Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-07-18
frowsy, barefooted urchin, who stared
at me a long time curiously, and then


at me long time curiously, and then
asked me my name.
John Lathrop," he repeated; that's
right; that's the right name and he
dragged out of his pocket bulky
almost as frowsy as himself.
"My sister gave me this" he said,
"and said to hand 1t to you. but she
didn't pay me nothin' for bringing It,"
sent him away gaping round-eyed
at new dollar bin, and locking the
door, tore open the envelope with
trembling fingers. It was written in
fine, formal, little, old-fashioned hand,
and needed no glance at the sigma
ture to know that it was from Mrs.
Lathrop. She had dated 1t irrepressi-
bly, '"The Fake Loony-house, May 18th
and all we'll"
"My Scoundrelly but Dear Nephew:
"In the first place, everything is 60
ing to come out all right. In the sec
ond place, you're a pretty poor actor
but little better than expected. In
the third place, would have been hav-
ing the most beautiful time Of my life.
If I weren't SO sorry for all the other
people here When you had gone, that
pink young Doctor Mayhem led me up
stairs to see the pretty room he spoke
of, and when we got there, he just
opened the door, gave me shove In,
and turned the lock on the outside. If
he'd had his first months installment,
I guess he would have kicked me in,
and I love to think of what is going
to happen to him some day Just the
same, was pretty glad to get to my
room; for all the way through those
long halls, my knees were knocking
together for fear we'd meet that
blonde nurse, you said so truly, and
with such presence of mind, that did
not like. And, till my own maid
came, I kept on being pretty scared;
for, of course, knew that the doctors
promises did not mean much Of any
thing, and that he was just as apt to
Don't be afraid am writing you too
much, for I have a nice, new bottle OF
ink and whole box Of paper.
"Well, pretty soon the door opened,
and my maid did come in. She is
nice-looking, thinnish girl of >about
thirty, I should say, and she was real
kind to me even before l spoke of
money. I kept her talking as long as
could, and worked around to our plan
gradually. First, I offered her fifty
dollars for getting this note out Of the
hospital and things to write it with.
She laughed, at first, and guess she
didn't think had the money; but
when I counted ten f1ves Off that big
roll, she stopped laughing and took
them quick enough.
TITS mystery to me, Nephew John,
what queer people 60 to make up
world. Here was young woman with
a good heart and pretty tender feelings
who just because she needed money
for somebody else, was willing to do
almost anything to get 1t. I've had a
long talk with her, and I find her hard
to understand. She was born near this
place and knew all about It, yet, know
ing what she did, she came here to
work. She couldn't make enough
money anywhere else, she said. She
has four or five little brothers and
sisters and the regular useless mother
and father, so that suppose there Is
some excuse for her. Yet 1t does seem
queer that such nice girl should be
in such business It was she, John,
who mailed you another letter you
know of, and she did that, not for
money, but for love; for, from all l
could find out, she just about worships
your Nancy. When told her why
was there and what we we're going to
do, she took the rest of the money, to
be sure, because she said she needed
it and stood a pretty good chance OF
losing her position, but she is as en-
thusiastic as can be about the work I
have set her to do. I think that per-
haps she might have done 1t for moth
ing, but did not quite have the heart
to ask her, nor did quite dare to run
the risk. She loves your young lady,
but, after ALL she loves money first;
and when we give her chance to fol-
low her own inclination, and at the
same time get paid for It, think that
we may be pretty sure that she will do
her work we'll
"Of course the first thing did was
to send her in to Nancy to tell her
was here and that we were going to
get her away as soon as possible, so
that she was not on any account to let
that Doctor Morrison get mad enough
to put her in the dark room Then /
arranged the rest of the plan with her,
the nurse, mean.
There isn't any use at all, as far
as can see, of either of us poor wom-
en- staying here, while you batten at
the hotel. Tonight seems to me as
good time as any. There's only just
one trouble, and that is-that this maid
or nurse of ours. or whatever you want
to call her, has no business on our
floor at ten o'clock, SO that she Is
afrain to come up and let us out. After
nine her work Is all downstairs, where
believe, she does some clerking for
the doctors; and she is afraid that
is she is gone long enough to come up
and unlock our doors, one OF the doc
tors would miss her-even If she did
not happen to run into Mrs. Olsen.
She says the best she can do is to un-
lock the front door, because 1T would
only take her minute to slip out OF
the Office and do that; but told her
that was all right and Sat that would
do finely. You see, you are going to
have some hard work after all.
eve are arranging for as late as ten
O'Clock, because, of course, 1t has to be