The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-06-06
THE EVENING STORY
Clever Aunt Clara.
(By Temple Bailey.)


| dishes.
Why don't you let the other girls
do it she demanded.
Dorothea, hesitating to condemn her
stepsisters. said that they did not like
to ruin their finger nails.
Aunt Clara asked.
Dorothea took two red, rough
little hands out of the steaming wat
er. They are ruined, anyhow" she
said,
Well, now I am here" her aunt
| decided, you are not going to wash
the dishes. I'll hire a maid and you
are going around with me. Wen see
everything that is worth SEEING
Dorothea shook her head "Im
afraid they won't like it, she said
| MY stepmother thinks that a maid
! makes more work.
| subject of more help. She was not
sure that she liked her brothers new
| wife, but she meant to be pleasant to
| her and her two daughters. She sim
ply stated that she wanted to see a
| great deal of Dorothea and that it
would be best. therefore, to get some
/ one to do the work.
| Aunt Clara was rich, and it seemed
best not to cross her, so the maid was
secured and Dorothea was free
| The first thing that Aunt Clara did
was to take her to the shops. She
| fitted her out with everything in the
| way of pretty summer clothes. There
was an exquisite white embroidered
| gown, which cost so much that Doro-
| thea gasped.
"Oh. Aunt Clara, you are perfect
fairy godnotheri"
We'll. think you need a fairy god
mother Aunt Clara said. II wish
I could help you to find the prince
Dorothea flushed. There was a
| prince, but he rode away
| why did he go?''
| Dorothea shook her head. 'T am
not sure, but I think they told him I
was too young to marry"
| "Humph,'' was all the answer Aunt
Clara made.
That night, however, she asked
some questions of the stepmother and
he'd daughters. The admitted that
! there had been young man, but that
| he was poor and Dorothea was young,
and besides they needed her at home.
Aunt Clara went up to her room
| and wrote a letter. She was wise old
woman, and she knew that love was
plenty of money and If Dorothea wish
ed to marry a poor prince she should
have him.
| y 1t was week before the answer
came. and in the meantime Aunt Clara
spoke. of the big lawn party that she
intended to give. The house was too
small she argued, to hold many guests
but a temporary refreshment tent
could be put up on the lawn, and, as
money can do everything, the place
could be quite transformed for the &C.
casion.
She told Dorothea to wear the en-
broidered white gown. She had a
fancy, too. that her niece should wear
| white satin slippers, although they
did not seem appropriate for out OF
| doors. The two sisters were to serve
lemonade, but Dorothea was to mingle
with the guests.
Thus it happened that Dorothea. a
| dream of beauty in her snowy White,
| came across the lawn with Aunt Clara
just in time to meet a young man In
gray fiannels who rushed up to them.
beaming.
"Why-ft's Jack-Jack Barton!"
Didn't you know I was coming?"
Aunt Clara gave him warning
| look.
TT had some business here" he
stammered.
Later. he and Aunt Clara had a
long talk. ST am poor and feel as if
I ought not to ask her." he said. "but
love her dearly
With Aunt Clara's announcement.
however, the little romance was con-
summated that night, and. having
| done her good work, the old lady left
for home.
After her departure things went
back into the old routine. Dorothea
again washed the dishes, and, II
! seemed TO hPT, as the summer WdHoQ
and the winter came on. that she and
Jack were growing farther apart
There was nothing left of the romance
of the summer days when Aunt Clara
had visited them except the little
| white satin slippers which Dorothea
kept on the top of her dresser as q
reminder of the day when Jack had
asked her to marry him.
At last things came to climax II
am too poor Jack declared; every
| body says So"
| who is everybody?"
/ It developed that the stepsisters had
been making trouble. They had put
into Jacks mind doubts that should
not have existed. And there was no
fairy godmother to straighten things
out.
One night Dorothea sat in the kitch-
en- alone. Every one else had gone to
the theater. She had finished her
work and was resting for a moment in
the quiet place before she began a
letter to Jack.
| Suddenly she heard a step on the
walk, the knob of the door ratified
and. as she ran to open it. some one
Il stepped in quickly. It was Aunt Clara.
''rell me what has happened?'' she
4 said 81 have just had a despairine
letter from Jack, and he says you don't
love him."
"He-doesn't love me-" Dorothea
sohbed.
Once more Aunt Clara became the
neace maker Her methods were not
those of the godmother in the fairy
tale, but they sufficed. Instead Of
pun pkins and rats and mice she had
an automobile which served her DUR
pose better than q carriage. into II
she bundled Dorothea. then suddenly
she changed her mind
stR,ln upstairs first" she ordered
"and put on vo,1r white Gown and those
| white tin sinners. IF it's going. tc
he a case If Cinderella we might as
| we'll have the transformation scene
right now. I have only this evening
. TO spend with you. Tomorrow 7 leave
for Furone and 7 must see you and
lack married before ] co.
| Tt hecsue a ease of Cinderella hunt
tho for the prinoo instead of tbe