Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-03-09
Evening Story
sLoW-coAcH WILLIS.
BY Temple Bale,

BY Temple Bailey.
Copyright, 1911, by the Associated
Literary Press).
Willis Lamphear had been a slow
boy at school, and his young man.
hood had not seemed to bring a
sharpening of his wits. He had thus
become in sense butt for the jokes
OF the community. Smart young men
laughed at him when. they talked to
their sweethearts They made fun OF
his deliberate ways, his stammering
speech; and at church gatherings and
at country dances HE was left to him
self by the girls. Their eyes and
ears were for the more alert young
men who knew how to attract and
hold their attention.
So it happened that Willis when he
was thirty 'as not married. He
knew little of the pursuit of women;
somewhat wistfully he wished for a
wife, but none of the girls had seemed
to care for his attentions, and so he
had withdrawn more and mere into
himself.
He lived with his father and mother
in square house al the edge Of the
village. He was not stingy, but he
was not extravagant, and so he built
up gradually little fortune. An In
heritance from an uncle added to his
nestegg, increasing u to a sum OF
some Importance, so that one day
Willis went to the city and consulted
a shrewd friend as to investments. 1t
seemed that there was. wonderful
opening IN oil lands, and Wills
bought. A year later he was rich
man, but 80 gradually had he acquired
his fortune that no one in his native
village or in the surrounding country
dreamed that "SlowCoach Willis as
they called him, could buy out any
farmer or merchant in the COM
munity.
The old folks died and Willis, now
man of forty, looked about for a
housekeeper. Some few of the girls
who had fouted him in the days OF
their youth were now willing to over.
look his deficiencies for the sake OF
a comfortable home. But he would
have none of them. He chose IN
stead an ancient dame whose repu-
tation for cooking was unimpeachable.
But he did not marry.
Yet in his slow way be was always
looking for romance. He loved the
flowers in the spring. the song of the
birds in the still woods, the whistle
Of the wind on bl,lstery nights. And
he would have loved the romance OF
the hearthstone as well.
He had no desire to be accepted
FOR his possessions. He knew what
the village girls had thought OF him,
and in his dull way he had re-
sented it.
As he grew older his mind dwelt
often on the home that he might have
fitted ND for wife. He took trips
now and then to the city and grad
ually began to acquire belongings,
such as no woman in that village had
seen.
Not trusting his own taste. he con-
shifted his shrewd lawyer friend as
to the best shops. and there he went,
To he shown eo-isite wares from all
parts of the world.
Gradually it began to be Whispered
that Willis was a rich man.
"You should see the front bed
room" said the gossips. 1T is all in
mink with white lace covers for the
beds and pink silk curtains at the
windows. and the furniture is old ma
hogany, and there are silver things
on the dresser"
II was said that there were Won
derf,l pictures in the big. square par
Tor and strange rugs from easter l
countries.
"And what can he do with 1t all. |
should like to know said the woman
who had scorned him when they
were girls. ut is a. sin and shame
for it to be wasted
But it was not to be wasted. One
winter day romance came suddenly
into the lii, Of Willis Lamphear. He
had been making purchases at great
shop in the city. 1t was in the bnsy
holiday season, and at one of the
a girl tainted. She was a
little slip of . thing with white
face and pale gold hair. 1t was Will
lis who picked her up crowding be
hind the counter and lifting her In
his strong arms as if she had been
a feather. He carried her to the ele-
yator and stayed with her until they
reached the eighth floor where there
was :. hospital for employees.
He waited for news of her ar i
heard a group of excited girls say.
Poor little thing, her mother died
last week ard she is all alone
Willis's mind, working slowly,
evolved plan. ed like to send her
y =, , ooL - ha ca;d to one of the
girls. "It seems to me that / am
partly to anne. Everybody who
shops in such a crowded season is to