The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1917-03-01

nkT wla ton, they remembered, alter the death
uxAA@YH OF her invalid father had invested her
N& 4 sapped and sober middle age with
H. 4 tardy an almost unbecomng freedom.
euzznzMz8 And She had no sooner tremblingly
<yfca gained her secure possession OF the tIe
Cd Stephen than from every direction plati-
tudes Of approval drfted toward her.
Slatterny mothers, who had themselves
bred big families without development in themselves
Of heroic virtues, were loud to predict that the
sponsbihty for a child would work miracle for the
lonely woman The kindGer Of Sophie, ncighbors
had agreed that it would give her something to
live for; the Others less graciously that it would
give her Something to do" Nobody would have
gone far as to assert that the arrangement would
benefit the boy for like the rest Of tile world Wray
ford had its sneer for "old maid, children; but
Wrayord could see for itself that lean sober little
Stephen seemed il ever child was adapted to his
destiny He had belonged TO that less lovely half
of the adolescent race in which one misses, from
very birth the beautiful completeness Of infancy;
children who incomplete adults, merely whose
too sharply nodded faces wear the anxious presage
OF things to come; whose little mouths set aud
whose eyes barren Of dreams, impatient for
maturity Even at the age OF four, you could have
detected no infant impshness in Stephens already
Well-conuoled character
1t had, indeed been pattern OF >taid companion
ship that they had presented, as Stephen rudgcd
docilcy to church by Mis- Burchel's side sat
with his book while She ,ewcd, or helped her with
her gardening. 1t had not seriously troubled his
foster-parent as had the more speculative of her
ncighbors, that the child was never naughty; it
quite plain that his dignity and good sense were
sufficient to keep him from irrational msdcmcanors;
moreover She believed that Stephen would keep
good by virtue Of the quality Of her care for him
for there dwelt within her a secret Of the sort that
dull neighbors never penetrate Mis-, Sophie had
derout faith in her own genius for motherhood it
was her one arrogance
Through many patient unblessed years Sophie
Burchell had boarded poet might this belief in
her own divine capacity Neither the tyranny Of
Adam Burchcls 4 ag illness nor the pity Of her own
loneliness had even family discouraged it in her
Nor this merely vague longing to strain warm
laughing babies to her breast it the touching
certainty that She could relcs,y cherish and wisely
care for them 1t had been her strangely bcsetting
fear that she might yield to her lilc too constant
danger OF growing warped or thorny, as hard
pressed, long-starved women will for She felt that
she must keep herself sound and strong and sweet
for the child that would some day need her 1t did
not profoundly matter that the child could not he
her own Every child that She saw, for that r'A,,er
every puny baby, every serawny wchin called ont
the unstinted flow OF sophie maternal tenderness.
It wa' an opuent and overbrmming motherhood to
which Stephen Orth fell heir
Whether Stephen would repay her AS people said,
for what She maen6ceuty gave him was a chcula-
ton that Sophie would have been the last to make
nevertheless there were ntmauon, after year or
So, Of what onlookers considered an almost mracu
lous recompen,e Stephen wa, NOT only duuiul. he
was actually gifted At least he discharged vi,h
what other children regarded as offensive ease the
task. that his teacher, almo, deiereatiay assigned
him ard by The timc he was eigh, years old he
fame as student had gained him prestige in W 'ay-
ford q which he himself wa~ pre,orou-y ,e.sihlc
But Stephen was teachabc IN depormclt as iu
letters and, mindful alvay, Of Mis-, SophiIs tender
exhortations he wore hi, juvenile donors sraclou,ll
and bore himself toward hi. elders nUh thc respect
that their year i nut lNays their mental caiber,
demanded His sell possession had been born with
him, and Slightly awkward as he always was in iu-
tercourse with children he Was always ready To
shake hands agreeably with any number oi adult
visitors and describe to them his pleasure IN attend