Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-12-03

Jo7HERs OF MYSTIC, QUEEN OF
sHEAF FLOUR. ALSO WHOLESALE
FEED, GRAIN AND SEEDS. TRY o,
because also am woman and
not jealous!"
! (CHAPTUR VIII
Tho klrktown Ministers.
Kirktown was quiet place till you
knew 1t. Most days the CORN water
purling along the valley, made the
only noise.-except, that is, the ton
CUES of the gossips. 1t was terrible
place for gossip. 1t lived upon it, hav-
ing dearth of other aliment.
Nothing was sacred from the tom
CUES of the Kirktown neither great
houses nor small, neither nigh nor
low, soldier. nor sailor, tinker nor
tailor But, for choice, the Kirktown
talked about ministers. These were,
as usual, three-and an Episcopalian
the latter smiling paliah among
the true Presbyterians, who stayed
himself with tumble sales and COM
forted himself with the comminatory
clauses Of the Athanasian creed.
The minister Of the Scottish estab-
lishment was an high man, dry and
high, and (for a while, at least) comes
not greatly into this story. He abode
planted in his four-square roomy
house under the immemorial parish
elms, one eye on the temperatures, Ill
the shape of manse globe capable
of being feued out into eligible build
ing lots" and the other fixed on the
eternities, as suggested by the grave
stones close under his study window.
The other two were the Reverend
John Fowler of the Free Kirk, and the
Reverend Benjamin Irongray, of the
Kirk of the Martyrs. These were
friends and consorted much together.
The elder, John Fowler, was a mar
RED man with a growing family. Mr..
abused each other frankly and theo-
logically, bandying such names as
Brownist and Calvinist: but they low
ed each other dearly
They met for choice in the manse
of the bachelor, still and untroubled
place, far from the scuffle of the nur-
sery, and with no smell, either of cook
Ing or washing, In the corridors and
staircases. The Cameroniam church
of Kirktown was almost as solitary as
the Episcopalian, but historically
there was a difference in the tradi-
ton.
The Reverend john Foster was
tall, dreamy-eyed enthusiast, crowned
with a fluff of silken blond hair,
through which he swept his fingers
with quick, nervous movement. He
spoke slowly, with an intonation sweet
and little mournful, quickening now
to unexpected entnusiasms and anon
dropping unfinished into quaint and
pensive silences.
This day the Free Kirk minister's
daughter, Janet, went steadily up the
brae. Miss Fowler had a basket in,
one hand in which something snug
gled, carefully covered with white
napkin. If you mad been able to touch
that basket, you would have found it
pleasantly warm. In fact, the basket
contained hook soup in a little alum.
mum saucepan, together with a good
ration Of cold beef, potatoes, and vege-
tables.
Merely parsons daughter playing
Lady Bount1ful cheaply," the unin-
structed might have said-that is, if
they had not belonged to Kirktown.
But the village and the Pits knew bet
ter. 1t was rough, reckless place.
with the tall chimneys and whirling
cage-wheels held UP barrenly against
the sky. and Its double shift of pitmen,
night and day pouring up from the
bowels Of the earth, and dropping sull-
emily down. But kirktown knew the
value of its ministers-and of their
daughters. Not all these merits were
patent. however. For it did not guess.
as the blinds were drawn aside to
watch the progress of Minister Fow-
ler's lass" that in order to carry that
supply to Widow McTurk, Janet Fow-
{ Ter mad had to go hungry herself. to
skimp her hungry, growing, growing
. brothers, and even pare regretfully at
) the portion of her father as it went on
the plate for him to say grace over,
/ Such, however, was the case.
Janet Fowler was not beautiful,
though she was young. She had a
, plain, kindly. pleasant face. in which
a pair of steady grey eyes shone with
consistent outlooking firmness on
all the wcrld-on her father, who
needed looking after quite as much
as the children-tnat is. her three
> brothers. Raft, ALT. and Tim. These
chiefly needed bullying, while her
} small sister Violet got mostly what
she wanted Last of all, Tanet's face
=. looked kindly and tolerantly out upon
( the hopeless.ly improvident but human.
j ly likeable pit-folk of Kirktown.
Janet was eighteen, but having
: borne the cares OF the state for more
} than three years. she looked older. AT
t one time she had threatened to grow
tall and handsome, but early responsi.
CAsTnRIA Fo1Int,nts and rbpd-a,