The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-02-07
A Tale of Garden Avenue

/ lot SdiO the young woman HtN, z ttdAit-
! ly. But ] wish you could see the -Som
she is in now. You would not talk of
| sweet peas reminding her of the dead.
| Why, there is not bud or blossom IN
/ sight. They are so poor, and their
! friends, if they have any, are so
| poor" Genuine emotion mastered her
and she hid her face in her handker-
/ chief. Miss Galloway got emotional,
/ too. and asked anxiously:
IF this Mrs. Skunk {Smink) is as
| poor as you say, how am I to make
sure OF my rent?"
We guarantee it. Mrs. Smink sews
beautifully and has many patrons.
i want dollar a week"
You'll get it," promised the commit
tee, rising YEARLY as one.
/ I'll need to-" said Miss Galloway
| grimIy, showing them to the door.
| Needn't think they can lord it over
me just because they have lace on their
petticoats," she muttered.
Before going indoors, she glanced at
4 the houses on both sides of the street,
! noticing with ever new jealousy the
ever old scene of general neighbOTliness
/ i'm which she had no share. From the
| groups of babies in the gutter to the
/ groups of women at washtubs in back
yards, all but herself had comrades to
/ idle with. cronies to talk to.
! "Gossiping trollops!" she commented
! Her tone was bitter. but there wa
| also heartache in it as she shut out the
world and went back into her empty
i house. Yet at that very moment had
! neiehbor run in and attempted to be
neighborly, Sally Galloway would have
| resented it so sincerely and agressiveiy
as to have discouraged further ad-
I vances from that quarter for all time.
| "And ii Mrs. Skunk (Smink) thinks
1 she rents my whole house for a dollar a
/ week, III show her she's mistaken the
moment she pokes her nose into my
privacy" she muttered at the concur
sion of her work of putting to rights
the room intended for her widow And
] III pick every last flower from my gar
| den and put them in my own room
| straight off" Which she did, with a
| quieting effect upon her nerves.
/ In the afternoon. when a carriage
| bowled along down the honored and de-
/ lighted avenue, Miss Galloway was
quite ready for it in a boarder-repelling
gown of stiff alpaca. The carriage let
| out its one occupant black-robe6s
grief-stricken girl-not much more than
a child-widowed at II. She CROPPED her
way into the house and ran unasked
into Miss Galloway's outraged, unTeady
arms.
why, where's Mrs. Smink2" de-
fn9nded the spinster. But she knew.
and tried to shove away the hands
which chung 10 her
"Oh, Miss Galloway" sobbed the girl
pressing against Miss Sally's stony
| bosom, and there poured out her agony
of loss: 1T is so good of you to be-
| friend me, TO give me a home! Oh,
how could ] have gone back to the
place they took him from, where he
had laid three days dead, three days
It's over. Don't harp on it," advised
ell zsrsrv
| at the young fingers. She objected to
| tears on her dress and on her carpet
three days without a word to me,
, WITHOUT a look, without movement o.
his dear arms, so cold. so still-and we
we're always talking and laughing.
Why couldn't 1 die, too?"
You will if you go on like this. II
does no good
I'VE used TO go everywhere together;
\ why not down to death together? My
only heaven was in the light of my
dear ones eyes, and my only possible
home was in his heart-and where is he
now? In the dreadful EARTH
Miss Sally shiveTed. She, too, had
once stood beside a new grave
There is a tree near him and ii rus
ties all the time. He never could bear
the sound of Il tree rustling in the
wind He said il had a lonely sound.
ever and forever. He can't get out
Oh, I'm going back to him / left him
too soon. He will think, dead though he
is. that / might have stayed a little
longer. Do you hear me? Let go,
Not tenderiy. but instinctiyely, Miss
Galloway frightened her hold.
BE quiet" she gasped. stop carry
ing on. You'll make yourself sick. Let
me show you to your room, Mrs
Smink.'
Don't call me that. Ever. He used
to. In fun. My name is Esther. Call
AN right. Now you quit crying. It's
bad for you"
"Rut want to die" She was again
clinging TO her unresponsive COM
panion
Not in my house-Tn have no such
thing. fumed Miss Galloway, striving
to free herself. Better go to your room
and lie down a bit
ia rather stay with you" sobbed
the girl.
of all the leeches." muttered Miss
Galloway in despairing recognition OF
the fact that sympathy was imperative
" required of her. Lie here them
She dumped her charge upon the lounge
and patted her several times, woodeniy
as if she were humping a soft cushion
Don't YOU bulge one bulge till BRING
YOU a cup of tea
Leaving the room, she muttered
'Since I've started at tea | might as
well do the other thing, too" therefore
, she transferred the sweet peas to hel
! dodgers bureau and STROBE on angriiy
! to the kitchen
, In this fashion did Esther become q
member of the Galloway establishment
. As a ledger she proved desirable. foi
she minded her own business, was quiel
and neat. and, by the Dorcas society
: was kept supplied with so many pa
< irons that she not only paid her rent
but began TO put aside a little money
( She persisted in loving Miss Sally a
her truest, frsnkest friend. All thai
e Miss Sally could do in return was mere
l " to tolerate her-Bot much more
: and even this liberation would no
2 stand a strain, as Esther soon discov-
4 cred. 1t was on the day that she found
? Bartholomew in the garden hanging OF
I a fence nail Miss Sally's side) and had
} brought him into the house to roll hin
upon the floor and generally TO enjoy
his babyship. Hearing his shrieks Of
anguished miFth. Miss sally descended