Arizona republican., 1910-03-27

~ HE old white house square structure sur mounted by cupoa, built in the early part ~ of the nineteenth century. The sLoping roof supported by great Cornthian pillars extended over wide porch and like many houses o that perlod both roof and cupola ornamented by low wooden rail ings pruned for years, and the trim, boX-bordered garden beds tangle of Japan and Bermuda heS, pink williams blue bachelor s-buttons, fragrant phlox and Haunting hollyhocks.
 In spite of its general dilapidation it was place which would have suggested mhnite possiOihnes 10 u artistic eve, but Tom Hillary closed the gate ot the o,d-iashioued white rail fence with impatient bang:
 I've white elephant my hands all right, all Tight he reflected irritaby: but if Id toreclosed Skinncr's mortgage he directed, and the property had been put up public sale, in all probability the place would have brought not more than enough to sat iEfy the lien it. and there would have been nothing left tor poor old Willard"
 lie paused to regard with covetous eyes ornate Queen Anne villa in process of erection
 Something like that now. what I'd had m rird' he thought, wstfully. Mothers been used to living in handsome house ever since Celie married Jim Bennett.
 Then his face cleared I'll tell her just how it was he decided. Bless her heart, she'll be glad to know that was able to do good turn to the old man who was so kind to me when was d kid
 And any how, he continued with increasing cheer. funess, T furnish the old ark way up in c, and with fresh paint-pink instead of white-all that shrubbery cut down. nice smooth lawn, and per haps fountain with the figure of child holding umbrella over her head like that one l saw Tn Peoria, it will look like different place
 
 "Oh, Thomasr Miss Marilla Buckingham ex- claimed I'm so delighted to have met you Sister and were intending to call at your ofce this after to consult you matter of-of grave nm portanCe But there something so--so indeli- cate in ladies calling gentleman that. perhaps, now that you in the neighborhood you wont mInd stopping
 Hillary had swept off his hat and stood looking kindly down at shabby little in rusty black.
 Tt will be pleasure, Miss Buckingham" he as sured her cordially.
 Nevertheless he seemed a trifc depressed he re. lievcd the tremuous hands of pitifully small brown paper parcels. He had known the Misses Buck ingham all his life, and he that, like many other women left alone in the world they had al lowed comfortable competency to slip through ther fingers. He divined the nature of the matter of grave importance" and his prophetic soul told him that he would be called to solve the hopeless prob lem of making their impaired capital yield living in- come or the still hopeless of pointing out to two proud, luxuriousy. brought-up women past mid de age some of earning livelihood.
 Hillary himself had been poor boy but he had come of sturdy working stock and his mother. left widow with two young children to support. had ap- piled herself to the task with such indomabe pluck ind vim that the little cottage where she bent daily over her wast-tubs had been a happy home And now Hillary gancing at the delicate worn face beside nm; realized the difference between the cheerful hopeful poverty of his boyhcod and that which confronted these two helpless women in their old age.
 For an instant he tempted to plead forgotten engagement and thus avoid painful scene But as small boy wi an unsuitable appetite for cookies and apples the Misses Buckingham had often appeared to
 
 not merely with Tom Hillary
 His manner showed no trace of his inward perturba- tio1 wien Miss Mariila ushcred him into the dim drcvin2-roon where sat Miss Lucinda, frail, thin sh2dowy edition o tie younger sister. It was paln that in his capacity of cgal adviser the sisters regarded thci- former procgc with awe, and their natural re- cencc made it difficult for them 10 acknowledge the straits which they had been reduced; but by dint of skilfu sympathetic questioning Hillary at length succeeded in obtaining clear Idea ot the condition or
 That gold-mine promised we'll" sobbed Miss Marla, in conclusion
 How could possibly imagine that the bank was coing 10 fail when the cashier himself, not week be- fore he was arrested embezzlement. assured us that it was as solid as rocr sighed Miss Lucinda Sister and l really cannot manage to live on what is lcftr she continued. tearfuly. and we thought Thomas that you could tell what is best to be done"
 This great house must be an expensive place to keep up" began Hillary. tentatively. Have you never thought of dsposing of it v
 sell the home that has been in our family for tour generations? We would rather starve" the old women cried as one person.
 The only plan which seemed to him at all feasible being thus sunmary rejected, Hillary sat thought fully frowning the apparently insolube problem presented him when the silence was broken by Miss Marilla Thomas she said, faintly, ''it would be exceed nely painful to our most sacred sensibies -but-but we might consent to disposing of some ot our-so to speakgLares and Penates. We could spare what would completely furnish small house without the fact becoming apparent to a-a casual observer DO you think Thomas that you could find us GUS toner who woulc regard such ransacuoh ds-dS confidential"
 Hillary looked doubtfully about the dim drawing room whose treasures of old mahogany, rare china and quaint brc-abrac, fruits ot the voyages or an vcnturops ancestors would have caused counois scur to swoon with rapture. But it may well be at once admitted that the young attorneys ideal home was that of his sister Celia, who at sixteen had married rich plumber and had gone to Peoria to reside,' according to one of the focal papers, in one of the most elegant mansions of which our en- terorising city can boast" The plumber gener ous man who had been quite ready to undertake the maintenance of his wfe's impecunious relatives but Tom although only boy at the time had elected to remain in his native town, where he had managed to work his way through the law school and later into good pratise by dnt of pure grit and deter n,nation.
 He had however made frequent visits in Peoria, where he had been nnocenty elaed to ind his mother and sister living in aggressively modern house oi which the architecture venal as the plumbing was above reproach and which was furnished with all