Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1914-04-24

out OF the gate and down the street,
swinging her books She could not
deny herself what might be a last
glimpse OF the little blue checked fig-
ure.
| Slowly she turned and walked to
a desk that stood in the room. II was
the one at which she sat each morn,
Ing to write the household accounts.
Today II seemed to her the property
OF another, Every inanimate thing
appeared to stand coldly aloof. She
Sat down and wrote. her hand trem-
bling slightly:
Jim Dear:
Three months is not q great length OF
time. but Il has been long enough TO con-
vince me that 1 am a failure.
| The children will never accept blum
| dering old maid as their mother. That In
why / am leaving today for the West.
Tor me-that was my greatest dream.
love them more than you can imagine,
but they Will be happier without me:
and l know they want no substitute for
that real mother, poor little things.
After you have considered all things
point and realize that have acted
wisely.
She folded the note, and addressed
It to her husband.
Three months OF the only real hap.
piness she had ever known. and her
stronger self said this must be the
end. II would be hard to leave them
all, and the white. clean little house;
but the futility of staying had come
to her quite suddenly that morning.
| Lila-ten, dark eyed. and reserved
had prefaced request with moth
err" To Mrs. Carson mamma" had
more intimate term.
Don't you think the word mother
a bit formal. dear?" she had ventured.
with fast-beating heart.
Lila looked up quickly.
"I'll call you Mrs. Carson. them"
she announced briefly.
TITS no use-no use!" a voice in
her mind kept crying. "They may
even come to dislike YOU"
There were two others--Fred. sew
en-, and Alice, the baby.
She kissed the baby, but shyness
withheld her from caressing the two
impregnable little strangers who very
plainly did not wish to be caressed.
All her patient life she had longed
for domesticity and little ones, but for
years perverse necessity had kept her
in the schoolhouse Of q middle West
town.
Some time after the sisters we'd
ding she met jim Carson, a widower.
and after a brief but sincere wooing
he brought her East as his bride-a
girl no longer, but full of the limo
cence and illusions of youth.
The train she must take left at two
She placed the note in the center OF
the round table. and entered the bed
room--her bedroom and Jim's.
Carefully she took her{clothes from
the >closet and piled them on the bed
They were new, neat things that were
her trousseau.
In opening the top bureau drawer
small package and sealed envelope
met her gaze. Both we're addressed
in very round, precise letters to Mrs
Margaret Carson"
The writing was vaguely familiar
She tore open the letter first. 1t read:
Dear Mrs. Carson:
take my pen in hand to tell you that
am going to run away today. IL my
| brother Frederick Carson, will 60 Will
! take him, too. You can keep the baby
| because you love her. ! know you DO, pc
cause you kiss her and cal, call her my little
sowed on It every day after school SC
could get It done by May 18th Itweifth)
| but Il is not done yet. If you VIII kindly
l irah biR lpef IL Will be
, to call you mother.
Lila Carson.
p. ST. know you won't care because
YOU don't love me. You never kissed me
2 goodnight In your life.
5 "Mrs. Margaret Carson" drew a Ions
breath, then almost reverently united
D the package.
i A large cushion-top. embroidered II
bright red and green, unrolled to view
There must have been hundreds ant
hundreds Of the crude little stitches
and the goods had puckered woefully
but to the recipient 1t was glorious
thing.
And then, because she was woman
, she cried.
Soon small feet came patterinI
{ through the house, and In minut
( Fred stood in the doorway.
kin / have doughnut?' he asked
y Eyes, dear. yes. Did your siste
come home with your she querie
! eagerly,
"Yes'm. She's out in the WOOD
, she'd She wants me to run ava
\ with her, but l won't" said Fred VII
c tuously. Don't tell her told"
In the woodshed she found her hi'
ing behind box. A bit of the blu
checked dress had betrayed her. s
,e lently the little mother raised an
AZ folded her In her arms.
v She kissed the flushed face sewers
= times.
! "My dear, dear little girl you wi
not run away from mother now. Won
you believe / love you" The tor
10 carried conviction.
n Lila glanced up shyly.
RS 81 thought sure you didn't. AT
o. then you said you-you thought ! WI
D. too familiar, or something. because
elk called you mother"
l." The mother gave . wabbiy HIT