The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-01-31
EVENING STORY
Moly's Man in the Service.
BY JANE OSBORN.

in the service" commented Mrs. Dean
from her citadel behind the coffee urn
at the head of the long boarding
house table. She nodded in the di-
rection of the newest and quietest of
the young women who tenanted her
rooms and partook of the bounty OF
her board. and that young woman first
dropped her eyes to the pancakes on
her plate and then looked up to Mrs
Dean with the suspicion of q blush on
her face.
Didn't you?'' she said and then the
other boarders whose noses were not
buried in their morning papers
looked back at Mrs. Dean to see how
she would take Miss Pringle's calm
rejoinder.
II happened to see the service flag
flying in your window-that was ALL"
she shifted II always go in to in
spect after Maggy has given the rooms
their weekly turning out, and Maggy
said it was something new. Well
thinks /, Miss Pringle has been keep
ing something from us. L knew you
had no brothers in the service, Miss
Pingle, and We hadn't yet seen any
soldier beaux around here evenings,
or any other beaux for that smatter-
SO 1 says to myself Miss Pringle is a
SLY one-she's got her Sammy at the
front like the rest of then"
= Miss Pri1gle's color deepened and
pancakes with even more scrutiny.
Some of the boarders who had been
deep in their papers felt the oppres-
sion of the silence that followed and
looked up, SO that almost all eyes were
on Miss Pringle. But she made no
comment And after breakfast in
more than one group of dispensing
boarders the question uppermost was
DID you see poor Miss Pringie ?"
foor girl, 1 suppose she has young
man at the front-she's never men
tloned him and I've never seen a pic
ture-i didn't think she had any beaux
but you never know, still waters run
ments.
AS Miss Pringle passed, still little
enpdrraSSed, from the dining-room a
tall lonely-looking young man stood
oack TO hold the door open for her
she had seen him several times be-
fore He was one of the new boa riders
hao d PACK nall bedroom somewhere
IN the higher regions of the house
apparently he had no claims to stellar
consideration from Mrs. Dean She
mad never introduced him to any of
the pretty girls of the house and she
never. never asked him to have more
syrup on his pancakes. He had heard
MRS. Deans prying remark to Miss
Prngle, for as she passed him to leave
the room he looked into her eyes for
Just second.
u q.
Ihat was all: but Miss Pringle felt
that IN that anthill of a house she had
at least one friend. And Molly Prin-
gle needed a friend-she needed to
know that some one believed in her
for as matter of fact she knew her
self to be a fraud. The service flag
was merely flag that fluttered out
SIDE her window because other girls
she knew had similar flags fIuttering
from their windows She hadn't
hrJ%F 1rxrfaA fI,N
with the little flags on the street
corner called out every evening as the
girls from the stores were passing:
Got a man at the front? Buy a flag
70 snow you've got man at the
front" other girls stopped and bought
flags some with one star, some with
two, some with three, and hurried
away seemingly much happier for the
small purchase Molly had no man at
the front or anywhere else for that
matter, but still she bought her little
flag and let it wave from the board
lng-houSe window. Then she started
to~work knitting mufflers and sleeve
less sweaters and wristlets for the
general Red Cross supply:E and as
she worked her needle far into the
night, she pretended that they were
all going for her Soldier-for the
Sammy for whom the flag i'll the win
soft green wool and started knitting a
sweater for herself After knitting an
hour for her Sammy she would knit
fifteen minutes for herself-that was
what the other girls did-the other
girls in the store who had real Sam
mics.
Sometimes Molly took her soft
green knitting into the clearinghouse
sitting room-when she was waiting
for dinner that was not ready quite on
time. She hesita ted about taking
down the soldier knitting for fear an
other inquiring remark might come
from Mrs. Dean. The girls had
watched her knit and had told her she
was a'rapid worker. and once she had
wound a skein of worsted on the back
of a chair and another time the al,
forlorn young man, who had once held
the door open for her. seemed to rise
up from a shadowy part of the room
and offered to hold the yarn for her
He had held to the last end of the
wool and as it crawled thru his hand,
as Molly wound the ball to compile
ton, he looked at it and stroked it
with his other hand.
IT'S very pretty color he said.
and then, having accomplished his
usefulness, he settled back into the
shadow of the room.
Once after that the young man APP
preached her apparently with some
embarrassment and asked her why she
did not do her knitting in the living
room any more. He explained the
question by saying that he had hoped
to help her wind another skein some
time. But after that Molly did her
knitting in her own room.
One evening half hour after din
ner time Molly was alone in her room
sitting up on her little couch by day
and bed by night. knitting. There
was tap at the door and Molly, not
wishing to put down her knitting-it
was the fifteen minutes during which
she knitted on her own sweater
called out Come in" without rising
Inc door opened and the tall young
man who had wound her wool stood
there.
Wont you come imp said Molly.
rising and motioning to the one chair
In her neat little room.
The young man first said that he !
couldn't and then did come in and, |