The Mena weekly star., 1908-07-16
HER FIRST
 FLAT CALL

dressed ia her best--a choice Dlack lace gown and a bran new pair of gloves. pearl gray. and the tightest fit she'd ever got into. She certainly locked trim and pretty. After riding for what seemed to her to be hours she finally came to the house she was looking for. She never had been in . nat. and when she found herself in . vestibule where there were lot of letter boxes with names over them and little buttons above the names she was rather at a loss how to proceed in or der to get the door open. But there was the name of her friend. who had said she lived on the top floor, so she touched button by way of experi- ment
 Suddenly. with a great rattling, the door flew open all by itself with no body anywhere in sight, and stepping over the threshold she looked eau tiously around and couldn't for the moment think of anything but spooks as solution of the mystery. Nor did the back part of long. dark hall, where the stairs seemed to lead up to still darker places. serve to dispei the uneanny impression But she knew she had to do 1t, so gathering up her courage and her black lace skirt she began the ascent--up. up, five steps to flight, then a landing and an ab- rupt corner to go around She was quite sure she had never in all her experience come across a staircase where she had to keep turning cor ners all the time and still more cer- tain was she that she'd never before gone upstairs in the dark in the day time But that was what she found herself doing then, for after the third cluster of steps there wasn't light enough to see where the next was and all she could do was to feel until she had to sit down in sheer exhaustion to get her breath. And how profoundly did she wish she was safe home in stead of all alone in strange city house on those stairs in all that pitchy darkness!
 Every blood-curdling story she ever had heard flashed into her mind about innocent country people being in. veigled to their doom on some plaus- ible pretense or other; and she fairly shivered with apprehension as she thought how easy 'twould be to have trap door on those stairs for un- suspecting country callers to fall into Then suddenly she jumped to her feet. for somewhere up above a door had slammed and she wanted to let some body know she was coming; but some way, in her hurry. she took a wrong step and before she knew 1t had gone headlong all over a landing place. bursting both gloves and tearing the choice lace--she could hear 1t ripping Twas awful. and as she arose she was half tempted to go back again; but she felt she must be near the top and so kept on, not even trying to stand upright, just creeping along. till final ly a skylight shed some light on the scene, and the weary climber. liter ally gasping for breath, reached the top floor, where. gazing sadly at the ruptured gloves and torn gown and feeling her hat clinging dejectedly to the side of her head. she told herself she could have fought over a bargain counter all day and looked five times as respectable.
 But she was at the friends very door. Not wishing, however, to go in breathing like porpoise. she decided to lean against the side of the hall way to rest a moment before ringing the bell and to put a pin in the gown and pull the gloves together. Then, touching a button that was close by, she continued to lean and rest until the door suddenly opened and she fell in backward on the girl. who shrieked for help and jumped aside, letting the invader fall over on top of two or three umbrellas in the hat rack.
 There's no kind of use In trying to describe the variety of feelings. phys ical and mental. that assailed the caller as she laboriously extricated herself. The maid. at safe distance. was gazing at her with an open sus- picion mixed largely with genuine fright and asking who she was and what she was doing. The country call CT, realizing vaguely that only a we'll chosen speech would in any measure retrieve such a critical situation. hastened to collect the remains of a badly scattered dignity and remarked:
 'I-cr-am not at all certain what that is, who am just at present. am-at least l was calling. but please tell Mrs. - that I'm in quite hur- ", as I must be-er-somewhere else very soon Besides l don't feel very we'll" Then detaching herself from an especially aggressive umbrella she hurried into the hall and down the stairs, saying to herself as she fed recklessly round and round curves and corners, the quarter of a lace ruifie trailing on the floor, and the gloves, pearl-gray no longer, hanging in shreds to her fingers:
 No human being ever called after going in a door like that. No more fat calls for me-without have some thing on that won't tear. And next time I'll carry lantern" she added as she stepped into the street and made believe she wasn't mortally afraid the policeman on the corner would com mand her to halt and explain her ap pearance.
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