The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-03-30
The Euening Story
Old Oak Tree.
(By Donald Allen. }

| (By. Donald Allen.)
] John Stewart, a village merchant,
| had seen bankruptcy coming and had
| committed suicide.
| ITS awful said Deacon Graham,
as a knot of the villagers were sol
EMMY discussing the tragedy. 81 can't
| figure that therell be a red cent saved
out of the wreck. and how's that gal
Irene going to get along?
She'll have to get married" re-
piled the village cooper.
| Isl Warren. don't talk like a TOOL!
was the reproving exclamation. IN
the first place, the girl is handsome
Yes, purity good looking
"And she's been sent away to
schooI?''
yes"
"And always had good cIothes?"
'.Wafl?''
s'Well, do you s'pose she's going to
fall in love with anybody in or around
this town of Long HIP"
But why not?"
''Why not? Can you make a bar'l
out o straw? Can you make gal
like Irene Stewart fall in love with an
old widower with six children on his
hands,"
But there are young men, protest
ed the cooper.
Eyes, there is Dam Sicily of the
dairy. He's got one eye and a pair
of ears that stick out like saucers nail
ed to his head. Dan hain't to blame,
but what gal is going to fall in love
with him? There's Pete Blakely, the
young butcher. They say he can kill
| a calf as we'll as another, but he's
bow-legged, half-deaf, and isn't max
ing over a dollar day. There is Nose
Rider who works in the sawmill and
knows jest huff that George Washing
ton hain't president of the United
States today Do you mean to tell me
that John Stewards orphan gal is go
ing to fall in love with him %
wall, what in creation is she going
to do"
who is widow, living over in Medina
county. and the gal is going there to
live with her until
Until WHAT"
Until the right Teller comes along
Miss Irene's Aunt Cynthia lived on
and ran farm She was a hard
worker and strong-minded woman,
and she had married almost without
love, and certainly without romance.
Her neighbors said she was hardheart-
ed and a driver and seemed utterly
without pity. but they were mistaken.
She had loved her brother John, and
when his only child drove up to the
gate she took her in her arms and
said: You poor child, you, but you
shall have a home with me for life,
and l will be kind mother to you'll"
Much had been said about Aunt
Cynthia's stinginess, but when she
learned that her niece was coming to
live with her she had bought a parlor
organ, music, a new carpet, and even
several books of fiction she had seen
advertised. She had gone to far as to
use a part of the tax money she had
laid away in the kitchen clock to send
away for a brass bed and real mat
tress, the first thing of their kind to
be used for ten miles around. When
farmers and their wives drove up and
came IN and asked to see the Won
derful exhibition. Aunt Cynthia stood
up very straight.
They cost fifteen dollars, but was
fn haI We . arp1 a IN Gan a
Govt" she said proudly.
''And your niece is an orphan?"
Yes. Mother died five years ago
and her father only lately. Poor John.
He sold calico so cheap that he busted
up and hung himself and left this girl
all alone
.'And you are going to give her a
homer"
81 just am that!'
But can she do homework ?"
eff she can 1 shan't let her, beyond
Smelling a few peas now and then. I
help of them.''
Its very kind of you"
well. mebbe it's, and yet it's only
doing ones duty. Besides, am grow
anybody to talk to. And, say, don't
you ask her anything about her faith
er. 1 don't want her feelings hurt"
A quarter of a mile below Aunt
highway, was a giant oak tree. The
farmers spoke of it as the old oak
tree, and it was a landmark to be
seen for miles and miles.
Miss Irene had sat and gazed at that
towering tree for an hour at a time
but it had never occurred to her to
make "a closer acquaintance until one
afternoon when she had a reply to
indite to the letter of a girl chum.
She would do her writing at the foot
of the old oak tree.
Look out for tramps and snakes,"
was the caution from Aunt Cynthia,
as the girl started down the road
Is there sentiment and romance
about big trees? Does a man as a
woman feel that there is? If not,
in the state of Ohio took his discharge
sooner than put the axe to nIagnifi-
cent old elm which he could remem-
Der back almost to his babyhood?
AS the girl drew nearer and nearer
to the old oak the more it appealed to
her. and when at last she reached it
she stood with awe in her heart. More
than hundred years they said, and
it had been buffeted by hundreds of
gales
Chatter Chatter. Chatter.
1t was a gray squirt up the trunk
a few feet and looking at the girl,
defying her to come nearer.
But / will' she laughed, as she
plunged into the bushes.
The squirrel whisked around to the
other side of the tree.
BY this time she had reached the
trunk of the tree and passed around it
the quirrel had made his way to the
highest limb. The girl found some
thing else, however-something that
perhaps not one in a thousand who
passed it had knowledge of. At the
height of her chin was cup or hol-
low that would hold a quart of water.
1t was a wound that the tree had re-
ceived in some way years before, and
the bark had grown again on all sides
to leave hiding spot. The hand that
was thrust in felt and drew out