Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1914-11-20

no lantern, but the soft stiffness within
needed no vigilance The hay smell
from the loft and the the
even breath of the cows. the quiet safe.
ty of the place. met her. She was won
dering at herself. but she was strug-
Cling not at all. 1t was as if concern
ing the little boy something had decid-
ed for her in a soft. fierce rush of feel
ing not her own. She had committed
herself TO Jenny almost without will.
But Mary felt no exultation, and the
weight within her did not lift.
II really couldn't do anything else but
take him, | s'pose." she thought. Il
wonder whatll come on me next?"
All the while she was conscious of the
raw smell of the clover in the hay of
the hangers. as If something of sum-
mer were there in the cold.
Mary Chavah sent her letter of blunt
directions concerning her sisters head.
stone and the few belongings which
her sister had wished her to have.
The last lines of the letter were about
the boy.
Send the little one along. l am not
the one. but | don't know what else to
tell you TO do with him. Let me know
when TO expect him and put his name
In with his things. | can't remember
his right name"
When the answer came from John
Blood a fortnight later it said that a
young fellow of those parts was start.
ing back home shortly to spend Christ
mas and would take charge of the
child as far as the city and there
put him on his train for Old Trail
Town. She would be notified just what
day to expect him, and John knew
how glad his mother would have been
and his father, too, and he was her
grateful nephew. P. She would
send some money every month ito
ward him."
The night after she received this let
ter Mary lay long awake, facing what
it was going to mean to have him
thereto have a child there.
She recalled what she had heard
other women say about it-stray utter
ances, made with the burdened look
that hid a secret c~omplacency, a kind
Of pleased freemasonry in a universal
lot.
THE children bring so much sand
into the house. You'd think it was
horses"
THE center table looks loaded and
ready to start half the time. but /
can't help it. with the children's books
and truck
Never would have another house
built without a coat closet. The chill.
dren's cloaks and caps and rubbers
litter up everything"
Every one of their knees out and
their underclothes outgrown and their
waists soiled the whole time. And
do try SO hard"
Now with all these bewilderments
she was to have to do. She wondered
If she would know how to dress him.
Once she had watched Mis- Winslow
dress a child and she remembered what
unexpected places Mis- Winslow had
and down in the skirt bands and so
on. Armholes might be too small and
carriers too tight, and how was one
ever to know? If it were a little girl
now-but a little boy. What would
she talk to him about while they ate
together?
She lay in the dark and planned
with no pleasure. but merely because
she always planned. everything. her
dress. her baking. what she would say
to this one and that She would put
up a stove in the back parlor and give
him the room off" She was glad
that the parIot was empty and clean
mo k~nickknacks for a boy to knock
around she found herself thinking.
And a child would like the bedroom