The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-02-24
EVENING STORY
Benita'S Choice.

Bonita fingered most provokingly
and deliberately on the road home.
There are times when home seems
the very last place in the world to go,
and this was one of them First of
ALL Grandmother Rollins had told her
at least seven times that day &C count
her blessings one by one, and she'd
be surprised to see what the Lord had
done.
From which it may be gathered
that Bonita was on one of her rebel
iious streaks- And, again Tom had
demanded to know, again and again,
what in tunket allied her, anyhow.
Tom was fourteen and without under
standing, sympathy or philosophy of
life. Then, her mother had said:
Bonita, child, what does all you?
You act bewitched. You drop every
thing you touch, and you haven't a
decent word for anybody in the fam
lily"
Why should she have? thought
Bonita haughtily. Weren't they all
against her? Wasn't it bad enough to
have name tackled on one like
Bonita Dusenberry, coupled with an
artistic temperament, and then have
a family without any of the finer in
stincts at all? Somewhow she had
never noticed he lack of those finer
instincts until Sica and her brother
had come to stop awhile at the Three
Pines.
When the Dusenberry fortunes had
first fluctuated, they had taken the
rambling old country home, and turn
ed it into a sort of wayside inn, catch
ing the automobile traffic in the sum-
mer time, and seeking select paying
guests in cold weather. In this class
belonged Jessica and her brother.
From the first Gay Of their arrival,
| Bonita had realized the gulf that sep
arated her from the rest of the fam
| lily, and what it meant to find ones
proper equation. That was Jessica's
own term for 1.-THE proper equa-
tion'-and it meant being with people
of your own kind who understood
you. Bonita had carried up some
clean towels and a fresh cake of the
| oval pink soap reserved for guests,
and stood dazzled and charmed at the
sight of Jessica unpacking her trunk.
! 81 make most of them myself" said
| Jessica, airly, when I am in the
mood. 1t isn't so much the finish one
puts on gowns: It's all in the lines
| and the effect"
! wallace, the tall, fair musician
brother, seemed to belong to Jessica
quite as naturally as the artistic
| gowns. He took long, solitary walks
thru the woods and roads, and came
| back to improvise marvellous airs
his violin. When one spoke to him he
smiled and bowed, and looked Won
derfully intelligent, Mrs. Dusenberry
said, quite as if she had been speaking
of Krag, the big sheep dog. Once
when Bonita had been hurrying over
! from a neighbors with a borrowed
| meat grinder, she had met him, stand
| ing enraptured, gazing at something
| in his hand.
Little girl he had said, ''can you
| tell me the name of this p?
| ladders tongue" answered Bonita
pushing back her hair, and trying to
look as grown-up as she could. She
thought everybody knew what plain
everyday adders tongue looked like.
| She told Len about it when he came
up to help Tom with the wood-cutting
Len was twenty and nearly six feet
tall He looked fearfully hearty be-
side Wallace. She only thought of
him as Wallace. To his face she called
him Mr.. Farley, of course, but when
she stopped in the hall to listen to
the violin playing, she would say, with
a little sigh of rapture, wallace!
Wallace. "-impersonally, of course
Len had laughed and said he look
ed sort of peaked" Genius should
look ethereal, Bonita had thought.
Then the climax came Jessica told
her that she, Bonita, was the inspira-
ton for Wallace's latest improvisa-
ton, THE Maid O. the Pines
II hope he will be able to capture
it and write it down. 1t has all the
wailing of the wind in the pines in it,
and the mystical yearnings of the I'M
fledged soul,' she explained.
Bonita was glad he had put it into
| WORDS. AFTER the O1SnoS were Il1lISHeu
! she threw a cape around her and went
| out under the three tall pine trees in
| front of the house, to catch the mysti-
cal yearning herself. But Len came
along from the barn and stayed talk
ing to her about the concert at the
town hall next week, until her mother
called her in. Also, he reminded her
that they were engaged. Bonita had
put the thought from her for several
weeks.
| II guess by Easter I'll have things
settled so We can be married. 1 want
to put a new ell on the kitchen and
plaster two rooms upstairs, and get
porch on the front of the house.
/ Mother says she'll spend part of the
time with sgd and part with Rose till
We get settled down. Think your
mother can spare you by then.
| Bonita? -
/ II don't know" Bonita had said
vaguely. 81 think eighteen is plenty
old enough to get married, and 1
won't be seventeen till next month"
Now had come this final day. Mrs.
Brewster. Lens mother, had sent for
her to help with some quilting.
| You might as well, cause half Of
them are for you and Len she said