The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-04-29
The Epening Story
Home Longing.
(By Mollie McMaster.

(By Mollie McMaster)
When the village hack turned the
corner of the road and shut from
Ninian's eyes the last glimpse of Rose
bank cottage it seemed as if the world
of happiness had been left behind
Around the bend of the road lay the
home that had given Ninian birth, and
it's roses had waited into her brain
the poetic fancieS that had begun to
express themselves in the form of
vivid color sketches. In fact, Rose
bank was home to the girl who was
forced to leave it in order to seek a
market for her art. And home to
Ninian meant all that was worth hav-
ing in life.
Il will come back and buy Rose
bank in two or three years. she told
herself through her tears; surely no
one will want my isolated little cot
and get it away from me before 1 can
earn enough money to purchase it.
Had Ninian possessed even the
smallest income she would never have
left the place that had become home
to her, but her parents had left moth
ing. With their going she had been
left alone, and Rosebank with all its
dear memories and associations must
be temporarily abandoned while Min
ian traversed the road to fortune.
However, the girl was not given to
vain regrets, and it was with high
hopes and an ever present dream of
her ultimate ownership of Rosebank
that she went into the world Of strug
giles. She found others working with
none, she felt, had so wonderful an in
centive as she. None of them had a
tiny rose-hung cottage and a garden
that boosted every variety of rose that
grew on Long Island. In her mind,
Rosebank was already her own and
Ninian was not unhappy. 1t did not
for a moment occur to her that any
one else longed for the cottage as she
herself did.
Had she known that Robert Good
win had bounced upon the vacated
cottage like a hungry cat upon
mouse her struggles would have been
bitter instead of sweet.
But Goodwin had taken Rosebank,
and his furniture had been moved in
scant few days after Ninian's had
gone out. He had three years
hobby was the cultivation of roses,
and he had eyed Rosebank through
three long years waiting patiently I'M
til it should be vacated. Each Cay he
The day a sign ITO LETT had met his
eye was one of the most joyful in
Goodwin's- life.
He was not deferred from taking
the cottage. isolated though it was,
because his faithful motor cycle
bridged any distance. The quiet and
seclusion and the wonderful views
from the cottage windows, as we'll as
have lured him had the place been
ten miles instead of three from the
station.
Ninian's work in the field of art
progressed with flattering haste. She
saved every penny earned and called
it her Home Longing fund. In the
beginning she had gone without lunch
in order that the fund might increase
by, a second slipped by and the third
drew to a close.
1t was almost three years to the day
when Ninian sailed for home rfcher
by many thousand dollars and splen-
did name in the world of art. She had
won a great prize in the Paris school
at the close of her third year. She
recognized the fact that home long
ings with Rosebank in the joyfully
near future had been her incentive
and inspiration that had given her the
coveted prize. She was returning now
to buy back the cottage.
She had scarcely set foot on Ameri-
can soil before she went out to Long
Island and took the walk from the
station that led through the chestnut
woods to Rosebank.
Fear clutched her heart when she
saw smoke issuing from the chimney
when the cottage was barely discern
ible in the distance. AS she drew
quickly nearer her worst fears were
realized.
my cottagei It is occupied"
Ninian cried half aloud and the tears
squeezed from nOF CLOSED eyeIIOS IL
some horrible person has bought
Rosebank, L don't want to live any
more" she told herself.
Determined to find out that it was
not only a caretaker she continued her
way. The perfect care the roses were
having told her enough. She walked
slowly around her loved home, touch
ing the rambler-hung fence that
guarded it. Ninian was weeping and
the tears trickled down her cheeks
unheeded. Life was a weary pilgrim
age to her, for the one haven in the
world that she longed for had been
she had looked forward to the day
when she could rest her body and soul
in the tiny, rose-clad cottage and draw
in the fragrance OF 1t all. Her spirit,
she knew, had dwelt there while she
was in Paris, but now she and her soul
were intruders.
She turned away and walked blind
ly back to the station.
Robert Goodwin, looking out of his
easement window had seen Ninian.
Her hungry eyes gazing longingly at
the rose gardens had sent a swift emo
ton over him.
That girl must have some frightful
tragedy in her 1ife," he commented.
81 never saw a pair of eyes SO sorrow
full"
He went about his pruning and
clipping and caring for the roses, but
Ninian's eyes haunted him. She SEEM
ed still to be walking sorrowfully
around and around the outer side of
the fence.
So vivid was the girls picture in
dreaming of her the next day when,
IoaEin0 nm he saw her c1Iifo close he