Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-12-16
A. M. WILLIAMSON

had titles in America But he's sen
 ator or something in his own state
 which is very important, so he is called honorable" officially and on let
 ters. as one is at home If that's all
 one can scrape up by way of cOur-
 tesy title.
 The two young men who come in To cat with us. but are never seen about the house at any other time. are farm
 hands," though they are not treated at
 all like servants, and Mir Trowbridge lends them the newest books and mag
 aZines (of which he has quantities. to
 read in the evening"
 It is very strange about Patty and
 Ide. Though Patty is so quiet. almost
 meek in her ways, and dresses so
 plainly and is quite contented to work
 In the hot kitchen, cooking and wash
 ing dishes, it turns out that she is a
 very rich girl, or will be. She is an
 orphan, and her grandfather although
 a farmer, has more than a million dol lars (which sounds tremendous, but
 wouldn't be as impressive, I suppose
 if one did it in pounds), and when he dies, as he must before long, as he is very old. Patty will have all his money.
 Young people get on his nerves, so Patty lives with the Trowbridges, who are friends of his, and helps Mrs. Trowbridge with her work.
 Ide really is a sort of servant, but she would go away instantly if any
 body called her that, and she is so afraid some one may think she is in ferior to the others in the house be- cause she is paid wages for her work that she does her hair elaborately. wears smarter dresses than the rest and puts herself rather forward with strangers so as to impress them. She
 wouldn't even like to be called help" but says that she 'obliges' Mrs. Trowbridge. and she wouldn't stop long enough to draw another breath if she were not treated better if anything than Patty.
 After tea" we drove to the Empori- um at Hermann's Corners The Elm porium is always open till half past 9, and there was going to be an lice cream festival" there that night. I didn't know what an ice cream fes- tival meant but Mir. Trowbridge said I should see for myself, and it would probably be different from anything l had yet experienced. MT. TrOwbridge and Mir. Brett and I all drove in the buggy. It was rather a squeeze in one seat, but 1t was fun, and we were very merry.
 The rest all squashed into big wagon and sat on the hay. I would have gone In that way, too, but MT. Trowbridge wanted me to try his horse, and we could hear the others every minute as they came jolting on behind us.
 It was about seven miles to Her Corners, and after lovely drive through charming, peaceful coun- try we arrived just as 1t was begin nlnG 10 De uQSk.
 I couldn't have imagined such a place as the Emporium, and when I was in the thick of it I said to myself that it would be worth ones while com ing over to the States just to visit it, if nothing else. If had to choose be- tween 1 believe Id rather see 1t than falls, for one knows Niagara falls from biographs and things, and short of actually seeing could give one the slightest idea of Mir Whit Walker and his Emporium.
 My first impression of the Emporium was huge, rambling wooden build ing rather like a vast barn with a dozen smaller barns tackled on to it and windows let in. It is painted pea green and has rough veranda run hing partly around it-a high veranda with no steps, or, If any, at such long intervals that you must search for them. But as there's no pavement we just scrambled out of the buggy and cart on to the veranda and there we were landed among the most e1traor- dinary collection of things I ever dreamed of. The stock in the Empori- um having overhowed from the inside on to the veranda, we stumbled about among boxes of eggs. sewing machines, crates of dishes, garden tools, brooms, rocking chairs, perambulators. boots, canned fruit, children's toys, lug gage, green vegeta bles, ice cream freez- FITS, bales of calico, mems suits. piled up books, clotheslines and a thousand other goods"
 Just as we threaded our way through the groups of young men, who looked 1t us good deal. people were lighting the gas in the Emporium. It was in- ,andescent and blazed up suddenly with a fierce light as if It were a vol ,ano having an eruption. All the wo- nen inside Ghere was quite crowd If them. bareheaded or in perfectly fascinating frilled sunbonnets) shrieked md then giggled. A man who was by girls said something we 'ouldn't hear which made everybody augh. and Mir Trowbridge exclaimed:
 That's Whit. sure. holding court. Couldn't be anybody else
 And I guess that's the honorable aid the voice we had heard-such a lice voice: 1t was enough to make you augh with pleasure just to hear it. md the head we could see towering ver the sunbonnets began to move to- yard us. The girls edged away good and there was a man almost ls fine looking as MT. Brett smiling