The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-03-13
THE EVENING ST0R r
The Canary's Mission.
(By Virginia Leila Wentz.)


| rang for his landlady with an impa-
| tient frown on his scholastic brow. AS
she entered his library she found him
pacing W and down the Bokhara
rug.
That person who's rented your
room back there he began
Martin.
must part with that Internal
! canary. he went on. ignoring the in
have to leave. For three days now
I've listened to its noise till I'm in
such a state of mind that L can't evolve
! single clear thought, or reason syl-
logisucally. It's absurd
Mrs. Martin hadn't, perhaps the
faintest idea what the Evolution of a
clear thought" meant, nor what 'syl-
!ogistic reasoning implied, but she
George Charlemagne Towers occupa-
ton of the best part of her apartment
meant, and what his threat implied.
For f1ye years now he had been her
heart-whole man. She had come to
look upon him a comfortable fix
ture, and SO had her husband, who
was something of an idler, having
found no position in life exactly suited
to mis- gifted Responsibilities.
Miss Commentaries the young
girl, sir, won't part with her canary.
know" observed the landlady. nerv-
! uncommonly fond of the bird. But
I'll tell her I'D like the room when her
weeks up Mrs. Martin laid down
the paperweight with the air of a
| martyr.
Very WE'LL" grunted Mr. Tower,
pulling up the shade of his library's
back window with jerk. so that the
morning sunlight struck like gold upon
the big rubber plant. Then he opened
the window; it was very warm in the
room. Suppose I'll have to stand the
nuisance few days longer. That's all
Good morning" He sat down at MS
mahogany desk with an air of dismiss
sal and drew some papers toward him.
AS he bent over his manuscripts,
| goosequill in hand, suddenly there
| sounded the whir of tiny wings in the
stiffness of the ROOM and there, on the
sunniest leaf of his rubber plant,
perched a little yellow canary.
After an alert, coquettiSh inspection
| of the room and it's occupant, the bird
lifted it's slender neck and emitted sew
eral penetrating chirps; then it filled its
| lungs with air, it's soft chest expanded,
| and it burst into gust of song
Come in, come in called Mr. Tower
| brusequely in response to a knock upon
his half closed door. He looked up over
| his glasses. There, straight and slen-
der. and very very young, stood girl,
! the splendid morning light bathing her
and turning the bronze of her soft hair
| to fire.
You see-my canary" she ex-
planned, IT was giving bath-and he
| spied your plant in the sunlight, ana
will you close your window, please
! and let me coax him back? I'm your
new neighbor, Gracioca Clemmens, in
Mrs. Martins back room there she
| nodded prettily over her shoulder, down
the side of the long apartment
"Graciocaw CALCULATED Mr.. George
Charlemagne Tower half to himself as
he closed the window. There had never
been but one of that name outside the
covers of the old green fairy-book Tnat
one was a girl he had known in Yale In
she had been sufficiently older than he
to lay siege upon his suscepub1itles:
Ilordy. lordy how far away that seemed
nowl 'She was a Miss Barr" he said
refectively, lingering his watchcha1n as
he looked at the girl coaxing the cana
ry land she went west
"Jh-huh," acquiesced the girl. brightly,
| that's where she met father" The bird
flew to her shoulder. and with one mana
she covered it daintily and bent down
her coral lips to caress its tiny. huf1y
head But how ever did you come TO
know mother? Think look like herr
Very much, indeed" said the man
gravely answering the last quesuUn-
locking down confusedly on the nne
white parting that separated the DUR
nished golden waves of hair.
"She's disturbed my train of thought"
he said, helplessly, after she had dls-
appeared 80 her mother died when
she was a baby, and she's all aloiie III
the world, poor child! cr,,o
For the next hour Mr. George Charle-
! magne Tower scrubbed away idly over
his desk. Idly, for visions of goddess
with FURNISHED hair got mixed up with
everything he wrote. Finally, ne press
ed the electric button. When Mrs. Mar
tin appeared he explained to her ina
he'd changed his mind ABOUT tne
;aI Io o6
ing. after also she need not disturb
herself about complaining to It's owner.
She had not already done so, he hopeo-
Mrs Martins kindly, motherly race
beamed No, she had not one We s,7
deferring that unpleasant MISSION III
evening. Miss Clemmens went out TO
work every morning was she
who closed the hall door half hour ago
and she was afraid 1t mignt upS '5
the poor girl for the days duties, tell
80 ber inst as she left. Eft cetera, ct
when Mrs. Martin had gone, the
bachelor Strengthened up ana laugheu'
and with the laugh he was transform
ed He pushed his pen and INK away;
nut the paperweight over his unflnlsh-
I'd manuscript strobe into the hail ana
rang for the lift with the swagger or
youth. His slightly bent, scholariy
I'LL, was discarded. What man could
he Old with face like Gracioca's in
his heart? eo,7
day or two later when ne Iouhu
erao t.ai Mamie" of 1.-THE Young
Girls Embroidery Bazaar" and that
her duties were to lead the young NINA
i,o+o the mysteries of purling. drop
stitch site and sentiment, he acknowledged
+hat there was some humor in life,
after all!
Life was not only humorous; 1t was
gradually becoming luminous, as Well;
Gone were the days when his desk and
his books were Mr.. Towers sole COM
nanions. In the daytime now he often |
listened to the song of the canary and
lived in thoughts of it's owner; in the