The Washington herald., 1914-08-02
tcOpyisht. lsiL)

~NO5~-
Township? No? Well, it has all sorts
of human nature in it, 50 I'll tell you
about her.
l suppose there never was on earth,
nor any place else, anything or any per-
son as beautiful as Sweet Alyssum
Brooks. Her name was Elizabeth, but
her father, out of heart full of love,
coined the diminutive 'Iissem," and lat
er another man, also out of heart full
of love, l believe, changed it to Sweet
Alyssum- in compliment to the fragrant
little flower of that name. And so 1t
has remained, officially, to this day
Three or four years after the war,
Roanoke Brooks, a splendid type OF
primitive manhood, came up from Ken
lucky and rented a small farm in Roger
Township. an outlying" district some
ten or twelve miles north of here. Roam
oke, himself, is authority for the state
ment that he was born unluclIy, and that
his i'll fortune had continued to grow in
virulence until Sweet Alyssum was born.
At any rate after he had settled in
Roger Township, everything went
against him. He and his wife were sick
most of the time and his crops were poor
all of the time.
Usually when Roanoke visited my Of
fee It was with a sad face, but one day
he came in radiant
my bad lucRs all gone, jedge," said
he. We've got mascot at Duh house.
Come last night. The cutest, sweetest
little gel baby yo' ever see. Huh real
name is Elizabeth, but I'm goin' to call
huh Lissem. No mo- fights, no mo- fines
fO me. She brought US good luck, s hos
yo' BON"
And 50 she did bring good luck, not
only to Roanoke, but to the entire out
lying" township.
During Lissem's unlucl1y thirteenth
year her mother died, leaving her the
sole possessor of her fathers love, and
him the object of her motherly solici-
tude and care. Near the end of the
same unlucEy thirteenth year, a hand
some stranger of perhaps thirty came to
the town of Blue River. No one knew
anything about him, but the fact that
he was cultured, educated, and city bred
was evident even to our rustics. He
had Httle to say to any one save the
county school superintendent, to whom
he gave his name as Wyatt-though it
was not. At the end of week he left
town and was forgotten.
4 womans history is usually made by
man. Probably Lissem would have
had no history had not the fates and the
county superintendent directed Wyatt's
steps to her door. He took" the school
she attended and in due course of time
very short course, probably-fell in
love with her, as any man who was not
a mummy was bound to do whether he
would or no.
One Saturday morning in November,
after taking formal possession of the
schoolhouse in which his work was to
begin the following Monday, Wyatt set
out to find boarding place. He went
to house near by, which, as part of
Lissem's fate, happened to be her home
Roanoke, to whom the law of hospitality
was an eleventh commandment, well
coined the handsome new teacher and
''toted" his luggage to the spare room.
At the time of Wyatt's arrival, Liss-m
was away from home and did not return
till after supper, when she found her
father and the stranger sitting before
the fire As she entered the room she
glanced inquisitively toward Wyatt, but
as her father did not introduce her, she
took her accustomed rocking chair at
the corner of the fireplace where she |
sat, hidden by the shadow, or illumined
by the glow, as the fire shifted its flame. /.
Roanoke was as jealous of men,
where Llssem was concerned, as any
lover could have been. So, when he no.
ticed the strangers glances, jealousy
rose up to do battle with Kentucky hos
pitality, and he resolved, first, that the
new teacher should not remain a perma-
nent guest in his house, and, second, /
that Lissem's education was complete.
After the battle in Roanoke's heart
had waged for half an hour, he said, in /
low voice:
"Lissem, reckon yo' bettah go to bed. !
It's late fo' child'en to be up"
"All right, daddy" answered the girl,
wholly unconscious of the attention and
jealousy she had aroused, and with
good night which was intended to in
clude the stranger, she went upstairs.
As Lissem was leaving the room,
Wyatt rose. by force of habit in such /
cases. and by force of an irresistible at
traction, involuntarily watched her till
the door was closed. Roanoke in turn
watched Wyatt.
Thought yo' was goin' to follow huh"
"A gentleman usually rises when a
lady leaves the room," answered Wyatt,
recognizing his hosts jealousy.
"Lissem aint no lady She's a child"