Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-07-08
.Eoening Story
TARDY, BUT TRUE.


~ elsie 0ee.
Copyright, 1915, by the Mcclure
Newspaper Snydicate.)
1t was we'll known in Plainville that
Madge Ingram, who hve years ago had
refused to we'd Jim Butler, the mer-
chant prince Of the town, was now
getting a good salary as private secre-
tary to city lawyer. It was equally
we'll known that the merchants young
wife Of year kept servant and an
automobile and had charge accounts
at the city department stores. Every
time Madge came home for vacation,
Plainville weighed the respective
merits Of her independence and the
merchants wife's affluence, but the
shrewdest of the gossips did not sus-
pect that q memory ante-dating her
affair with Jim Butler meant more to
Madge than anything that had come
into her life. "
One summer morning Madge alight-
ed from the 6 o'clock train for her
| vacation without having told Of her
coming, as she preferred to surprise
her parents by appearing unannounced
for breakfast. She hurried up the
quiet street and. slipping quietly
! through the yard gate, she picked a
handful of dewy nasturtiums before
stepping around to the side porch and
knocking at the kitchen door.
my dear child! just felt you'd
| come soon!" exclaimed her mother at
sight of her. . .-
THE same dear mother-can't be
surprised" laughed Madge. as they
embraced. asm
But can be glad, and am,
dearie," said the mother, with a catch
in her voice. "And here's crisp bacon
and fried apples and hot biscuit Just
as il you'd ordered your favorite sum-
mer breakfast
"And I'm ready for the breakfast,
too said Madge, with happy sigh
But where's father?"
Hes in the garden said Mrs. In
gram, and the next moment Madge
was In the garden too, and in her
fathers arms. No sooner, though, had
he began to point out the excellence
of his tomatoes and sweet corn than
Mrs. Ingram summoned them to
breakfast
whats doing today, mother? Ia
there a picnic?" asked Madge, after
breakfast. q
Nov, how did you guess that?"
II saw Tom Jordan hauling some
giant ice cream freezers and lot Of
fruit up to the MaplewOod pasture and
oh, I saw distinguished looking man
in gray tweed over near the hotel. He
looked like man of affairs above and
beyond Plainville picnics." 's.
| THAT must have been Tom Whit
low. He's here for visit, and he
dresses like that and Is staying at
the HOTEL
tom Whitlow, who used to-"
Madge hesitated, and her mother con-
tinued:
Used to drive Buffers delivery
wagon. But they say he's made some
thing Of himself. He is manager OF
some mines out west somewhere, and
II guess he deserves credit, for his
folks were poor as Jobs turkey"
"But Tom was bright and gentle
manly said Madge quickly, "and ho
used to help me do my arithmetic
problems, although he wuoldnt talk to
me outside"
II guess he's still kind O. quiet"
said Mrs. Ingram, "for they wanted
him to make a speech at the picnic
and he made excuses that he'd rather
listen than be heard"
That afternoon Madge went with
her parents to the picnic, and, al
though she felt certain pleasure in
greeting her old friends and answer
ing their unvarying questions about
her health and her Impressions of To-
cal improvements, she soon began to
feel keenly that she was no longer
in sympathy with their lives or they
with hers. When people began to
gather to listen to the speeches of
the county candidates for office and of
the local politician who introduced
the speakers, Madge slipped away and
went across the little stream and up
the hill to the north where she had
often gone for wild flowers.
! A thick underground had changed
the appearance of the hillside. but she
soon found what she was seeking, a
big oak tree, with a gnarled limb near
the ground that formed a rough seat
on which she had sat many times
watching the birds and squirrels. AS
she walked around thick clump of
hazelnut bushes and sumacs to reach
the grassy space underneath the tree.
tall man in blue serge, who had
been sitting on the grass with his
broad shoulders against the tree, rose
and removed his hat in respectful, but
embarrassed greeting.
81 hope I haven't startled you" he
said. land may l hope, also, that you
| RI
low"
mot at all.' blurted Madge. Then
in embarrassment, she fastened to
add: THAT is, you didn't startle me,
and I'm glad to meet you again. But
! means the hepinninp Of another dav in