The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-01-19
EVENING STORY
Indolent Mrs. Lester.
(By Osborn Jones. }


Every one agreed that pretty Mrs.
Testers besetting sin was Incidence
of course, any woman could have
pretty hands and well-manicured nails
if she didn't ever have to do any
thing" said Mrs. Lands, the board
| ing-house keeper, to the old maid
school teacher, who replied promptly:
Yes, and any woman could seem
| light-hearted if she didn't have a care
or trouble in the world
''Of course, she's always pleasant
| like, too" put in Martha, the cook
tor the school teacher had descended
to the kitchen to chat with Mrs. Lam
dis-"she doesn't ever make a fuss
about things-but then, who would?
And it's always those helples women
that have husbands to wait hand and
foot on Them
Exactly snapped the school
| teacher
] 'Precisely!' echoed Mrs Lands.
| AS matter of fact, Mrs. Lester was
! indolent. She loved the soft pillows of
| her bed because she had always been
accustomed to twelve hours of repose
out of the twenty-four. But she was
not altogether happy. Perhaps she
wasn't even as happy as the brawny
armed Mrs. Lands or the corpu1ent
cook or the teacher, with her absorb
| ing responsibilities in the schoolroom.
If any one had asked Mrs. Lester why
| she would have said it was because
! her husband chose to live that way.
| They had always done it in the three
years of their married life. The board
| ing house was convenient to the big
| factory where her husband worked
and houses were not plentiful But
sometimes a single tear fingered in
| those soft brown eyes of hers and
| there was a tleeting note of sadness in
her voice-that Mrs. Lands and
Martha and the school teacher never
| caught. more careful observer
might have noticed that this was the
| case on days when Mr.. Lester had been
| particularly quiet at breakfast, when
| he had looked just a trifle annoyed as
he watched his pretty wife beside him
| at meals or in the boarding house sit
| ting room afterward.
! Then came the time when Mrs.
Lands son had pneumonia at col
lege. 1t didn't prove to be a hard
lease but it was sufficiently alarming
to make it necessary for Mrs. Lands
Ito pack her wicker suitcase and be-
take her portly person to the college
town. She stopped long enough after
receiving the telegram telling of her
sons illness to give the cook direc-
lions for ordering and to commit the
care of the thirty boarders to her
keeping Then she went to Mrs Les
| ter's room and told her, just because
she knew she would feel treasured by
her words of sympathy and encour-
agement.
Il know I can't do much" said Mrs.
Lester, "but it makes a lot of work
for poor Martha Let me do the
ordering while you are gone. No one
need know. Please give me the lists
and every morning 1 can go to market
for you. oh, you don't know how
often I have gone for the fun OF 1t,
and sometimes l have wished that l
had a market basket of my own on
my arm and that l were ordering
things for myself.
Mrs Lands consented. for, as she
said: Cooking for thirty is enough
of a Job in itself, and having to do
the ordering besides would be too
much for any one" Two of the part
time factory girls attended to waiting
on table at breakfast and dinner. and
they could not be called on to help
with the cooking. Martha could
manage to put up the twenty lunch
cons alone for couple of days. That
many of Mrs Landis's boarders were
men who were connected with the
big factory, and they had their lunch
, con sent hot to the factory at IL: 80
by one of the factory watchmen. The
remaining ten boarders served them
selves luncheon buffet fashion in the
dining room.
, This happened just after break fast
so that Mrs. Lester went marketing
that morning at 9 and bought even
more economically than would Mrs
| Lands herself, and no one at the
!; boarding house knew the difference.
For Mrs. Lester. herself, tho she said
happy, in fact, was she over
the event. that she hardly no.
ticed his low-spiritedness and almost
abrupt manner to the other men al
, to the factory office that night. and
Mrs. Lester sat alone. 1t was IL wher
she first heard Martha's call for help
poor, fat Martha, whose age was be-
ginning to tell in an occasional heart
attack There had been much to dc
that day and no small amout of worry
for one not accustomed to taking re-
sponsibilfties, and Martha had giveT
out.
Only Mrs Lester heard the call fol
help and went tiptoeing up to the
garnet bedroom. to be of assistance.
| eff only the boarders needn't know,
walled the cook, as Mrs. Lester rath
er helplessly seothed her and waited
for the doctor.
Don't worry about the boarders,'
said Mrs. Lester. They needn'-
know and they won't be neglected
Wen manage in some way" Ant
then came the doctor, who assured
Mrs. Lester that few days of res
would put Martha back on the work
ing list again.
BY the time Mr.. Lester came bach
from the factory Mrs Lester wa.
tucked in among her pillows-as re
poseful as if she had lain there al
the evening. And she was too much
s absorbed in her plans for the mex
8 days task even to notice when hel
e husband remarked with actual sar
e casm that he hoped she felt rested
even tho she had had nothing to do
So sure was Mrs Lester that her hus
e band would doubt her ability to per
4, form the task before her if he knew
that she kept her secret
4 In the morning she slipped from he
room at 5-blandly lying to her hus
band that she was cold and had gon,
to rest in a warmer room that had re
Gently been vacated And as Mrs. Les
" ter seldom took breakfast with he
husband. he never guessed that Will