The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-12-03
EVENING STORY;
Meddlesome Mattie's Romance.
by BARBARA KERR.

Matte Mayfield was the village
spinster, and, strange as it may seem,
she had in a manner elected or APP
pointed herself to that post. tho she
did it unwittingly. Her widowed
mother died when Matte was in her
early teens and Matte had to help
out her meager Inheritance by some
sort of work. She was ambitious to
become a teacher, SO she let down her
dresses, for in those days the letting
down of the dress signified an age of
dignity and discretion and Matte must
make an impression on the school
board. She put her hair up very high,
practiced her prunes and prisms reli-
giously before her mirror till her
mouth lost it's habit of diInpling and
turning itself up at the corners on the
slightest provocauon-and received
the school. Some one guessed her age
! ridiculously old, and, jubilant, she let
it remain; then, of course, the mis-
chief was done. She could not be
young if she wished. and at times she
, did wish, oh, so much. But as Tina
went on she almost gave up wishing,
took up a staid middle aged life in
somber clothes at 28-and that is old
in viliage-and SO she became the
some people who had felt the weight
of her scorn on occasion had called
her Meddlesome Matte.
One evening as she sat in her room
before her tiny stove, she said the
name to herself. but in a new tone, a
determined, respectful tone.
Yes" she unused, that's just what
I shall do. I'll be, Meddlesome Mat
| tie-the poor little lamb!' The en-
| dearment had no reference to herself,
| but to favorite pupil of hers. Bonnie
Clay Bennington. Poor little Bonnie
had done a terrible thing and the
gossips were SO busy with her name
that she could not withstand the
venom of it all. She was ill, confined
thru the hot summer to her home,
while the young husband who had
married her clandestinely was at the
front. eating his heart out because the
rash act, SO Bonnie now called il, had
wrought SO much unhappiness to the
one whose happiness was dearer to
him than anything else on earth. OF
course, it was dreadful thing in a
| place where no one else had ever run
away and got married. But the fact
that Bonnie was being hectored to
death by malicious gossip, retailed to
| her by her disappointed and nagging
mother, moved Matte to angry tears.
I'll not have it! What il she did
she is war bride FL wish-' but
she did not finish. She laughed and,
jumping to her feet, did a Highland
hing. The unwonted exercise brought
the color to her cheeks ndstumbled
her hair, till she had to stop and look
bled excitedly for pencil and paper.
She was going to write a fiction of
! her life. She would tell Bonnie and
| her mother how she had planned to
run away with the lover of her youth,
put That her courage har failed her
ana ne had gone away never to re-
| turn. she wanted the story to hang
together, so she wrote facts first; then
made them fit. But she stuck at his
name. strange" she muttered, that
cannot recall the name of this man
with whom I am running away" She
| couid only think of Lochinvar. IT
nave it-Lochiel Ross. I'll call him
| Lochiei"
| When Mrs. Clay saw her coming she
said to Bonnie: Its that Meddlesome
Matte. You don't want to see her!"
But Bonnie answered, Eyes, let her in.
She was always nice to me, nicer than
deserved" So it happened that Mat
tie was soon holding the little wasted
hand, and telling with many stops and
| EXPLANATIONS all about her planned
elopement, wishing that her courage
! mad not failed her SO that she would
now be happily married.
She blushed at the revelation (she
and added many details. 1t was q
changed Bonnie who smiled her a
goodby. And Bonnie and her mother
| talked long over Mattie's sad romance,
and when Bonnis wrote to her hus-
band she told him the story, adding
that she was so glad that she was not
an unhappy old maid, and that he he'd
married her over all objections.
When he read the letter it was SC
dlfferent in tone from her others that
ne whistled merry tune and his
bunkie heard him. Good news
Benz he asked wistfully, hoping to
hear OF the happiness of some home
You've guessed it, Scotty, and it's ali
thru the little schoolma'am they used
to call Meddlesome Matt" Then he
recited Mattie's romance to Corporal
Scott
They talked long and sympathetica1-
ly about the poor little old maid that
had lost her nerve and her lover. 'Il
bet you, man." observed the corporal
that she's mighty nearly all right
that little old girl. Let's both write to
her. It'll do no HARM So they did
Matte, cheered by the vast improve.
ment in Bonnie, kept up the farce day
after day, dropping in with a bit OF
J news, a flower or a poem that re.
minded her of Lochie, till it was the
seventh wonder of the village tha
Bonnie Bennington had discharged
hei uoeeoi anu was taxing long walks
about the country with her ole
teacher
i Then one day two overseas letters
came to Miss Matte Mayfield. The
one from Bonnie's soldier husband
} which she opened first, left her flushed
!. and happy by its ardent thanks She
had made better soldier of him, he
said; had relieved his mind and from
now on she was to consider him as heI
soldier, too. The other she read thrr
twice. Scotty was telling her how She
, was the most wonderful woman, thai
his mother would have done just sucI
beautiful thing in her place, and sc
on.
: Why, he thinks I'm as old as Me
{ thuselaht" she exclaimed fndigna ntly
Then she laughed a little ruefuIly-i
might have been a real romance-if
We'll, I'll tell him the truth" she said
and she did, but told him as he valued