The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-09-29
EVENING STORY
Plum Pudding Harry.
(By Villa Blaine.)

after he graduated from college. \ He
had not decided as yet on his future
career, but since any kind of start
in business as well the law studies
that he sometimes contemplated, was
more or less dependent upon the pos
session of some amount of capital he
accepted his mothers proposition to
make plum buildings.
Harry's mother was a plain country
woman who wore a Bingham apron
out of preference eight hours of the
twenty-four and to help out the small
annuity her husband had left her
she had of late years been making
plum buildings to sell to several of
the grocery stores in the nearest
city.
Last year I had twice as many
orders as could fill she told Harry,
and made during the summer
enough so that in the winter l Melted
six hundred dollars on them If we
filled out all the orders that would
be over thousand dollars profit and
| II you could hustle about and get as
many orders besides with the help of
some cheap sort of hired girl we could
] fill those orders at say profit of five
| hundred dollars. That would be fiji
teen hundred dollars before snow
flies. The Tilstons-your fathers
folks-weren't such grand people that
you ought to be ashamed of any hon
| est la Dor"
1t wasn't because Harry was exactly
| ashamed of plum buildings that he
had hesitated-it was because of
| Genevieve and Harriette and Mildred
and Laura-girls in general rather
/ than any girl in particular. The men
he had known in college would under
stand and applaud him if he actually
made enough on plum buildings to get
started In career. But what would
the girls he had met think of him if
| they knew?
Bradley, the small town where Har-
| ry I1lston had been brought up, boast
| ed no very definite younaer social set
put, so long as there were pretty girls
! like Mildred Brewer and Laura Ste
| VenS IN town and any young unmar-
r1ed men, there was sure to be an
occasional picnic down the river, an
| evening entertainment,p Sunday aft
ernoon strolls thru the woods or buggy
rides into the adjacent countries
| In other years, on Harry Tilston's
short visits home in vacation time,
| he had figured rather prominently in
these diversions He wondered wheth-
er Laura and MILDRED and the other
| girls would be inclined to laugh at
! him If he made plum buildings. But
| in spite Of his misgivings he agreed to
his mothers proposition and, not two
weeks after he had received his de-
gree in the assembly hall of his alma
mater, he was busy for ten or twelve
hours out of the twenty-four in his
! mothers kitchen, measuring out flour
and sugar and spices, according to the
proportions specified in his mothers
old family recipe for plum puddings-
| there was tradition in her family
that 1t had been brought over from
England some two hundred years be-
fore together with a few pieces of
pewter and a worm-eaten chest that
still belonged to her.
Harry devoted a good deal of the
first few days in working out a sys-
tenn for regulating the steamers his
mother used. Occasionally, in pre-
vious seasons, she had had to discard
| a few puddings because the steamer
did not maintain an even temperature,
and Harry began his labors by elimi-
| mating tbs trouble. He had installed
| a thermometer, made a change here
and there in the drafts and flues of
| the stove. and that obstacle was over
come. Then he had spent a day in
| the nearest large city. and had there
succeeded in buying the needed ingre-
dents for the buildings at prices
slightly below those that his mother
had been able to secure. But tho he
| made these changes in his mother
methods, he changed not a jot nor a
it'll in the old rule which his mother
used for the pudding, nor did he at
tempt to use any ingredients of an in
| ferior quality He seemed to have
tremendous respect for the good judg-
men. of his ancestors who had brought
that recipe from the old cou try.
One of the consignmentS of mater
ials having been delayed in shipment
Harry sauntered forth one morning to
purchase from the local grocer a sack
of flour so that the days energy need
not be thrown away for lack of ma
terials. He passed Laura Stevens,
who called to him: Hello, Mr.. Tilston,
1 don't suppose you'n have time to
come to the picnic tomorrow, now
you've taken to making puddings with
your mother.
And this was said with such a min
Cling of sweetness and contempt that
Harry was filled with two mingled
emotions-one of rage for the girl
who had spoken thus and the other
rage for the buildings that had tempt
ed him apart from the lines Of work
that are usually considered suitable
for young college graduates.
Mildred Brewer gayly decked out in
a lowered hat and a many-ruffled
dress, in spite of the early hour of the
day, was giving her mothers provision
order at the store when Harry reach
| ed there.
My word Harry" she said-Mil-
dred always affected this manner of
intimacy even on short acquaintance
t-'you could have knocked me over
with a feather, and a small one, too,
| when 1 heard you'd gone into the pud-
din business Don't you mind my
saying so. but I cep,esnly thought
you'd have got some sSft of an open
IHS ITOIn YOUR SlQOlcS at COlleBt Will
| out having to come back here to Brad
ley to take up pudding making. Hon
est, Harry, are you really going to do
1t all summer" 1t was not SO much
| the frank speech as the laugh of
| amusement that followed that filled
Harry again with inward rage. He
was inclined to like this Mildred, and
her mirth over his work filled him
with greater annoyance than had the
| surprise of her chum.
Laugh if you want to-" Harry said
when she stopped her silly giggling.
| Perhaps some day I'll show you that
a career begun with plum pudding
isn't so contemplate you seem to
| think it isl And, purchasing the
flour, Harry threw it over his shoulder
| and carried it home.
| The rest of the morning Harry beat
the pudding batter with unusual fer
vor. so much SO that little Molly, the