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

wall paper, with the owl border. When
summer came he could have the room
over the dining ROOM, with the kitchen
roof sloping away from it where he
could dry his hazelnuts-she had
thought of the pasture hazelnuts first
thing. There were a good many things
a boy would like about the place
the bird house where the martins al
ways built. the hens. the big hollow
tree. the pasture ant hill. She would
have to find out the things he liked to
eat. She would have to help him with
his lessons; she could do that for only
a little while until he would be too old
to need her. Then maybe there would
come the time when he would ask
her things that she would not know.
She fell asleep wondering how he
would look. Already. not from m
Impotence to have this done. but be-
that was the way in which she
worked, she had his room In order. and
her picture of his father was by the
mirror. the young face Of his father.
Something faded had been written be-
low the picture. and this she had palms.
takingly rubbed away before she set
the picture in its place. Next day
while she was working on Mis- Jane
Moran's bead basque. that was to be
cut v and turned. she laid 1t aside
and cut out a jacket pattern and a
plated waist pattern just to see If she
onu1d Tbnca Chn rolI1I ~ tv,N0As0xk
ly and stuffed away In her pattern
book case.
81 knew how to do them all the
while. and ! never knew | knew" she
thought with annoyed surprise. 81
s'pose I'll waste a lot OF time pottering
over him."
1t was so that she spent the weeks
until the letter came telling her what
day the child would start. On the
afternoon of the day the letter came
she went downtown to the Abel
Ames emporium to buy a wash basin
and pitcher for the room she meant the
little boy to have. She stood looking
at a basin with a row of brown dogs
around the rim when over her shoulder
Mis- Abby Winslow spoke.
"You amt buying a Christmas pres
ent for anybody, are your she asked
warningly.
Mary started guilty and denied it.
well what in time do you want
with dogs ON the basin?' Mis- Winslow
demanded.
Almost against her own wish Mary
told her. Mis- Winslow YAas one of
those whose faces are invariably fore
runner Of the sort of thing they are
going to say. With eyebrows, eyes.
forehead. head and voice she took the
news.
He is. Forever and ever more.
When's he going to get here?"
Week after next" Mary said list
lessly. Its an awful responsibility,
amt ~it-taking a child soT"
Mis- Winslow's face abruptly reject
ed its own anxious lines and LET the
ayes speak for it.
Il always think children is like air."
she said; you never realize how hard
they're pressing down ON you, but you
do know1you can't live without them"
Mary looked at her, her own face
not lighting.
I'D rather go along like ! am she
said; I'm used to myself the way l
am"
Mary Chavah," said Mis- Winslow
sharply. "a vegetable sprouts. Can't
you? Is these stocking caps made SOS
they won't ravel?" she inquired capa-
bly, of Abel Ames. .'These are real
good value, Mary" she added kindly.
Better surprise the little thing with
one of these. A red one"
Mary counted over her money and
bought the red stocking cap and the
basin with the puppies. Then she went
into the street. The sense of oppres-
sion. Of striving. that had seldom left
her since that night in the stable made
the day a thing to be borne, to be
breasted. The air was thick with
snow. and in the whiteness the dreary
familiarity of the drug store. the meat
market. the postoffice. the Simeon
Buck Dry Goods Exchange, smote her
Will u pdcolOu W eSCdpS AAOm lAcm
all, to breed new familiars, to get free
Of the thing that she had said she
would do.
And | could" she thought; II could
telegraph to John not to send him. But
Jenny-she can't. l don't see how she
stands it,"
The thought may have been why.
instead Of going home. she went to see
Jenny. A neighbor was in the sitting
room with Mrs. Wing. Jenny met
Mary at the kitchen door and stood
against a background Of clothes dry
ing on lines stretched indoors.
Don't you want to come upstairs?'
Jenny said. There amt a fire up
there. but I ear show you the things"
She had put them all In the bottom
drawer. as women always do, and, as
women always do. had laid them so
thai all the lace and embroidery and