Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1911-03-15

d1gnity, and turning she went up the
stairs.
There was great deal of excite
ment, and nobody except Mr.. Harbi-
son was willing to go near Jim. He
went up at once with Bella, while
Max and Dial sat cravenly downstairs
and wondered if we would all take it,
and Anne told about man she knew
who had it, and was deaf and dumb
and blind when he recovered.
Mr.. HARRISON came down after
wldle, and said that the rash was
there, right enough, and that Jim alb
solutely refused to be quarantined;
that he insisted that he always got
rash from early strawberries and that
if he did have anything, since they
were SO touchy he hoped they would
all get it. If they locked him in he
would kick the door down.
We had a long conference in the
hall, with Bella sitting red-eyed and
objecting to every suggestion we
made. And finally we arranged to
shut Jim up in one Of the servants
bedrooms with a sheet wrung out Of
disinfectant hung over the door. Bella
said she would sit outside in the hall
ard read to him through the closed
door, SO finally he gave a grudging
consent. But he was in an awful hui
NOR Max and Dial put on rubber
gloves and helped him over, and they
said afterward that the way he talked
was fearful. And there was tele-
phone in the maids room, and he
kept asking for things every five
minutes.
When the doctor came he said it
was too early to tell positively, and
he ordered him liquid diet and said
he would be back that evening
Which-the diet--takes me back to
the famine. After they had moved
Jim, Mr.. HARRISON went back to the
telephone, and found everything as
it should be. So he followed the tele-
phone wire, and the rest followed
him. I did not: He had systematical-
ly ignored me all morning, after hav-
ing dared to kiss me the night before.
And any other man I knew after look
ing at me the way he had looked a
dozen times, would have been at least
reasonably glad to find me free and
unmarried. But it was clear that he
was not: I wondered If he was the
kind of man who always makes love
to the other mans wife and runs like
mad when she is left widow, or gets
a divorce.
And just when / had decided that I
hated him, and that there was one
man I knew who would never make
love to a woman whom he thought
married and then be very dignified
and aloof when he found she wasn't, I
heard what was wrong with the tele-
phone wire.
It had been cut! Cut through with
a pair of silver manicure scissors
from the dressing table in Bella's
room where Aunt Selma slept! The
wire had been clipped where it came
into the house, just under a window,
and the scissors still lay on the sill.
1t was mysterious enough, but no
one was interested in the mystery
just then. We wanted food, and want
ed it at once Mr. HARRISON fixed the
wire, and the first thing we did, Of
course, was to order something to eat.
Aunt Selma went to bed just after
luncheon with Indigestion, to the re-
lief Of every one in the house. She
had been most unpleasant all morn
ing.
When she found herself ill, how
ever, she insisted On having Bella,
and that made trouble at once. We
found Bella with her cheek against
the door into Jims room, looking
maudlin while he shouted love mes
sages to her from the other side. At
first she refused to stir, but after
Anne and Max had tried and failed,
the rest of us went to her in body
and implored her. We said Aunt
Selma was in awful shape-which
she was, as to temper-and that she
had thrown mustard plaster at
Anne, which was true.
So Bella went, grumbling, and Jim
was maniac. We had not thought it
would be so bad for Bella, but Aunt
Selma fell asleep soon after she took
charge, holding Bel1a's hand, and
slept for three hours and never let
go!
About two that afternoon the sun
came out, and the rest of us went up to
the roof The sleet had melted and