The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-06-21

A chat with Mrs. Daniel Lothrop,
whom the youngsters know as Mar
garet Sidney is pleasant to remember.
Smiles of million happy children are
reflected in her face. All the children
the children whom you like to know
have read Five Little Peppers
You remember how Polly saved the
basting threads and how wishfully
Phronsie longed for the wee red
shoes? Once upon a time the quin-
tet of Peppers trooped out of their
Little Brown House and travelled
next to the Orchard house in THE
Wayside," where Nathaniel Hawthorne
began "Septimius Felton, it's in Con-
cord, Mass, as everyone knows, on the
Lexington road.
We visited Mrs. Lothrop on a Sun
day morning in early fall The man
who drove us calculated heaven was
like October in Massachusetts. lie
was a philosopher as we'll as a driver
Our horse wandered-eVerything wan
derS in Concord-past the stone Uni
tartan church and Wright Tavern
where Major Pitcairn drained the tod
dy on the day that the redcoats ran;
past the Concord Antiquarian society
Emerson's house; and the shabby
school of philosophy far back in a
grove of scarlet naples.
There's Alcott's house" said the
driver with a Quirk of his thumb.
That's 'Wayside' beyond it. That
towers where Mr.. Hawthorne used to
write; clumb up to get away from old
man A1cott.'
1.-The Wayside'' is square. comfort
able households like a trunk with
bandbox at top of it. The bandbox is
Hawthorne's Tower; he wrote and
brooded there in delicious seclusion
equal to that of Scott at Abbotsford,
Dickens at Gad's Hill, Irving at Sun
in the clipped hedge; the air was swee:
with the sharp fragrance of pine
needles dripping in the sunlight. I'm
like the Alcott house, ''Wayside" is
not open to visitors. Mrs. Rommell
was taking us; she's a delightful Con-
cord club woman, and Mrs. Lothrops
friend. The other member of the
party was Priscilla, specialized
Boston school girl who wears stern
black sailors and flat heeled shoes.
81 am Is, and still read the Five
Little Peppers observed Priscilla.
Margaret Sydney in the Flesh.
Mrs. Lothrop opened the door. She
is trim and tailored and capable
wears glasses, but doesn't have ink on
her fingers. 1 wondered if Priscilla
were disappointed. A small girl who had
read Little Women" wept when she
didn't look like a queen. You have to
look at Mrs. Lothrop twice before you
see Polly and Phronsie laughing be-
hind her kind brown eyes.
Il am so very glad to see you" said
Mrs. Lothrop, It wish my daughter,
Margaret, were at home. She's in Cali
fornia. 1 expect you've been visiting
the Alcott house. No? You must see
it,
No one loves Concord more keenly
than Mrs. Lothrop; no one is more
competent to tell of 1t. She told us
stories of Emerson and Alcott and
Thoreau, of transcendentalists and
idealists, Priscilla, who wanted to hear
a bout Polly and Phronsie, fidgeted.
Priscilla. by the way. had recently won
a gold badge for writing a poem in
her school chapter of the ST. Nicholas
League. Mrs. I.othrop had heard of
it.
I'm always interested in ambitious
little girls" she said to Priscilla. you
must practice writing and writing and
writing. And most of all, you must
read.
Mrs. Lothrop scrubbed poems when