Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-09-29
THE EVENING STORY.
THEIR FIRST ANNIVERSARY
BY Lawrence Alfred May.
Copyright 1910 by Associated Literary

Copyright 1910 by Associated Literary
e. Press.
When Miss Kitty Seaforth became
Mrs. Robert Anderson things had all
been figured out. He was an. insur-
ance clerk at $25 per week. Some
day he might have an increase of
salary, but for the present they must
get along on this income. He had
enough in the bank to buy the fur
niture, and he had an eye on cottage
in the suburbs. and they would not
have to do any pinching to make q
fairly good show.
They had been married a year, and
love and happiness had reigned when
one morning at the breakfast table.
the wife looked up. with shining eyes
and said:
Bob, do you know-know-''
Then she stopped. She had an in
nocent little plot and was near CIV
ing 1t away. /.
He didn't ask her to finish. In his
turn he said:
Kitty. do you know know.
And there he paused and said he
would take another cup of coffee He
also had been conspiring with HIM
self. It was their first anniversary.
Both knew 1t and were, going to
speak OF 1t, but held their tongues.
They had had to do with q pretty
old rug In the parlor 1t was dingy.
Of It, but. they had been waiting. Bob
had been laying aside dimes and
quarters and halves for q year, some
times stealing them from his lunch
money, and Kitty had been saving
the same way. by hunting for bar
gains and retrimming her own hats.
Today that old rug. goes into the
dining room and a rug that is rug
takes its place. said Bob, as he
started for the car.
when Bob comes home tonight
I'll surprise him!" chuckled Kitty, as
she saw him depart.
Y AT 8 O'Clock In the afternoon a sec
ond hand man drove up, looked the
old rug over, made cash offer and
drove away with 1t. At four q neSi rug
came from carpet store.
At noon Bob had cut his lunch
hour short to visit a carpet store and
purchase a rug. He didn't ask that
1t should be delivered at his house.
On the contrary, he called for 1t at
8 o'clock. He had to hire a boy to
help him carry it to the car. Tho
conductor was peevish about it and
muttered that some folks didn't know
the difference between trolly car
and moving van. Another boy was
hired to help carry the rug from the
car to the house.
Dinner was all ready, but Mrs. An
derson sat en- the floor in the center
of the rug she had bought. It was
there she, would receive Bob and hear
his ordinations. Of surprise. 1t was
there she would call his attention to
the colors-the harmony-the weave,
and tell him she had saved 500, bit
by bit. He would lift her up and
kiss her and call her his saving little
girl.
There was dull thud in the little
front hall. There was a dragging
sound. There was a grumbling sound.
Then the parlor door was pushed
open and something that weighed
ton was un-ended into the room.
.eWhy, Bob, Bob!"
3 Euu CuS AuSRduO OAIOlON Lie IOOlA
and sat down and mopped his brow
and felt that he would have to wear
q porous plaster on his back for the
next month.
When he had got his breath hel
looked at the new rug on the floor.
The wife got UP and examined the
bundle he had brought In. Then, III
chorus:
You've gone and bought rug!"
. It was, a time for laughing, but |
neither laughed. Only one rug was
needed, and coed money had been
paid for two There was also the dis
appointment of not having surprised
each other The young wife shed !
tears, and Bob muttered. BY and by
she walled out:
"You ought to have known better!"
!. sAnd SO had 'you!"
"a man can't pick out a rug, any
low!"
HE can do better than woman.
L you had paid as much as five dol
ars for that rug then you've had the
eye teeth cheated out Of your head
Look at this enc, will you here's a
.ug that is rug"
{ ssIt's only a tapestry" she almost
shouted as he worked away and I'M