Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1913-04-03
Two Women.

A woman l KNOW nau Deen CalleQ
away on a sad mission, not long ago.
Upon the day that she and her fam
lily were to return. her friends were
busy planning things for her COM
fort. 1t was their intention, if they
out resorting to burglary, to have
fire going in the furnace to warm
the weary bodies of the travellers.
There was to be a blooming plant
in the living room, and in the larder
were to be bread and cake and pie
and salad and meat, and everything
needful for a day or so, until the
housewife could get things going and
begin the business of living again.
So much of love and thought went
into that planning that an acquaint-
ance who did not know the woman
said to me, why do they do so
much for her?"
With her question my mind went
back over my acquaintanceship with
her, this woman who was the bene-
ficiary of so much love. And clear
ly l saw the answer to the question
l recall seeting her on her front
steps one day, short time ago,
sending off a market basket of good
les to friend who had sickness in
the family. | remembered the times
that she had sent pie and cake and
other lucious dishes that she had
prepared with her own hands, to
neighbor who felt that her burden of
work was more than she could bear.
The thought of her sweet cheeri-
ness, her brightness, the warmth of
her friendship, the love she daily
reflects, brought the answer to the
other woman's question, why do
they do so much for her?"
In contrast to the love she in
spires by reason of her own person
ality, l thought of a woman l had
known many years ago-a woman
who is now dead.
She was moving from the town
where she had been born and reared,
and in which she had vainly sup
posed herself to be fairly popular
She pictured to herself the attention
she would receive when she left this,
her girlhood home, for another city.
Each day, when she read in the So
ciety column of the papers that
some one who was leaving town, per-
haps just for a season, was given
farewell parties, so it will be with
me- she told herself
She fancied that her friends would
give farewell parties for her. There
would be toasts to speed the parting
friend-toasts given by lips that
quivered, as she he'd witnessed many
times in the case OF others.
But this woman probably had not
given of herself. Perhaps she had
withheld love. Perhaps she had
counted on the part she had played
in the past, in the towns history.
She may have thought that the pop
ularity would be hers because she
had helped contribute to the town S
social life, in PALMER days.
She told herself afterwards that
her failure was because her circle
of friends respected and valued chief
ly the things that money buys-told
il in bitterness and tears.
However it was, the fault prob
ably was in herself. When she left
for her new home there was not one
friend to bid her God-speed. Not
only did her friends not give her any
farewell parties, but they did not
even call TO say goodbye.
She went to the station alone
save for her broken-hearted mother
whose tears were as much for the
loneliness of her child as for herself
Alone she boarded the train for her
new home.
And such was her leave-taking Of
the home where she had spent all OF
her days,
All, well, she is gone, never TO re-
lturn. But because of her, and of her