The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-11-25

tween open letter lying by her plate,
and teaspoon she was balancing on the
edge of her cup.
She lived alone and felt her loneliness
keeniy. She rather bright woman. and she tried
be good but she wasn't pretty, and she had
never had lover in her whole life.
All the other ~parrers had gone to try the further
life OF the unknown the house had been changed
as half of it had been sawed off and moved away;
and the scars were covered by huge grape vine
that grew if it knew what expected OF it. She
had covered part of the inside wall by her beautiful
mahogany secretary with its beveed glass, its brass
inlay and exquisite metal mounts She expended much
time and labor on that BRASS and she always felt that
her dead and gone people doing something for her
she did SO, since a. such times she unable to
think of her Loneliness.
Miss Sparrers loneliness oppressed her. She
looked at other with their husbands and chill
dren with silent envy If of those boys hers
But she checked the thought ndelicacy. And
there If she had ten sons, what in the world could
she have done with them? She, who could barely
keep herself But it would be pleasant them
growing their mind. and souls expanding to have on'
of them come storming in in snowy weather. )
have his love and companonshp, his arms clasp !,
round her neck his head lying her shoulder when It
twilight she told stories and sang songs and they
changed the days condolences together Oh how Bit
tery lonely she was! She hadn't cat, for she
couldn't afford for one, and there wasn't
N the house. And she didn't like cats, either. She
afraid of them; and they made her She would
have been glad Of dog. But there agan-a dog liked
his bone. SO one dull day like another; and al
though she not unhappy, she constantly felt how
much happier she might be, with some one to love and
to love her
Miss Sparrer held herself rather lofy. Her father
had been the village neerd oweel INDUCED, beloved.
pited and pardoned by every But his father had
been the Doctor and the father before that the Law
yer and Squire of the place. There some things
that long descent make obligatory, fine manners, and
certain kindly condescension among them. And in
hose Miss Sparrer failed She maintained the
tradition of her great srandfathers hospitality by
PARTY in Winter, along towards March when her hens
laying WE'LL at which all the parish made well
some the rejection of which, it understood,
to be scrambled eggs, her famous otartar bis
cults, with of the honey of her two hives, and
dish of peach preserves The little peachtree if the
Summer warm gave her few jars. and they
treasured SO long that they canded
In Summer she gave garden party to the same
guests, who each brought her basket And if with
ny generous intention they brought than could
be used the day Miss Anna made round of brief
lists, taking Mrs Green some of Mrs Browns de-
,icious cakes, and to Mrs Brown of Mrs. Whites
aaky tarts and to Mrs White some of Mrs. Green's
delicate rusks it could be that of these
LAinties reserved by herself
On the contrary she often bestowed charity. There
. Jas Andrew Maclane-how many time had she
allied him in and given him slice of bread and butter,
pread thickly with brown sugar? How many time
TAD she given him penny? She had gone without her
inner than in order to feed hungry tramp
It gave her of the bountful behavior of
fictitious lady of the manor
Andrew. at any rate had an idea that Miss Sparrer
sas a person of riches and exalted rank and he
always stopped pitching eoppers and swearing at the
other boy when she passed by. But Andrew knew
nothing of her multitudinous economies To him she
was the lovely lady richly dressed" of the ballad
A. IA
ONE mysterious way. that she defrauded of
aer rights. Some of the spendor of the old squire
hung about her still and they took her her val
sation as people WILL and felt honcred by her recogni
don and her calls They would have been that any,
thing she chose to do propriety itself. and they
enjoyed their rather ceremonious half hours in the
Tor where the generations carpet too thread
discover the pattern, a quaint with we'll
kept Chippendale and Sheraton furnture-although
one there knew that it Chippendale Sheraton
and illuminated with bits of precious china. But they
smiled at the ancient spndle-legged English piano.
whose strings with their cracked tnkle, had known
tuner in a half-century. but which might have been
worth nea<y its weight in gold for its maker. its
It's shape, its inlay of ivory.
Poor poverty, Miss Anna Sparrer sat in the midst
of wealth but knew it not. This Grandmamas,
and that Grandpapa's and in that harp-backed
chair Mama sitting when Papa proposed and in
the drawers of that owboy she kept her marragecer
tncate and her FAM and her few letters and at this
acknowledged breakfastable. larger then by leaf
more they had all slipped their their port after
Blessing had been asked The things stood to her in
the place of people and of family; for they
thronged with memories.
And when the old clock in her little vestibue peaed
the iorr she heard again her grandfahers voice he
drove into the yard snowy day, and the lingering
cadence after had struck like the sweetness in
hcr fathers voice W. he sat singing songs of Robby
Burns and sippng sone,.:"g he called mountain-dew.
The git-edged glass tn. Ter that held his toddy.
the spoon with whicn he stirred = with its of a
sparrowhawk things sacred rs if he had been
saint instead OF an immensely good ,atured scamp.
One day, when Andrew brought her daily pint OF milk