The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-03-06
THE EVENING STORY
slow-ooach willis.

SAoW-CBacn Wills.
(By Temple Bailey.)
Willis Ilamphear 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 a sense butt for the Jokes
OF the community. Smart young men
laughed at him when they talked to
tnelr 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
mold their attention.
So it happened that Willis when he
was thirty was not married. He
knew little of the pursuit of women;
somewhat wistfully he wished for q
wife, but none of the girls had seemed
to care for his attentions, and so he
himself.
He lived with his father and mother
In square house at the edge of the
village. He was not stingy, but he
was not extravagant, and so he built
up gradually little fortune. An in
her1tance from an uncle added to his
nestegg, increasing ii 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 a wonderful
opening in oil lands, and Willis
bought. A year later he was rich
man, but SO gradually had he acquired
his fortune that no one in his native
village or in the surrounding country
dreamed that "Slow-Coach Willis" as
they called him. could buy out any
farmer or merchant in the COM
munity.
The old folks died and Willis, now
q man of forty, looked around for
housekeeper. Some few of the girls
who had f1outed 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 unimpeachabie.
But he did not marry.
Yet in his slow way he 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 blustery 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 resented
AS he grew older his mind dwelt
often on the home that he might have
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-
suited his shrewd lawyer friend as
to the best shops. and there he went,
Ito be shown exquisite 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. "It is all in
beds and pink silk curtains at the
windows, and the furniture is old ma
hogany, and there are silver things
on the dresser"
1t was said that there were won
derful pictures in the big. square par
Tor and strange rugs from eastern
countries.
''And what can he do with it all, I
should like to known" said the woman
who had scorned him when they
were young. ''It is q sin and a shame
for it to tie wasted
But it was not to be wasted. One
winter day romance came suddenly
into the life of Willis Lamphear. He
had been making purchases at a great
shop in the city. It was in the busy
holiday season, and at one of the
counters a girl tainted. She was a
A4Ll1O SHY VI with d Willis
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-
vator and stayed with her until they
reached the eighth floor. where there
was a hospital for employees
He waited for news of her and
heard group of excited girls say,
Poor little thing, her mother died
last week and she is all alone"
Willis mind, working slowly, evolv-
in a cab," he said to one of the girls.
1T seems to me that 1 am partly to
blame. Everybody who shops in such
a crowded season is to blame. 1 might
have waited until the rush was over -
The girl looked at him curiously
I'll bring her down when she is bet
ter"
At the door of the cab Willis asked
for her number, and he blushed and
stammered.
The next day he hunted her up. He
found her on the top floor of a tene-
ment, looking smaller and whittier
than ever, as she lay curled up on
the couch. One of the women in the
house was looking after her but
there were few evidences of comfort
She greeted him in a startled way
Her life had not made her confiding
IF you will let me look after you
a little,' he said to her, I'D feel bet
ter. 1 hate to see little white thing
like you having to struggle. When
you tainted yesterday in the store it
came to me that the world was pretty
cruel to girls like you"
Her eyes filed with tears. "Peo-
pie do not think she said, very
much about u.s.
He did not shower things upon her
Yet he saw to it that she had enough
nourishing food.
She did not dream he was. a rich
man. His clothes. his rough hands,
his hesitating manner, gave no i'm
preston of affluence.
Yet she chung to him: loved him;
WorShiped him. He was not 'SloW-
Coach Willis to her, but a wonderful
being of tenderness and strength
When at last he asked ner to marry
him, she would have gone with him
to perjury. She did not dream that
l.