The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-06-04
THE EVENING STORY
Her Burned Mushrooms
(By Anita Carr.l

Ii
Flightly-that was what the nice
noeneriy OLD ladies' of HillsdaIe called
Carrie Danielson. Now. if a nerson
happens to be very tall and cor
respondingly broad and wears num-
Der shoes, nobody ever applies that
adjective to her. If you are flightv
| IL stands to reason you are small and
fluffy and never quiet
Ihat mad been Carries description
tnrough-her girlhood and early mar
REQ NE: she was pretty little thing,
but with strength enough of char
| acter In her face in spite of her tilted
pose and small. red mouth and curved
| cneek, had any one stopped to con-
sioer .tnose attractions as modified by
| the resolute chin and angle of the
head.
| she loved the gayeties of life and
the sunshlnei happiness surrounded
ner as an aureole and she ran from
| trouble, to the displeasure of her crit
les. who fastened the adjective upon
her.
| She and Tom were happy those
three years before the railway acct
| dent that ended his life and for a
| time crippled her.
| HiHslde never had liked Carrie
| Jameson SO we'll as during those
| months when 1t could treat her as
| helpless and nurse and command her
she was in their hands and her neigh
| bors rioted in the placid Joy of doing
| good unto one who had never seemed
| to yearn for their counsel or advice.
| They had planned it all out in those
first sad days after the accident just
what Carrie should do after she had
fully recovered.
| "Of course she will sell this cot
| tage." Mrs. Barnes said during one
| of the long night watches. They'd
just got 1t paid for. too! She can go
back to her folks. It's too bad they
| moved away when they didi"
1 yes, agreed Mrs Croft
have to. Tom didn't leave her any
| thing besides the cottage. She can't
| live on air. and she's not the go-ahead
sort who can do things for themselves.
| Carries always been so flightyi"
When Carrie Danielson finally got
| we'll and was able to go about as
usual, very pale and quiet in her black
clothes and different from the gay
and laughing girl they had always
known, Hillside was disgruntled and
| shocked by the upsetting of all its
plans for her.
| NO" she told the man who want
ed to buy her cottage, I'm going to
keep it and stay right here. 1t is
home to me. 1t is not for sale.''
Mrs. Barnes went over at once
| when the news reached her Carrie
she began abruptly, chow are you 60
ing to do it? What are you going to
live on?'
There was a faint CLEAN of the old
humorous smile on Carries lips as
she surveyed her inquisitor's grimly
disappearing face. I'm going to
grow mushrooms" she announced,
land ship them to New York.
/ Perhaps had it been any other COM
modify than mushrooms Hillside
| would not have seethed with disap-
prevail as it did. Mushrooms to them
| were objects of suspicion, classed with
| weeds and other obnoxious products
| of nature without which the human
race could get along famously.
That there were enough persons in
the world who yearned for mush-
roome to give Carrie living income
seemed highly improbable. but all the
protests were met by her with facts,
figures and methods. for she had
studied the subject thoroughly before
deciding to go into it.
The determination with which she
chung to her project was another
matter for surprise. No one had
dreamed she had such persistence in
her. And the mushroom sheds were
built and the beds made. and Carrie
started in business.
4 The first check Carrie received from
the big New York hotel she cried over
before half the women of the town
had gazed upon it with their own eyes
and had seen money really was forth
coming for the queer creamy-white
fungi that had been so carefully pack
ed in baskets and put on the train
by their growers own hand
It was not such large check. but
it was something and she had earned
it. From then on Hillside had to ad-
nit that possibly Carrie had more
brains than had been imagined. Still,
they could not at once abandon the
oversight they kept upon her.
"She will never outgrow her flight
mess" Mrs. Barnes said one day. 81
| met her downtown in this cold raw
wind with no fur around her neck
and just a lace blouse over her throat.
Carrie needs some one to look after
/ her.
i ooh, she'll marry again." said Mrs.
4 Croft, comfortably. "She's too pretty
4 not to. And there's no sense in her
living alone in that little cottage and
growing those toadstools-well. they
/ look just the same. anyway-aH the
rest Of her life! But she doesn't seem
to have eyes for any one. and poor
Toms been gone four years now. Dr.
White would be pretty attentive to
mani
/ Yet when DR. White soon after ask
i ed Carrie to marry him she shook
her head with faint little smile and
refused him. ''It isn't that L don't
| appreciate you" she said with an in
stinct to soften her refusal. but you
see I'm so busy here! IL haven't
time to be happy!"
| Yet there was pang of regret in
her heart as she watched his tall fig.
ure down the hill. for their cheerful
comradeship had frightened her days.
| He had brought her books and
/ pamphlets on her work. had advised
| and sympathized and she knew she
would miss his brief but always daily
calls. But love. she told herself. she
was done with. Time had softened her
sorrow, but for her she thought the
ordinary happy life of a woman was
over and finished.
i DR.. White after a time bravely tried
to renew their former unsentimenta1
comradeship, but that too seemed de-
stroyed and the attempt farce.
"I can't do it, Carrie" he broke out
| boarseIv one day at love you and I
can't pretend not to- I'm going away.
Oh. Europe-Japan, anywhere to get
| awayi"