The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-08-30
EVENING STORY
Playing Truant
BY HILDA MORRIS.


as city-bred girl can hate country
town where she is lonely, overworked
and discouraged. She taught the sixth
grade in the Elmville school, a very
unruly and wearisome sixth grade,
and she spent her evenings alone in
little furnished room at the home of
the local grocer. There was no one in
the whole town whom she could call a
friend, really truly friend with whom
to discuss such things as books and
thoughts and longings. Sometimes
Doris thought she would burst with
the accumulation of thoughts which
needed to be talked over with some
one. Once sre tried them on the fifth
grade teacher. a nice girl fond of
crocheting mile minute" but the ye-
suits were discouraging.
As spring came on, touching the
hills about Elmville with a mist of
green, q bridal veil of dog-wood and
Towering ''red-bud." Doris grew az
All those lovely woods and hills and
no one to talk with, no one to help dis
cover violet patches down by the riv-
er, no one to help her hunt for four
leaved clovers-.
There came a day when Doris did
an unprecedented thing. 1t was MonS
day, and a schoolday, but she did net
go to school. One hears often enough
of little boys and girls playing truant,
but teachers-neveri
Very few people there are who have
not at some time experienced the de-
sire to do some unprecedented thing,
some sensational forbidden thing, like
crying out in church or sticking pins
into the backs of perfectly respecta BILE
people who sit in front of them. Most
| of US resist these impulses, that is,
We grown people do. Children more
frequently follow them up with action
because of an earnest desire to see
what will happen
1t was exactly such an impulse that
| impelled Doris to turn down the road
towards the woods instead OF the
street that led to the school house.
many other mornings, but now, quite
| suddenly, she felt an overwhelming
desire to know what would happen if
she skipped" school. also a desire to
| be alone in the woods.
It was a beautiful morning. Having
| cast care aside with a recklessness
that was wholly delightful, Doris en-
| joyed it to the utmost. Little birds
| sang at her as if they understood and
| approved, flowers bloomed in her path
| as IL they had known she was COM
| ing. Overhead the sky was cloudless
blue, the breeze was freighted with
| fragrance. For an hour or more she
wandered there, entirely happy. Then,
wearied, she sat down to rest beneath
great oak whose freshly green leaves
| furnished shelter. Now inaetion is
ways a time for thought, and as Doris
! sat there a cloud began to gather in
| the sky above her, also a cloud OF
misgiving began to darken her mood.
| What had she done? Here 1t was halt
past 10 o'clock, the mornings school
| half over. and the sixth grade was
without a teacher! She pictured to
| herself the confusion that must be
reigning, the worried principal, the
| distraction of the other teachers. They
would never forgive her. never. More
| than that, they would never under
| stand Why, she might even be dis
missed, at once, without that two
months more of pay which she sorely
needed. She must go back and offer
some excuse.
! Thus the penalty for being grown
up. One cannot enjoy stolen pleas
! ures. Would a school boy have been
overcome with remorse. midway OF
his happy morning?
| However, the days enjoyment, for
Doris, was at an end. Already the sky
was darkening for an April shower,
and she started back along the path
that she had trod so happily, hurry
| ing, stumbling. filled with fear OF
| consequences BY the time she had
reached the road the storm broke,
| silver shower which treated her as
/ tho she, too. were a thirsty flower she
was quite drenched. and trudged along
hopeiessly bedraggled. her light mood
ended in sodden despair. Oh, why old
/ things always have to end this way /.
! Why did happiness SO seldom come to
her? Why
| The sudden sound of motor made
her Jump hastily to the side of the
road, her face burning with shame at
her sad appearance. Indeed there was
cause for her to look ashamed; the
motor belonged to Alden Powers, the
/ richest and most influential young
man in Elmville, the only Elmville
man who had been to college. and the
president of the school board which
had hired her. How he would wonder
| what she was doing here at this hour!
| Apparently he did wonder, for he
| stopped.
'sWhy. Miss Evans! You are drench-
ed thru Surely you are not going to
walk into town in this shower. Let
me drive you in
1 His tone was quite Imperative, and
almost before she knew it Doris found
herself seated beside him, feeling like