The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1918-01-05
Miss Doane'
Mealer
a.
By ]. l.. Harbour
By J. L. Harbour
Copyright, 1917, Western Newspaper Union.

Unite variety.
mo two of them seem to be exactly
the same tint, and 1 never had such a
lot of them out at one time before"
said Miss Semira. She loved flowers
and nearly every foot Of her small
front yard was laid out in beds and
mounds. There was not a weed to be
seen, and her plants looked thrifty
and bore evidence of care. The little
white house back of the flower garden
had plants in the two front windows,
and climbing vines completely covered
the small, green lattice-work porch
over the front door. All of the flowers
and plants were of the ~old-fashioned
varieties. Miss Semira did not care
for floral novelties" She liked her
four-o'clocks and ragged robins and
acknowledgement and bleeding hearts
better thar any Others she had ever
seen.
Miss Semira was so small and
fragile looking, with such delicate1y
tinted pink cheeks, and such fluffy yell
low hair that she looked quite like a
flower herself as she moved about in
her little garden in a blue lawn dress
with little white flowers in it, and her
lace-trimmed snowy white apron in
which there was neither spot nor wrin-
kle. She was STOPPING over picking a
dead leaf or two from one of her
geraniums when a shrill, rasping voice
startled her by saying.
"How nice your flowers do look, Miss
S'mira an how sweet they smell. 1
anD ~,aD11 AlAra aI4a- n,-nr 30 WV
house when it's still or when the wind
is BLOWN in that direction. You allus
have such good luck with 'em. Flow
ers grow better for some folks than
for Others"
Miss Semira looked up and saw a
tall, gaunt woman in q chocolate-col-
ored calico dress and green and white
checked Bingham apron standing at
her gate. A red and white tennis cap
perched on one side of her iron-gray
head gave the oma a grotesque
look.
80, Mrs. Sampson, is it your" said
Miss Semira. "Come in, won't your"
"No, it amt with while little time
as I've got to stay. Then I've left
some ginger bread in the oven, l want
to know if you wouldn't be willing to
take a mealer."
"A mealer, Mrs. Sampson?".
Eyes. You see I've got a chance to
let my big front room upstairs If 1
can find a place for the person that
wants it to take their meals. l can't
undertake to give anyone their meals
with my rheumatic pesterin' me the
way it does, an Sampson havin' it
when 1 don't. Then 1 amt no cook,
anyhow. But 1 do want to let that
big front room, an this person will
take it if 1 can find a mealin' place
near by, an here you are right acrost
the road an Twin all alone, an you as
much of a born cook as you are a born
flower raiser. An I've heard you say,
that you sometime got dreadful tired
O. takin' your meals all by yourself"
"Who is it wants your room?"
"Well, it's a gentleman-but there,
you needn't look so scairt. Miss S'mira,
for it amt a young gentleman nor a
middle-aged gentleman, but a real nice,
fatherly-lookin' old gentleman that
there'd never be a mite o. talk bout
you givin' his meals to. He must be
old enough to be your father, a n l
don't know when I've seen a nicer ap-
pearin' man. I'd a sight ruther have
him around than nine out O. ten fus-
sy, fault-findin' wimmen. Don't you
say no until you think it all over"
Miss Senira thought it all owe with
the result that two days later Mr..
Jared Lyster found himself seated at
Miss Doane's daintily set table. Miss
Semira had often been heard to say:
II don't mind any part of living
alone so much as 1 mind eating my
meals all by myself. If / just had
someone that was interesting and
pleasant to talk to at meal-time L
wouldn't mind the rest. / would take
a mealer if 1 got a good chance"
Mrs. Sampson had gone a trile be-
yond the truth when she had said that
Jared Lyster was a "real fatherly
looking old gentleman" Miss Semira's
mental comment when she saw him
was:
why, 1 don't believe that he is a
day over fifty-fve."
Miss Semira's own years numbered
forty-fve. She had expected her meal
err to be a man of at least sixty-fve
and possibly seventy years Of age, but
she did not voice her surprise to Mrs.
Sampson. She accepted the situation
in a manner that manifested her good
sense, and she said to herself:
"There's nothing for people to talk
about if he isn't as old as l thought he
was. l nave lived in this town too
long for anyone to gossip about me.
He certainly is a very well-favored,
gentlemanly person, and there's moth
ing in me giving him his meals that
should set any ones tongue to wag-
ging."
Jared Lyster was a childless wild