The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1911-02-17
The Troubles
Of Polly

:.-.-.-.-..-....-.-.-.-.-.
Three times the bell had rung. But
where she had been sobbing for q
quarter of an hour.
Its that odious Mrs. Barton, who
came over when the flower box fell, .
she breathed to herself. That wo-
man always does come when some
horrible thing happens like this. |
won't let her in."
So saying, Polly, reused at last,
drew out huge pail and filled 1t with
steaming suds, contributing to the
flood now and then teardrcp. She
got down the dustpan and broom and
enveloped herself in a pink and white
checked apron.
| Then the back doorbell rang-two
short rings and three long ones.
Its SUSIE" she cried, throwing the
dustpan into the pail and then flinging
open the door with chatter.
"You darling!" she sobbed. pushing
her friend into the green wicker chair
that adorned the porch. you can't
go in there, almost didn't let you In
at all. 1 didn't hear you ring at the
front door and just knew it was Mrs.
Barton.
| "She's a regular bloodhound for
trouble, you know" explained Polly.
"She sympathizes and patronizes till
| you want to scream. And / know she
| had heard the noise and was trying
to get in to gloat sympathetically over
| my trouble.
only yesterday she told me that
| she had bought two dozen cans or
| plum preserves for only 10 cents
| pint! She is forever doing something
| like that. And know they were left
| over stock and horrid. Nobody, not
| even a factory, can make preserves
| and sell them so cheap. Why, sugar
| Is cents a pound, and 1t takes such
| oceans for preserves"
Polly began to cry again and Susie
began to ask questions, which went
| unanswered for some minutes.
"Hamless?" she exclaimed at last
when breath had come again. THAT
woman's not harmless! Why, she can
| cause more trouble in five minutes by
| existing than you or could in life
| time of active anarchy.
when we screened our porch she
| came out and told us that they had
| thofrC hooanC0 II fQnpc
| west, like ours, and there were never
any western breezes, and they always
| went away for the summer anyway.
Then we hung the flower box and she
| told us that she had never had sue
cess with flowers in boxes, as they
never did well in shallow earth. Then
| the box fell down and she came out to
say Did it fall? That is too bad, but
those chains did seem fragile to me
| from the first.
| "Oh, that woman!" stormed Polly.
| Zone day when our yard was full of
| clothes she watched for me to say that
she had noticed how my lavender
| linen had faded. She was sorry now,
| she said, that she hadn't told me to
have the laundress put salt in the wa
ter and hang the dress in the shade.
She said 1t would have been all right
If those precautions had been taken.
When I brought home the cherries"
Here Polly wept again, while Susie
took a bottle of ice water from the re-
| frigerator and tried to cool her with
glassful.
Something has happened to the
fruit. I know" said Susie, softly.
sPlease don't cry. You can always
buy fruit
.That's what she has told me all
summer" Polly walled. "But / didt
want to buy it. have always wanted
| to make preserves-all my life-and 1t
was fun. But she told me that she
didn't believe in putting up fruit ones
self when she saw me stagger up the
stairs with those cherries. I had
bought them downtown because l had
heard I could get them at wholesale
there. And she met me with the news
that at the grocery on our cross street
thew were selling cherries at 10 cents
| crate less LHdu udu paAo AoA hAho'
She was so sorry for me, she said.
She had tried putting up fruit the first
wear of her married life, too, she re-
marked, and smiled at me, but now
she thought 1t by far the better plan
| to buy canned fruit.
"That evening she came over and
talked with Dick and he was furious
because l had carried the cherries
home from downtown, just because
he had said he liked cherry pies In
the winter. l couldn't make him think
that it wasn't nearly SO much what
he liked as that wanted to make lots
of preserves"
Polly wept again.