The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1913-12-20
q THE EVENING STORY
PIE CRU ST B
toopyrght. 1913. BY W. WerneF).

Copyright, 1918, by W. Werner.)
Miss S%ophronia Lee went /, o the COR
nor cupboard and from tho topmost
shef took down an old cracked blue
suSar BOWL. 1t was her private bank,
and Ii held all the money she had III
the world.
Miss S%ophronia carried it to q table
II proceeded carefully to count its
contents. The taxes were due again,
II unless she could pay them the
mouse must be sold for their satisfac-
ton. OF this she had been duly
warned. She made a GRACEFUL. pa.
thetic figure as she sat counting her
pltltuI little array uf paper and sill
Yer money insufficient for the purpo
intended. and Miss Sophronia, reaI,z-
ing this, grew blurred of sight and
tremulous Of hand AS she dropped
over her little hoard.
MISS S%ophronia was sixty. She had
been a Very rose of a girl, but now
her hair was like gray finished sli-
Yer, Il petal-like pink was enmeShed
her ewes We're wonderfully blue. They
We're the eyes of Il young girl still as
tar as candor and ignorance went. for
n never had learned the ways OF the
world and never would. though she
lived for yet another generation.
Eut h was entirely alone aud
most sadly so. In a measure this was
the fault Of her inheritance. and all
! n wear and tear OF life could no
change her. And vet she was very
semitic
Then. too. there was the house. In
Its day it had been Il mansion. 1t was
OF wood, with a quaint portal and
deeply recessed windows. Two grea,
pines did sentinel duty before 1t. They
had been planted by Miss S~ophronia's
grandfather. The house had been
surrounded by a vast territory OF
woods aid fields. but as the fortunes
Of the family dwindled this land ha
been sold. Now there was no more
ground left than was needed to grow
a few hollyhocks under Miss So
phronia's windows. The house itself
she would not sell. All her life she
had lived in it,. 1t was dear and
sacred to her, hallowed by myriads Of
departed footsteps, choruses Of hush
ed voices. crowding visions of dead
faces. Down the great staircase with
its handturned balustrale she had
hoated In hoops and sarcenet, a raii-
ant young debutante, at her first great
party. In the wide hall, empty now.
II then aglow with tireliglat and vast
mahogany furnishings. her first lover
liau DoWeu ONer Nef lanu. SO Drlel
had been that exquisite counting
admitting of little more than Il glance,
q smile. = ksss-and then he had been
whirled away with flag and buslc 10
his first battle. and his last. Miss So
phronia was widowed before she was
scarcely q sweetheart. Other men
came and went. She let them so.
There was one like Nathan.
1t was a pity that since she must
go on living Net a little longer she
did not have enough tt live on. She
wondered stupidity what she would dc
when h house was sold.
Miss Sophronia put the sugar bowl
and contents back into the empty cup
board. She was beginning to feel a
little hreathiess and faint. She HAD
eaten little that day: she did not care
about anything; she was tired and
sick of the whole business Of living,
n her poor head felt very strange
and bewiliered.
She went back to her chair and sa,
down and leaned her head on one
frail hand and gazed at her grand
fathers portrait as if asking it for
aid. He had been a shrewd schemer
who could not only make money, but
keep it, but not one OF those who had
come after him had had hts aplIty.
She least Of all. Suddenly, the por-
trait failing her, she unpinned the old
gold brooch that fastened her collar,