Middletown transcript., 1908-05-23

Miss Hall stepped to the door
and gazed dismally down the
tawny, yellow road. 1t was rain.
ing and the mass of slush and
mud out in the road was sug-
gestiEe of anything but terra
firma.
I low if you cut across the
medder, you can make it.
The young girl drew her water
proof about her, shivering ap-
prehensively.
Now, if 7 were in St. Louis, I
should have only to step onto the
car and be set down at the school
house deer But I'll Of this comes
from listening to the doctors fine
theories about invigorating walks
and country air, she said COM
plainingly.
I s'pose, too, they give right
smart more pay in st. Louis?
Yes, but it costs more to live
there. Six dollars a week for
board.
Six dollars a week ! removing
her hands from the bread she
was kneading, Land O. love! I
reckon there amt many that'd
pay it.
I think there were sixteen at
our boarding house last winter.
Six times six is thlrty-six six
ones is six and three are nine
then aloud, Why, that's well onto
a hundred dollars a week.
Oh, yes, with the transient
boarders it amounted to quite
that.
She laid up considerable at
them rates, I s'pose -? Nancy
Kalometer's eyes had grown very
sharp, and there was an eager
note in her voice as she asked
the question.
On the contrary, | don't think
the poor woman ever made a
living, Miss Hall rejoined, as she
raised her umbrella and stepped
out into the pelting rain.
Mrs. Kalometer stood watch
ing the little schoolma' am as she
picked her way daintily across
the lot.
A hundred dollars a week ! she
muttered, drawing her breath
sharply. shiftless, good-fo
nothin' creetur she was, like
enough. A hundred dollars !
Why, with all her Shaving and
drudging, that was more thal
she had made in a whole year.
Truly, the past year had not
been a successful one. The crops
had been little better than q fail
ure; the murrain had taken her
best COW, and, worst of all, the
man to whom she had let Mary
James twenty-acre patch had
decamped between days without
paying his rent. These facts
were all the more exasperating
to Nancy Kalometer, because she
had always prided herself on
knowing how to manage her own
affairs.
The small farm house, with its
patch of worn-out ground, had
been her marriage portion. Con.
trary to the prevailing custom,
she had retained the property in
her own name, declaring that
she could hold that farm in her
name just as well as Joel Kalo.
meter could in his. The adjoin-
ing twenty acres Joel had pur-
chased. At his death, several
years before the opening of our
story, the land had reverted to
their one daughter, Mary Jane.
It was to be held in trust by her
mother until she should marry,
or until she should have reached
the age of 25.
Mary Jane was o pretty sem
sible young woman, and had no
lack of suitors. But on one and
all her mother looked with dis
approval. While she had, doubt.
less, a motherly interest in her
happiness, it was the fate of the
twenty acres that seemed always
uppermost in her mind. So,
when Luke Daniels came court
ing, and boldly asked the hand
of Mary Jane, the wrath of the
good woman knew no bounds.
The Danielses, though highly
respectable, we're, it must be
confessed, a somewhat improv-
ident set. While Luke's occu-
patton thus far had been that of
a farm hand, he was a manly,
industrious young fellow, and
was looked upon with no small
degree of favor by Mary Jane
herself.
Ma, Sam Grants come to look