The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-11-18
The EVENING STORY
Hunting a Homemaker
(By Lulu Johnson.1

"A mere poooIer OF a boy stood on
the bank above the railroad track. In
his hand was stone. Aiming blind
ly, he tossed the stone upon the track.
rail
In less than forty-eight hours. that
stone, tossed by a baby hand, had
thrown Wall street and the money
market of the country into a panic
The single track of the little west
ern road afforded rough travelling
Not many of the travellers aboard that
particular train even noticed the
somewhat harder jolt when tho car
wheel struck the stone.
But Gilbert Fairbain, smoking a
goodnight cigar" as he leaned alone
against the railing of the observation
cars platform felt the jar-and then
felt nothing more.
And it was two weeks before Wall
street learned that F'airbain, the one
man who could have stopped the pan
1c, had been found beside the tracks
and removed to a farmhouse on the
quarter section nearest the road,
For ten days he had been uncon-
scfous, and for two days or more, he
had been in no condition to be left
alone. There was but one inmate of
that farmhouse besides himself, and
she had been too busy nursing him to
make the trip to the nearest town to
report that he had been found.
AS soon as his whereabouts had
town was overrun with people. Grave
and learned physicians, from the east,
were hurried westward on special
trains and regiment of nurses attend
ed them; but Fairbain waved them all
away.
81 don't need you," he said irritably
Little Mrs. Bodington pulled me
through without a lot of palaver or
thousand-dollar doctors to help her.
Leave a couple of nurses to wait on
her, and the rest of you go away"
There is an excellent hospital not
fifty miles from here" suggested the
family physician. 81 can look after
you with better assurance of success
full treatment"
"Sugden, you're an ass" declared
F'airbain, irritably. "This little wo-
man nursed me single-handed
through an attack of brain fever. I
guess she can attend to the conval-
escence-"
''I will not undertake to be respon-
sibIe for the consequences" said Sug-
den. with ponderous emphasis.
you don't have to be-" was the
acid response: you are going to be
packed out of here, the whole lot of
you. I've spent most of my life with
a doctor on one side or me and a
lawyer on the other. I'm sick of it
all, and I'm entitled to rest"
He looked contentedly about the
tiny room. The outlook from the
narrow-paned windows was dreary,
and the room itself was walled with
rough plaster and decorated with
cheap prints in homemade frames.
The bed on which he rested was a
wooden affair with a cotton mattress
and coarse cotton sheets, but the
sheets were Immediately clean, and
there was an air of nominees about
the place that Fairhain had not
He closed his eyes contentedIy and
dozed off. Sugden, mindful of his fat
fees, waited in deferential silence
during the half hour the nap lasted.
Fairbanks glance fell first on him as
his eyes opened again.
You still here!' he cried. "Sugden,
if you don't take the first train back
to New York, I'll make you sue for
whatever I owe you and I'll take it
on appeal, and appeal until you spend
Now get out of here"
Sugden took his departure vowing
that his patient was insane, but Fair
balm only smiled contentedly, and
who sat beside the bed.
That's the way 1 talk to those
sharks" he declared. 81 have head
ache, and Sugden gives me something
to make it worse; Then he doctors
a bill a yard long. This is the time
fooled him.
81 am glad that you were not
moved said the woman, softly. IT
think that the excitement would have
been bad for you"
1T is not the trip I was dreading,"
admitted Fiarbain, frankly. 81 like it
here, and I want to stay a little while.
My secretary will stay over in town
day, and the two nurses will relieve
you of the watchful nights.
eff you want anything else, buy it
or hire it or something. Wilson will
is a fine fellow" he added. HE came
into my office this fall as a clerk, and
] took a fancy to him and made him
my confidential man. He took to the
job as though he had known me and
my affairs since he was born"
cit must be very nice to have some
one to do your work the way you want
it DONE" she said softly. 81 am glad
I'm pleased with him." said Fair
balm, meaningly, so long as you are
not too we'll pleased with him. You
won't be pleased with him?" he
pleaded
mo more than I am now" she
and with that Fairbain was
content. He was convinced that
money was omnipotent and that even
the love of the little woman. who had
made him so comfortable.
Fairbain was in love with his newly
found home comforts rather than with
the woman ueISeAI, Out inns ne ulu MOI
know although, when there was no
longer any pretext for prolonging the
stay, he spoke bravely enough.
st need you very much,' he said,
earnestly. ct have a house that covers
half a square in the most expensive
district in New York. I
have three yachts, something like a |
dozen automo biles and all that sort of
thing, but 1 have no home. Not since |
I was boy, have I realized what |
home was like. My wife was no
homemaker, and when she died, !
never dared repeat the experiment |
with the women in the set 1 lived in. |
You are different. For years I have |