The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-07-10
TWO AND TWO.
BY ALICE LOUISE LEE.

The people of Mecca Summit said
that Miss Mehitable Winthrop, post
mistress and general storekeeper, ives
lone to speak her mind. " There
fore, as she picked up her date stamp
one April morning and brought it
down with whack on the ink pad,
she spoke her mind emphatically to
the dozen or more collected in the
room, waiting for their mail.
"They must be poor and they may
be shiftless," said Mehitable, "but
they're strangers in strange land,
and when 1 get to it I'm going to
CALL" She referred to the five new
comers in the long-unused yellow
house below the Summit.
"Well, as for me, shall not call !"
Mrs. Cramer spoke with asperity, her
upper lip and nose ascending to yet
higher plane, than that to which ma
ture had raised them. Mrs. Cramer,
formerly of Patchunk City, was pro-
fessedly careful of her social relations.
"The children wanted to go there
yesterday and play with the boys, but
do you suppose I'd let them? No,
indeed - Mrs. Cramer's head fol-
lowed the incline of her nose. "Dear
only knows what they'd catch !"
Edward Heiner tipped his chair
back against the counter. Heiner's
farm adjoined the lot containing the
yellow house. "They came between
two days." he declared, suspiciously.
cat night when I went to bed they
w'n't there, and in the morning when
l got up, there they was"
Uncle Billy Loss, aiding his niece,
Mehitable, with the mail, pushed his
spectacles along the bridge of his
nose toward his eyes, and read aloud
inscription on an envelope
"'Mrs. D. c. Peasley.' That must
be them," and he tucked the letter
into the pigeonhole allotted to such
P's as did not rent a postofice box.
Mrs. Cramer drew her lips up
scornfully. "Well, let them call that
wants to 1 don't intend to get any
nearer the inside Of that house. I
can see in from Our house, and that's
enough There's nothing to see ex-
cept bare floors and stove. There
are shades at the windows-not a
curtain, mind you.-and they keep
'em rolled clear to the tops of the
windows"
Here the outer door swung open
with jangling Of the call-bell fixed
to the top, and three boys of assorted
sizes trailed up to the counter and
looked over. They were hatless,
wore gaping shoes and long blue over
a1ls. They secured the letter ad-
dressed to Mrs. Peasley and fled down
the hill toward the yellow house,
while Mrs. Cramer continued, tri-
umphantly:
"There Don't they look like lit
tie vagabonds? 1 don't believe the
entire family has hat among EN-
They go wandering around over the
hills in this awful slush and mud
without hats. 1 believe myself they're
Gjpsies." :"
"The man looks sickly," spoke
Miss Mehitable, from behind the stack
of postofice boxes.
"Sickly or lazy !" amended Edward
Heiner.
Mrs. Cramer stepped to the stack
of post-boxes. "Huh Is this all
for me? Haven't l got a letter
Well, those that want to call, may y
And with this parting shot at Mehita
BILE, Mrs. Cramer left with her nose
high in the air.
The following day Mrs. Cramer':
nose formed an exclamation point a:
she entered the postofice. "Thoss
people," she began, "all flocked III
to our back door yesterday, as COO
as you please, while was sweepinf
the stoop and began to talk. l tel
you, finished sweeping in a hurry
and got inside !"
"Probably," spoke M Mehita bl e
"they're lonesome, coming out of th'
city,"
"Why did they come, then1" asket
Edward IIeiner, sliding down on hi
shoulder blades.
His auditors were interested, bu
uninformed. The question, however
seemed flooded with light few day
later, when a certain drummer frou
Patchunk City arrived, abounding
as usual, in general information.
Doesn't that yellow house beloni
to Judge Anger down in Patchunl
City 2" inquired the drummer.
eyes, it does" replied Heiner.
| The drummer, looking with salts