The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-26
LETTERS OF
TWO WOMEN
No. s-From May Bond to Kate
BY ZOE BECKLEY.

OSWdS.
KerryviIle, Kan,
June something.
Dear Old Kits:
Just rolled in your letter like a
pussy in catnip. 1t was good to hear
about the old life--the office bunch,
the eternal love affairs and misunder-
standings and hopes and the rest!
won't dwell upon that strain of sad
ness on your third page. We all have
our drab dayS-eVen l who am still
elated with the novelty of the mar
ried state-and l know you made up
your fuss with c. ]. that very evening
you wrote. We girls generally do the
giving in.
Let me tell you about my house! I
told you how L approached it with
fear and trembling, for 1 knew the
Bond family was not rich. Besides,
the territory lying west of the Hudson
has ever been a place of mystery to
me. To my Broadway imagination
Kansas seemed rather a weird place
to live in. Yet, the idea of the blue
sky and the prairies, a garden of my
own, a white painted front gate and
winding road-ah! these seemed good
to me, Kate. For ! do love beauty
and have been so starved of it.
Well, the house is a dear little
white thing on story high, SCI in the
middle of a big yard, with eight maple
| trees along the front and some apple
/
kitchen garden, bless it, which the
minister is going to cultivate for us,
to our mutual benefit. Isn't that a
! quaint touch?
1 have already planted q know you
will shrek. What, Your beautiful
hands messed up with garden soil?')
nasturtiums and mignonette and
sweet peas and pansies and a round
bed of pink geraniums. 1 think
shall put in along the porch a honey
suckle vine and a climber rose. Re
member how you and 1 always dream
and honeysuckle?
Curtis's mother has given us a
! good-looking dining room set. and
/ you ask if 1 have a piano-Curt has
a splendid grand; you know he is mu-
steal Don't l remember that night
you got SO mad because he monopo-
lized the musical part of things when
you wanted me to show off my accom-
plishments to impress that other man
you thought I should marry?)
I am hemstitching scrim. curtains
for the front windows. To see me on
the porch near the crabapple tree sew
| ing and hUmming a song, you'd never
believe that three months ago l was
pounding typewriter in a Wall street
office and lunching at Child's-teIl
me. do they still have raisins in the
five-cent rice pudding?
Oh. Kate, there was a country Sale
near here recently and I had more fun
From all over the county they came
in their old carts and buggies, and in
spected everything offered for sale
from a fine Jersey COW to a box OF
! clotheSpins. A sewing machine and
butter churn went for 50. And some
fine homemade preserves sold for l {
cents a quart jar. l went neck-and-
neck with the storekeeper's wife (the
only other real swell in the villase)
for a dresser. which I got for Sc.
We loaded the stuff into the surrey
and drove home looking like NOV
ing van in a cyclone. You know in
this section of the country if you want
anything done. you most generally gel
busy and do it Yourself. You should
have seen US Looping along down Mair
street, with the dresser, a box of pre-
brackets, kitchen table and a carpet
sweeper sticking out of the buggy
with me squeezed in on top of every
thing, my Broadway shoes hanging
over the side because there WASH
j.; room for my feet in the cart. (By the
! way. they think my high heels slightly
immoral out here, and they haven't We
got used to a touch of powder ant
pink on the face-so I go mighty SLOW
on that. for / don't want to disgrac CO
} Curtis's family.)
Well, Kat darling. 1 see Curtis com
ing down the road, and must jumi
for the kitchen. I'll tell you about my
cooking next time. What an egotis
I'm getting to be
Love TO the girls in the office. ant
, to yourself always my best and warm
est MAIZE.