Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-05-11

It must not be supposed that the
boarders had failed to follow Mats
career with keen and palpitating ILL.,
terest. They would not have been
boarders-nor Humankind he not be-
come the most engrossing subject OF
their thoughts. The decline of the
kanaka king to overalls and wages
had been regarded with an absorption
only comparable to that of savant
with a new microbe under his micro
scope. Every development was ex-
citedly discussed; sympathy and ad-
vice were poured out in unstinted
quantities.; his battle to earn a liv-
ing in Manaswan and his successive
defeats had reused that little house
hold to an unimaginable degree. b..
The boarders were much more con-
cerned with him than he was with
the boarders, who, In his intense pre-
occupation, became mere chattertng
phantoms, and hardly distinguishable
from the wallpaper behind them. Mr..
Crowther fell i'll; Mr.. Crowther had
crisis aid rallied; Mr. Crowther had
a crisis and died-and it all slid past
Matt like water off ducks back. A
lover is the greatest of egoists; cities
may fall in ruins; tens of thousands
of Japs may kill tens Of thousands or
Russians; political commissions may
shake and cumberland what does Mr..
Lover care? Just nothing.
or course, in some vague, dim way
Matt knew that Mr.. Crowther had been
gathered to his fathers. In tho same
vague. dim way he was sorry for Mrs.
Crowther, who still bicycled over to
lunch AMI dinner Even to his absent
attention she appeared to be support
ing her bereavement with unusual
calm. Everybody had told her ito try
and bear up''-and she had borne up,
with a demure and increasing cheer
fitness. "He has gone to a better
country" said Mrs. Sattane, looking
out on jefferson avenue with an air
that implied Manaswan and the state
of Connecticut To which the widow
replied: HE has, he has" as though
perhaps, after all, it was for the best"
"More to be envied than grieved for"
added the landlady. That's what l
keep telling myself agreed MIS-
Crowther, rolling her pretty blue eyes,
and wiping them with very dry lace
handkerchief. "He is better or wnere
he is"
This DEPRESSION is necessary to ex'
plain the events that came a1ter
Mats resignation-to put 1t grace
fnllv-from the command of the White
Cadets. Lying on sofa, court
mastered all over, and bandaged like
a survivor Of railway wreck, ne
found himself alone with Mrs. Grow.
Their after lunch. She had proposal
to make, she said, and prefaced 1t by
stating the) difficulties Of her position.
"It isn't that I don't know the bust
ness inside out" she explained. Poor
dear Charley wouldn't have been any
where if it hadn't been for me. have
been the brains of it for years, for my
father belonged to the same profession
and almost my first memory was play
ing peek-a-boo among the cofi1ns. IL
isn't that. Mr.. Broughton. But people
who send for us expect a man-must
have a man. They expect somebody
grave, somebody tall and friendly and
mournful, who will touch their dear
ones with reverence, and arrange the
sad formalities in Prince Albert coat.
lost the Townleys on that account
very tony people-who were good TOT
two-hundred dollar casket. Ihey
shifted when they saw 1t was only
woman, though we had buried Mr.. is
mother and Mrs. Us G. A. r. uncle
and there they were telephoning for
the Pritchard Undertaking Co, before
I was out Of the house. If the bust
ness and connection is to be kept to-
gether. YOU see simply must have
man. and the boarders have been talk
ing it over and said why not YOU"
An undertaken. MATHS goose-f1esh
shivered at the idea. 1t was less a
dread of corpses, and collins, and half
suspected horrors, than actual shame.
How could he ever show himself to
Chris in that mortuary garb? Ro-
nance could confront hardships with
out a murmur; meet them bravely;
sustain itself under every adversely OF
fortune. But an undertaken! Love
would shudder anud fly. There was
no room in Mats paradise for an I'M
dertaker. An indescribable odium, or
rather something grotesque and
grimly ridiculous was attached to such
an occupation. No, he couldn't be an
undertaken: he simply couldn't be an
undertaken; personal dignity, sense
Of humor. an invincible repugnance-
all forbade.
But Mrs. Crowther was very persis-
tent. The work was light, she said,
and the salary so large. She had
meant to offer sixty month, but
Mats resistance induced her to in
crease it to hundred. A hundred a
month: how could he expect to get
better in Mansawan? She would tell
him how to do everything; he wasn't
to be the least bit afraid OF that; just
do what he was told, and be very SOL
emn and kind in his Prince Albert
coat. 1t was gentleman's business
that was what made it so hard to
get assistants-that was why she had
come to Matt. He had the right per
sonality; Mr.. c. had often remarked
on 1.-THE ideal personality. 1t was
awful to have a Earring personality at
a death-bed. People who would
grudge a hundred and fifty dollars to
a Earring personality wouldn't haggle
over three hundred, and four horses,
to one they could lean on in their trou-
OH nj VT