The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-03-01
The Evening Story
In the Trenches.
BY Dorothy BIackmore. }

Dear, dear!" he heard her eXclaim,
and then he heard hurried footsteps
and saw Matte run down stairs, pick
up coat that was lying on chair in
the hall, and slam the front door after
her.
Mats some hustler when she wants
to-" he remarked to his mother, who
sat behind the coffee pot at the table.
Indeed she is, and / feel sorry she
has this trouble to contend with just
now when she was showing such en-
thusiasm on so practical a subject,
sighed Mrs. Herbert.
Look at her chase those chickenS!
laughed Teddy, pulling aside the din
ing room curtain and looking out into
the garden spot at the side of the Her
bert home.
and Matte was running back and
forth chasing away the neighbors
chickens The fresh fertilizer which
had been placed SO carefully in each
where, and dismay was written all
over the girls face when she turned
to come into the house
It's a Shame!' she said, as she
took her place at the table, breathing
hard, but looking as fresh as rose
after her exercise in the inVigorating
March air. And this one year when
1 had planned so much on my sweet
carefully. What shall I do, mother?"
Shoot the chickens" suggested
Teddy.
This isn't the war, Teddy his sis
ter said, Squelchingly. These are
sweet pea trenches.
But if it were not for the war, my
dears," sighed Mrs. Herbert again
I'VE would not feel the necessity for
having these trenches so carefully
planned. 1 believe Matte can make
a success of her flowers if
IF I can gather up my nerves and
go next door to interview the neigh
bors about their chickens, Matte
said. Il could do it this minute, I be-
lieVe."
Mrs. Herbert raised a protesting
hand. No, dear, not in this frame
of mind. You might say something
not neighborly.'
Matte bit a large piece of toast off
the slice she had taken and chewed it
vehemently as if to express her SEN
timents. ITS the only time l can go
when I'm in this frame of mind
when I've just returned from looking
at that wasted time and energy and
money out there! It's the third time
those chickens have come over here
and scratched up my trenches. and it
is absolutely necessary that leave
them open for few days to warm up
before 1 plant the seeds. Now-what
am 1 to do?"
Il pass said Teddy, getting up
from the table. It's not my funeral,
Mat. So long!'' And with that he
was gone. Teddy was not old enough
to let the family worries lie on his
shoulders.
Matte and her mother was finish
ing breakfast in silence when they
heard the knocker on the front door.
I'll co. said Matte. as her mother
started to rise.
Tin George Davis-neXt door,
you know 1 just saw you chasing
Come in, please said Matte.
opening wide the door to the young
man who was introducing himself.
You see, I've come to stay with
my brother next door for a while since
my firm saw fit to cut down expenses
by letting me out of job and-well
to tell the truth, l thought my broth
er didn't know how to get the most
out of his chickens and I've taken
them in hand for a few days. He's
never home and my sister is busy with
the baby Sony chickens have been
in your trenches owing to my folly.
1 apologize and will see that it does
not happen again.
"Oh, don't worry" Matte fastened
to say. "Of course, well, 1 have
worked so so hard with that fertilizer
this spring, hoping to realize some
thing from my sweet peas, and it has
been rather discoura cling"
tDiscouraging." interrupted Davis
THAT is polite. If I'd been in your
place 1 think I would have blessed the
whole houseful of neighbors. Did
yOu?" he laughed.
would call it blessing. 1 haven't
thought of it in that light. But now
you won't worry, will you? I'll get
out this morning and try to plant the
seeds, and then"
Then if my chickens dig them up
needn't show my face again in this
Matte nodded, laughing. That's
it," she said.
With a few more words of apology
George Davis left, and Matte Herbert
knew that she liked him and was glad
that he was to be her neighbor.
That morning, when she was busy
out of doors trying to repair the dam
Davis looked over the hedge which
separated the gardens. 1T is I who
should be doing that he ventured.
You may help" Matte said, quick
ly.
The young man Joined her with
alacrity. He had expected her to say,
"Oh, no, l wouldn't hear of such
thing" which would have been the
conventional answer.
A few hours work with her assured
him that Matte Herbert was not con-
that she was the most orig
inal and charming girl he had met.
She told him of her plan to raise
splendid. large sweet peas, prolong
their season as far as possible and get
a contract from a fashionable hotel in
town to supply its afternoon tea tables
with blossoms in separate colOrS. She
was confident of success that
George Davis could not help seeing
her proposition in her own way.
Spring came and went, and June
brought the lOoked-for blossoms in the
HerbertS garden The four sixty-foot
trenches were riot of bloom, and
some stems held four blossoms of
gigantic proportions
Matte and her mother and even
Teddy picked sweet peas night and
morning, and Matte herself attended
to the shipping. But a hot spell came
upon them when the sweet peas, if