Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-03-09

washed clothes through q wr1nger
without making puddle on the door
or bringing too great 8 strain on the
foundations Of the house. Miss Min
ME smiled and wrung and hummed
and wrung. and behold lit was as
easy as playing 1.-THE Old Blue Bon
net" on the piano.
Then came the artistic part--the
hanging out. And that's where
Arthur Gregg came In and got the
surprise Of his life. He was walking
across the country from Cloverdale
to reach his mothers house, and
thinking Of nothing particularly, when
those table napkins came flying at him
from somewhere They we're followed
by bath towel and q FELLOWSHIP, and
he looked about him to discover other
things taking wing.
Mr.. Gre 9 was young man JUST
moments thought his legal mind made
him conclude that there was foun-
tai1head n ar by whence all these
things came. He quickly traced It TO
the rear Of the Rivers house. He ap-
Ipeared there with his arms full. He
found wild-eyed maiden hanging to
a blowing, tapping closeline, from
which some garment was escaping
every install.
At college the students are taught
to hang out the wash only on quiet.
placid days, and this Is an oversight
that the faculty should correct at once.
It brought trouble and confusion to
Miss Minnie. Flap and away went
napkin! Flap and away went sheet!
Flap and away went q towel! The
gale was roaring, the clotheslines
twisting! She was gritting her teeth
and hanging on for dear life when Mr..
Gregg appeared
Did Mr.. Gregg, with a lot of damp
garments pressed to his beating heart
stop and introduce himself to Miss
Minnie Rivers, hanging on to the
swaying lines with both, hands and
feeling that all was lost? He didn't.
He threw etiquette and the conven-
ltionalities to the dogs, and brought
his legal lore to bear on the main
issue.
He saw at once that the lines were
stretched across the path OF the gale
In five minutes he had united them
from the posts and stretched them
the other way, and there was a de-
cided cession of the flappety-fap
Then he ran here and there to gather
up the estrays, which must 60 back
to the rinsing tub. He had ouly &C
complished this when he noticed
smoke pouring from the open kitchen
door. He entered to find that the
cook had left the hampers 80 as to
make smoke house Of the place.
but twist of the wrist made things
all right. College teachers know moth
ing about stove hampers. That Is thing
! to be learned by red-eyed experience.
AS he stepped out doors again an
old hen and half dozen chickens
emerged from the coop to take q
saunter. The gale caught them up
and away they went, but Mr.. Gregg
was after them and they we're brought
back in good shape and with gentle
hand. Then he frightened one OF the
| lines little more, refastened sheet
that wanted to be star-spangled ban
liner, and with careful look at the
chimney of the house he lifted his hat
and resumed his journey.
Miss Minnie was looking after him
when the mother appeared at the
back door and said:
"My headache is little better,
What's happened?"
"Why, It's blowing gale. and a lot
of the clothes blew off the line
"And who was that young man?
"Why, he blew along in with the
gale and helped me-
college doesn't teach 1t just that
way. The girls pick it up after th'ev
have graduated To blow along me- rs
to arrive in a hurry-to arrive in q
gale-to arrive just in time to be OF
assistance to damsel in distress.)
"Did he fix those lines?" asked the
mother.
YES"
"And pick up all those things?"
eyes"
1 "And what did you do?"
| Il just hung on and grinned.'
/ minnie Rivers, how could you do
lit! didn't get fair sight OF MIN.
IH..4 ~r,,oY olo.oe{ euro thof ia Art hl1r