The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1907-07-25
Two on a Tour
By TROY ALLISON.
Copyrighted. 1907. by Mary McKeon.

The elevator of the Washington
Monument reached the ground after its
Iolemnly slow descent of twenty min
utes, and Rhoda Jamison, feeling some
what overawed by the world as seen
from the top of the monument, sat
down on a bench near the elevator
door. She needed few minutes to re-
adjust her thoughts and to plan for
the rest of the day.
Rhoda had saved every possible pen
ny from her salary during the school
term in order to take this Washington
trip and had determined to crowd as
much sightseeing into her ten days as
any other Washington tourist had
ever done
She had spent hours with the visit
ing mllliner In her town planning ey-
cry detail of the time and had finally
arrived In the city and taken cab d.
rectly to the quiet lodgings she had
recommended The milliner had, how
ever, forgotten to take into considera-
ton the fact that the girl had never
been accustomd to city and to city
ways and had therefore failed to pre-
pare her for the feeling of desolation
and loneliness that grew more and more
oppressive every minute.
The Congressional library had sat
| isf1ed her love of elegance, the capitol
and the White House had seemd like
old friends from the pictures in the
geography and history from which she
had taught for months, but in her
classes she had been the personality
Here she seemed to dwindle into moth
ingness, and the things that had been
mere ideas and pictures lowered over
her oppressiyely, and she was over
come by her lIttleness and her lonell-
ness 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 be studied so
we'll from the elevator
She saw him take a fountain pen
from his pocket, adjust it and finally
/ sort a package of souvenir post cards
and begin writing industrlously
She remembered the package she had
bought to send her pupils, so she took
her own pen from her hand bag and
commenced racking her brain for little
things to write that would amuse them.
The postal she liked best Of all, a
daintily colored view of the monument
itself, she addressed to her mother
Across 1t she wrote, tits so very big.
| and feel so little and so lonely"
She leaned forward to firt a bit OF
dust from the tip of her pen, and a
Whit of air blew the postal from her
lap and left 1t lying at the big mans
feet.
He saw 1t there and. thinking be had
dropped one Of his own, stopped and
/ picked 1t up. reading 1t leisurely.
81 feel so little and lonely" he read.
and surprised, turned to meet the
flushed face of the girl
hand for 1t.
do you feel that way. tooY' he ask
ed eagerly. That's me exactly"
81 shouldn't have called you really
little" she answered, with the frank
friendiness Of girl who had never
met with a circumstance that would
cause her to be suspicious Of humanity
81 reckon you are referring to the first
part of the sentence. 1T is so big
would really seem more suitable"
"Thats right" he laughed looking at
the postal. but that Just proves that
can hold more loneliness than you, for
am feeling lonely from the soles Of
my feet to the top of my new felt hat
that bought In Carson City to see the
Signs of Washington in"
"At least you are farther from home
than l. I'm from South Carolina" she
chatted. three days abstinence from
converse ton having left her with a
surplus on hand.
81 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 dig
ging away for gold without any sue
cess, and just as we'd fallen into at
of gloom and shortage In grub, why.
we struck 1t rich
How lovely! Did you find 1t in
chunks?" Her eyes sparkled like a
child's.
That's about the size of It," he
laughed. with a whole souled hearth
ness he hadn't experienced for days.
Eve sure found 1t In large sized pieces,
and just thought I'd take a vacation
to see the world. I've never been east
before"
do you like it?" She failed to put
as much doubt as to the charms Of
Washington In her tone as she might
have put half an hour earlier.