Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-02-06
sation to feel that she owned no mas.

Indeed, she felt a little irritated
now with herself that she should have
supported so much with such an un-
questioning docility. Or that having
given SO much obedience she should
never have tired to satisfy herself
while this should have been exacted.
At school, of course, it had been the
outcome OF rules, OF regime which
had existed ever since she could re-
member, but when the school life had
ended, and she had gone to Mrs.
Baynhurst, there really had been no
! occasion, so she told herself now, to
have accepted the laws laid down for
her with the same old obedience.
Only she really never gave the
chance to speak" the girl unused to
herself, land then was such a littl,
| idiot when l first met her that she
frightened me! I expect she will be
| furious because | went to Mr.. Hav-
erlord. Now that I have seen him
and spoken with him, it is easy
enough to understand why his mother
| prefers to see him only on rare occa
sions. He has blunt straightfor
ward way about him which must be
an abomination to her. He was not
too amiable to me. Still, | must do
here readily; ''he saw at once that
had a sort of claim on him, and duty
with him evidently counts for good
deal"
SheNturned comfortably on the soft
pillow.
1t was her first experience Of
really luxurious bed, for she had been
better housed, and better fed at school
than as dependent in Mrs. Bayn-
bursts household.
/ She ought really to have gone to
sleep, but whenever she closed her
eyes some new thought Of the NOR
row and of all the other morrows
would make them spring open again.
The events of the last few hours
had been so new that they had left
her startled out of her usual quiet ac-
quiescence. Mrs. Brenton's warm
sympathy seemed to Katherine a
heaven-sent gift. She had never real
lied the lack of this sympathy in her
life till now, nor, in truth, all the
many other things that she had lack
ed-those trivial everyday things
which stock the lives of most young
creatures. Her childish joys had all
been secondhand ones. She had never
had holidays, never any excitement;
there had been no Christmas or birth
day presents for her, no books or
work baskets, lace collars or ribbons.
AS matter of fact, she did not even
know on what date she had been born
and except for her school friends, and
the little children whom she had
taught the last two years, she had
never been kissed Yet for all this
she had been happy child and a
happy girl.
; Her orphanhood had cast no blight
. upon her, and she had made pleasures
for herself out of her very unpromis-
ing surroundings, as most healthy
young creatures will do
: Perhaps her greatest trial since she
} had lived with Octavia Baynhurst had
| been the fact that she had never once
) left London, and the call of the coun-
{ try to her nature at times had been
; so pressing that she had felt like a
> wild flower cribbed and confined in a
+ world of bricks and mortar.
! There had not even been a green
5 leaf on which she could look. Mrs
Baynhurst did not care for flowers
, Neither did she consider it necessary
: that anybody required exercise OF
fresh air.
. Katherine he'd been rather a plump
7 girl when she had said goodbye" tc
! her school, but she had wasted woe
fully in the last ten months
! Though she had called herself strong
q when she had been speaking to Ru
pert Haverford, she possessed at this
: moment very little Of her normal ply
a steal strength, but she had the force
!. or a powerful will (although up tt
+ the present she had had scant oppor
q tunity of exercising this) and grea
q courage, and to this she added the
. blessed gift of cheerful spirit.
). With the very smallest encourage
: ment katherine Granger would b.
happy. There was nothing lachry
nose about her or subservient. Sh'
had gone to Mrs. Baynhurst's prince
+ with good intentions and eager to Civ
q had claimed her
Her schoolmistress had evidentl
v been relieved to pass on the RESPONSE
! bility of the girl to some other pe1
\ son, and at the same time, had bael
should have been called upon to fl
l. an important post with a person .
:, such mental eminence.
n
h day just gone, katherine came to tn
=. conclusion that she was rather gla
~. there had been no opportunity c
= speaking with her first guardian. tn
mistress of the school,
= "She would have put me throug
y cross-eXamination, and then
:, should have told her the truth, an
- then she would have been cross wit
., me. | wonder where she has gone to
~ | feel sorry | have not written a
- these months. Perhaps she think
~ me very ungrateful, for I firmly b.
~ liev she kept me for a long tim
- without any money"
~ This brought her back to tn
~, thought of what lay in the immediat
~ future
81 wish I were a little better ed
Il Gated she said, restlessly, to hersel
- II am really very ignorant. No wol
der that Mrs. Baynhurst found n
e' useless! How she would sheer If 81
tn could know I have been trying
ne teach myself a little all these month