The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1907-05-30
TWO ON A TOUR.

Copyrighted, 1907, by Mary McKeon.
The elevator of the Washington
monument reached the ground after
its solemnly slow descei.c of twenty
minutes, and Rhoda Jamison, feeling
somewhat overawed by the world as
seen from the top of the monument. sat
down on a bench near the elevator
door. She needed a few minutes to
readjust her thoughts md to plan for
the rest of the day.
Rhoda had saved every possible penny
from her salary during the school
term in order to take this Washing
ton trip, and had determined to crowd
rs much sightseeing into her ten days
as any other Washington tourist had
ever done.
She had spent hours with the visit
ing milliner in her town, planning
every detail of the time, al had final
ly arrived in the city and taken a cab
directly to the quiet lodgings she had
recommended. The milliner had, how
ever, forgotten to take into consider
alton the fact that the girl had never
been accustomed to city and to city
ways, and had therefore failed to
prepare her for the feeling G. desola-
ton and loneliness that grew more
and more oppressive every minute.
The congressional library had salts
, fled her love of elegance, the capitol
and the White House, had seemed like
old friends from the pictures in the
geography and histor. from which
she had taught for months--but in her
classes she had been the personality
HIRE she seemed to dwindle into moth
fngness. and the things that had been
mere ideas and pictures lowered over
her oppressively, and she was overcome
by her 1ittleness and her loneliness
and longed for some one to speak to
her with hint of friendly interest.
The big, broad-shouldered man sit
ting on the other end of the bench
she had seen walking down the steps
of the monument. He had evidently
felt so secure in his superb physical
strength that he walked down to ex-
anime more closely the inscriptions
on the stones that could not e studied
SO well from the elevator.
She saw him take fountain pen
from his pocket, adjusting 1t, and finally
sort a package of souvenir postcards
and begin writing industriously.
She remembered the package she
had bought to send her oupils--so she
took her own pen from her handbag
and commenced acking her brain for
little things to write that would amuse
them.
The postal she liked best of all,
daintily colored view of the monument
1t self, she addressed to her mother.
Across it she wrote. It's so very
big--and / fe.l so little and so lone
ly"
She leaned forward to flirt a bit of
dust from the tip of her pen. and
Whit of air blew the postal from her
lap and left it lying at the big mans
feet.
lie saw it there, and thinking he
had dropped one of his wn, stopped
and picked 1t up. reading it leisure
ly.
; Il feel so little and lonely" he read,
and, surprised, turned to meet the
flushed face of the girl.
It's n1tne." she said. holding out
her hand for 1t.
do you feel that way. too?' he ask
ed. eagerly. That's me. exactly!"
81 shouldn't have called you really
little she answered with the frank
friendliness of girl who had never
circumstance that would
to be suspicious of humanity,
you are referring to the
It of the sentence 1T is so
aid really seem more suitable"
Is right" he laughed, looking
postal, but that asst proves
can hold more loneliness than
r am feeling lonely from the
my feet to the top of my new
AoI. = IL tnat Dought In carson city
to see the sights of Washington
in"
"At least you are farther from home
than lin from South Carolina" she
chatted, three days abstinence from
conversation having lert her with a
surplus on hand.
Il was just sending some of these
things to the boys he said. they
are living in a shack near mine, and
1t will tickle 'em immensely to get
these pictures of civilization. You see,
we had been out there for two years
digging away for gold without any sue
cess, and just as we'd fallen into a
fit of gloom and shortage in grub why,
we struck 1t rich"
How loVely--did you find 1t in