Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-11-04
THE EVENING STORY.
The Queer Girl.
lcon,rIgst. 1918. hy ". Werner.

Even as a child she had been notice
ably strange. Aseuath Holden was ever
10 be found in some quiet corner with
her near-sightcd ewes two inches from
the page of a book And such books.
Too old and TOO wise for her age. vet
somehow devoured and asSimiIated- The
gay little flock of schoolmatcs and neigh
oors who had not got much further in
brain culture than the multiplication ia
bic regarded her doubtfully.
She's queer" Rose Gordon said No
use asking her 10 play. She just reads
and reads and reads. And it's all grown
up stuff too. / know, because she let me
see the book
Rose Gordon lived in the big house
next door to Ascnath's little Her
father was the president Of the bank
and AsenathS father was a clerk in the
same institutiou-thc kind of clerk who
never gets to be anything else. At nine
YOU knew exactly what Rose was going
to be at nineteen. Her mother was a
beauty but Rose was going TO Guido
her III looks. And she Was the only child.
ASenath Holden was the oldest of five
ALI girls and all alike. SIim-legged, wild
haired little creatures they We're. who
wore handdowUS or cutoffS or whatever
else came in the way of raiment. for
clerks salary in the Nestmore bank
was meager at its best and with seven
10 housc and feed and sickly mother
10 keep supplied with medicine it too
often proved Inadequate. At ten Asenath
could cook and scrub and make beds as
we'll as read She hated homework. hut
there was always Homework to he done,
and her mother had not the strength
for it,
Up to the time she was fourteen things
grew steadily worse with the Holdens.
Mrs Holden got into bed finally and the
doctor said frankly that they need not
expect her To get out again. Yet wlthal
Asenath managed 90 keep up with her
classes at school and to snatch time for
reading when she should have been sleep
ing. The girls who had once sought to
play with her ignored her now. Rose
Gordon made fun OF her
But for Asenaths ideal world-the
world of her dreams and yearnings-she
could scarcely have endured those awful
years Of her young girlhood. 1t was not
the work and poverty and struggle that
tortured her so much as the things of the
spirit-the very little things, which she
felt rather than saw or heard.
Mrs. Holden at last died and her girls
were left motherlesS. new response
bility was now Asenaths. She must be
something more even than older sister TO
Lefty, Martha, Louise and Madeline.
The Holdens stayed on in the rundown
house next to the Gordon mansion with
unvarying fortunes for three or four
wears. Then Asenath graduated from the
high school. She had made her own
gown. and il was too long in the back
and too short in front. in spite of the
fact that all the younger Holdens had
taken turns at fitting ii. She had six
bouquets of flowers and her diploma and
little gold pin which her father gave
her. She stammered over her essay and
the prize went to Rose Gordon. That
night Asenath went home and crept into
bed and lay sleepIess until dawn. Won
dering if it was worth while trying to
live when nothing ever came Your way
Then she fell asleep and mercifully
dreamed of radiant things
ASenath's schooldays were over. Hence
forth she must bide at home and keep
the domestic machinery running till
Lefty was old enough to step into her
place. Her dreams of earning money
were impossbly vague; the most she
could do. il seemed. was To save the
money earned by her father. growing
wan and bent and pathetically gentle.
So she forced herself to darn stockings,
patch and contrive new garments out of
old, to advise and comfort and cherish
to feed and make the family as comfort
able as her few weekly dollars would al
low.
Under Rose Gordon's leading. Young
Nestmore society was very gay. Every