The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-05-09
THE EVENING STORY
Two Poets.
by Donald Allen. !

| with the world. When a girl fees that
| way she sheds few tears; she feels
| nerself neglected; she thinks of drown
| ing; she snaps back at the family cook;
she would poison the family parrot
| II the family had one. There is but one
| tning to console her, and that is it
MAKE for a dell in the woods and
write some sad poetry
| Fortunately for Miss Dora, there was
a bit of woods back of the manor
| house. There was a dell. The after
| noon was fine ard she took pencil and
! paper along-enough to write a dozen
sad poems.
| diss Dora was not in love- and
stern father and an ambitious mother
| mad not been filing objections. None
! or her girl friends had been growing
over her. She hadn't discovered a
| freckle on her face or a mole on her
elbow. She was sad because she was
sad. There are times when even men
and women 80 years old get sad streaks
on and turn to poetry as the panacea.
Poetry is an escape valve. There are
hundreds IF persons in prison who
wouldn't have been there had they been
provided with dell and pencil and
paper.
Miss Dora sank down beside rock
in the dell with sigh of relief. She
| could shed the silent tear now with
out the parlor maid respectfully and
sylnpathetically asking her if she had
get pepper in her eyes. There are par
lOr anu OCa6rS WHO Will uOL uu-
derstand when souls are a-weary.
A rabbit ran across the dell, but was
scarcely observed. squirrel chatter
ed, and was voted a nuisance. A quail
sounded his Bob White ard a stick
was thrown at him.
There is a program to go through
with to write a sad poem. Pencil and
paper must be made ready, and then
all the sad things of life must be call
ed to mind. One may even include the
va MINI of vi11C in, q
thought. Then the pen or pencil must
be ctewed for long minutes. By this
time, one feels that if one of the trees
were to fall and crush the life out of
the body, everybody would be glad. 1t
is well to remember the puppies and
parrots and kittens that have been
owned, and the sad fate nleted out to
them sooner or later. In about half an
hour it is high time to begin to write
the Poem.
Miss Dora began. Once she was
ready she struck boldly out with:
''Oh, the world, it is drear, and the
world. it is sad,
'Tis world of nothing but sorrow"
And there she stuck That's most
always the way with a sad poem. If
it begins on the jump, it comes to a
sudden stop somewhere and the poor
poet grits his teeth in vain.
After half an hour spent in trying
to finish verse number one Of ten
verse poem the paper and pencil were
laid aside, and Miss Dora strolled
about. She was feeling better. There
were wintergreen berries growing in
the dell. She gathered and ate some.
Then she went down to the creek
to watch the little fish, and finally went
back to the house feeling a great deal
better. Not until evening did she re-
member the two lines of poetry left on
a fiat stone in the dell. She would re-
cover them next day. Perhaps she
would build on-perhaps hot.
Something took place up in that dell
within an hour after Miss Dora left
it, and she was in ignorance of it un-
til the next afternoon. She strolled
that way again, humming to herself
instead of signing, and when she picked
up her two lines of poetry-behold! In
a neat but masculine hand some one
had added the two lines:
"And it fills me with grief, and makes
me so mad
That I'll HE me for home on the
morrow"
Was it masculine hand? Had she !
finished the verse without realizing |
it? Had she written that she was |
mad when she was only sad? Here was |
a mystery. The girl looked all around, |
but Sherlock Holmes was not there. |
She sat down and thought and stood |
up and cogitated, but it was a quarter |
of an hour before the bright thought |
came. Then she sat down and wrote |
two more lines:
Ills a struggle to live-'tis easy to |
die
A sigh and gasp, and tits over"
Then she laid the paper down and !
weighted it with pebble, and laid the |
pencil across. If a ghost had come |
after her the day before and written |
those additional lines, she wanted to |
make sure of it. If it was a man, |
then he had trespassed on private !
grounds and done an impudent thing, |
and she would lay a trap and catch |
him and tell him what she thought of |
him.
Just the minute she had bolted her
MONDAY lunch the next day, Miss |
Dora set off for the dell. She was |
two hours ahead of time. She ap-
preached the spot on tiptoe. No one |
there! She sat down behind a bush to /
wait and watch. Half an hour passed, |
and then-Ha! hal A young man ap- !,
figure and rather good-looking, but |
he smiles like a villain. He advances
to the stone and picks up the paper
and reads and chuckles. Then he sits /
down and adds two lines to complete
verse number two:
"And blow yourself up some forty rods
high,
And land in the thistles and clover"
He replaces the paper on the stone.
smiles and chuckles, and is about to
take his departure when he feels the
presence of a grizzly bear or tiger-or
a good-looking girl-near him, and
turns.
For a moment he and Miss Dora
look into each other'sLey Then she
steps forward and picks up the sheet
and reads what he has written, and
turns on him with:
"Sir, how dare you do such thing!'
'1-Ebeg your-your pardon"
But you are a trespasser here!"
"I-I didn't know it,
'.And you are impudent, sir-very i'm
pudentw
ct didn't mean to be, you know
Truly, Miss
Don't say you didn't know. You
knew you were adding those lines,