der of other girls from the shoe fac
tory, at a second-class hotel. Some
how, Tom felt she had changed from
the day she stepped over the hotels
threshold, and he glared back at its
brightly lighted barroom and dimly-
lighted par1or, as he stood out in the
middle of the street.
Tom was telegraph operator at the
depot, and his cottage was not far from
the tracks. The main street of the
town led past both, so Tom seldom
missed seeing Nellie each night and
morning as she went to and from
work. Once as she passed the cottage
he was washing his few dishes. and
he saw her toss her head and quicken
her steps. More often, however he
was at his post in the depot He hoped
against hope that she would drop him
a forgiving line or fling him a nod of
friendship as she passed the depot. In
stead, each week he heard more of
Nellie's social popularity. The boys
at the new suspender factory organ
lied club and gave a dance. Nellie
was the belle of the evening. Miss
Mccarthy, who had come over to the
cottage to do some scrubbing, told him
all about it. concluding with graphic
description of the wonderful new frock
which Nellie had ordered from the
city.
That afternoon the weather changed
suddenly. The snow came down first
in a soft swirling cloud, then with |
crisp, needle-like insistence. Tom
threw more coal into the depot stove |
and made a quick run home to take |
the geraniums out of the window /
When he came back to the station he |
knew that a blizzard was closing down |
on Ridgefield. He wondered how Nell |
lie would get home-and then SYRIA |
cuse called and he had to put his !
thoughts on his work.
1t took all his strength to reach the |
cottage across the ira ok. His first in
stinct was to close all shutter an ddraw /
the curtains, but he remembered his /
the window for those who might be |
abroad on stormy nights. Such a coy !
little kitchen as it lighted. with fire /
swapping in the old-fashioned cook /
stove which Miss Mccarthy polished |
to brilliancy at each visit.
He hummed- contentedly as he sat |
over the teakettle and brought the
bread and butter from the pantry.
Then he stopped short and listened in
tently What was that scratching noise
On the door-yes-and now the
sound IF a nuffled fall?
TIe flung open the door, and the
vrird h,ew out his lamp, but against |
III, blur of the snow. he saw dark
igurc huddled on his doorstep.
He carried the woman indoors, aid
Ter OIL the old-fashioned settso ana re-
lighted his lamp. Then with some