The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-01-31
The EVENING STORY
When zen Acted.
(By Lawrence Alfred Clay.)

Farmer John White, Zeb Hastings,
his hired man, and his son Jimmy
were sitting down to breakfast when
Mrs. White, who had been upstairs
to see why the daughter Mary didn't
come down. stood at the foot of the
stairs and made the above announce
ment.
| What do you mean, ma 2" slowly
asked the husband, while Zeb turned
pale and rose up, and Jimmy, the
| fourteen-year-old son, had guilty
look
| Come right upstairs and see for
yourselves! 1 tell you her bed amt
| been slept in, and I shouldn't mite
wonder if most of her clothes was
gonei"
The husband, wife and Zeb filed up
the stairway and gazed at the bed.
Whne Jimmy made a sneak for the
| barn. The bed was there, without a
crease or a crinkle in it, and Mary's
best things were missing.
She wouldn't hang herself in the
garnet, would she? '' asked the farmer.
She wouldn't drown herself in the
we'll, would she?" asked the white
faced wife, as she wrung her hands.
Zeb Hastings had been a farmers
hired man since he was eighteen. He
was steady and hardworking. He had
been with the Whites for three years,
and for two years he had been in
love with the daughter Mary. He
hadn't exactly said so, but the father
knew it, the mother knew it and Mary
knew it. Zeb was little show-that's
all.
'Zeb'll make Mary a good man."
was the comment between husband
and wife.
Mary liked Zeb. AS for loving him,
| she didn't know. She had let things
| drift along without asking herself the
question. She had seen little of men.
No young man had come counting
and not once fortnight had she driv-
! en- into the village. She was better
| educated that Zeb, but she did not
| criticise. Hard work had given him
bit of a stoop, and his hands were
| big and red and his face unshaven
most of the time, but she made no
com parisons to his detriment.
But for the arrival of a summer
! boarder things would have continued
| TO drlft. He was young man of
good looks, wore clothes of the latest
pattern and was new being to the
| isolated girl. He told her of the out
side world-appealed to romance
ambition and curiosity-and, after a
stay of a fortnight, gave the farmer
worthless bank check for this board
| and disappeared.
| 1t was week later that Mary failed
| to come down to breakfast. Zeb had
| been jealous of the boarder, and had
| heaved sigh of relief at his departure.
| For the land sake. what is it, and
what you goin' to do?" asked Mrs.
|
| husband.
| Without word III answer, Zeb turn
ed ana walked down stairs and made
his way to the barn The granary
door was shut. He opened it and got
| a firm hold of the collar of the hiding
Jimmy and lifted him out on the barn
| floor and shook him three or four
| times, and demanded:
Tell NE where she WENT You know
| all about it,
| 'She's-she's run away" blubbered
| the youth.
And. gol darn you. you knew she
was going and kept still about It'll Go
On and tell ne everything or IN shake
| the head off you."
He was led into the house to sob out
| his story. The summer boarder was
an actor-manager. In no other way
could he have appealed so strongly to
| the girl. She had never seen a play,
! but she had read. She had but TO be
| cast as Little Eva in Uncle Toms
Cabin" and romance. fame and the
| world were hers At first she had
| ting 0O-word speech to memory and
repeating it to the manager, he had
| pronounced her marvel and she had
| doubted no more.
Brother Jimmy had overheard enough
so that they were obliged to take him
| into their confidence. In fact, on the
| night Mary left the house he had car
| ried her Satchel for three miles on the
way to the village.
| When his story had been finished
and there were many other details
| both father and mother looked at Zeb
| Never before had they seen a paleness
| through his sun burn-his eyes look SO
| steely, his jaw so hard set. They didn't
| ask what he was going to do; they
could read it in his face. The New
| York Uncle Toms Cabin company was
to foregather that night at village
25 miles away for rehearsal previous to
| taking the road. The boy Jimmie had
| it all down pat. II he had only been
a year or two older. so he had been
| told, he would have been taken along
tc play the part of George Harris
| Zeb Hastings went upstairs and
changed tc his Sunday suit. When he
came down he went to the barn and
| crat wagon. He had the barnyard gate
| open to drive out when Mrs. White
came out and asked between her sobs.
'Zeb, what You goin' to do?"
| Coin to tip over Uncle Toms cabin
He drove to the village where Mary
must have taken the train, put up the
horse at the tavern barn and then went
to the depot to wait for his train. Men
who knew him FOR a good fellow shook
| he rds ct slipped him on the back, and,
after looking at him in his Sunday
suit, asked if he was going away to be
r arried. To their surprise he replied
| that he was. He wasn't mentioning
| names, but he expected to bring wife
back with him.
At o'clock in the afternoon Zeb
Hastings was landed at the depot in
| Schofield. He made a few INQUIRIES
got a bite to eat and then made his
way to Turner's hall. A citizen named
Turner had had the enterprise to turn
the second story of his hardware store
into a place where outraged taxpayers
and other bodies might meet Theatre
Gals had been given there, and there
we're bills On the walls and boards an
nouncing that the Uncle Tom company
would take it's chances at an early date
A rehearsal had been called for 2
o'clock, and as Zeb made his way into