Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-05-18
EVENING STORY
. ONE OF HIS PEOPLE.
BY Mary Wood Ayres.

|lCOpyTlSHC, 1911, Dy the Associated
Literary Press)
/ Dick Carson was tall, broad shout
dered and good to look upon. Per
haps that Is why the head waitress
gave him one of the choice tables, at
the end Of the room, where he could
have an uninterrupted view of the
guests. If so, the favor was unap-
preciated. He was also quite OBJ
livious OF the fact that he had the
prettiest waitress in the room. In
his busy life meal time had come to
mean so many additional minutes for
reading, and he never neglected the
opportunity.
But today. looking up from the
finish of rather dry government
bulletin, his glance was caught by the
carriage of a girl who came down the
room lightly balancing tray on one
hand. "She could carry it just as
easily on her head he thought, ad-
miringly. "She is from the Smokes
surely"
AS she was bringing his own order
he soon had a nearer view. Her face
seemed familiar.
Haven't l seen you some place
before? he asked, in his abrupt way.
"Sure you have, Mr. Carton"
He started.
She smiled and explained: IT went
to the Forbes-Stanton school, and
you made the speech when I grad
uated."
It was the mountain school where
he himself had studied.
81 am Kitty Ralson."
He knew the Ralsons. Some of
them lived not ten miles from his
fathers farm. He was at once inter-
ested. "How did you happen to come
down here?"
Kitty flushed a deep red. "1
thought perhaps you had heard. I ran
off to Valleytown to marry Dan
Phelps. Sally Hustled was with me.
DAME never showed up. Sally -
she went home, but just couldn't
stand to do 1t. i had enough money
to come here. It's been six months
now" There was CLINT of tears in
her eyes as she gathered up some
dishes and started up the room.
Dick knew the mountain custom of
clipping, even when there was no op-
position to the match. Had not his
own father and mother slipped off to
this same Valleytown? Sometimes,
too, he knew that the courage of one
or the other failed at the last mo-
ment. But generally the breach was
patched up and they made second
and more successful attempt So
thinking he opened another treatise
and speedily forgot the incident
Her cheerful "Good morning, MIR.
Carton" at the next meal came as a
fresh surprise. The six months at
Asheville had smoothed off most Of
the vernacu1ar from her speech, but
she still had some of the mountain
twang that he loved. They had
worked other changes. Even careless
Dick Carton detected in her hair and
dress a smartness unknown to the
mountain girls. As she walked up
the room her cheeks rosy and her
head held. high several of the men
gave her admiring glances. A frown
gathered between the eyes of the
pathologist. A public dining room
was no place for mountain girl.
During the next few days they had
many an interrupted fragment of con-
versation. Dick told her the news in
his home letters, and her eyes grew
wistful.
"Why don't you go home, Kitty"
he asked earnestly.
II couldn't stand it. She turned
abruptly to answer the sally of a man
at the next table. Evidently he said
something complimentary, but the
girl only tossed her head and laughed.
Carton watched them with increas-
ing irritation. Why did not Dan
Phelps come and fetch her?
The Phelps boys, as he knew them,
were a bad lot. The women did the
work while the men loafed and drank
moonshine whisky. Never by any
chance had he seen one Of them in
the audience when he travelled with
the state agricultural demonstration
car. Dan, he could not remember.
Perhaps he was better than the rest
of his clan. At least the girl had
loved him.
Dick ate rapidly, his books un-
touched beside his plate A brilliant
plan was formulating in his nina.
He would send Dan the money to
come and get his girl. Saturday was
free. He would arrange to meet Dan
bring him to Kitty, and see them
married.
That night, on train going south,
tried to dismiss the matter from his
mind
Saturday morning he was on hand,
eagerly scanning the passengers from
the. Murphy train. In the tall fellow
who slouched out of the smoker, he
knew his bridegroom. He had the
dark beauty often seen among the
mountain boys, although his few
years of manhood had already tar
nished 1t with signs of dissipation.
1t was, however, too late to stop.
Briefly introducing himself he, hur-
ried Dan up the street to the Pleas
ant View hotel. a1
Kitty was setting the tables in the
diling room, a I. bellboy informed
them. Two girls were laughing and
talking at the table. The taller one
raised her head. 1t was Kitty. She
clutched the back of chair and her
face whitened.
81 have brought Dan, Kitty" Car
ton explained, with vague sense of
The color had come back to Kitty's
cheeks. Her eyes cleaned dangerously.
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