The herald. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1905-1953, 1918-01-17
Miss Doane' S
Mealer
O.
By J. L. Harbour


Copyright, 1917, Western Newspaper Union-)
Mrs. Semira DOane was out in her
front yard counting her Shirley pop
! pies and admiring their almost in
finite variety.
NO two of them seem TO be exactly
the same tint, and | never had such Il
lot of lem out ut 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 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,
md 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
1ady-in-the-green and bleeding hearts
better than any "Others" she had ever
| seen.
| Miss Semira was so small and
fragile looking, with such delicately
! tinted pink cheeks. and such fluffy yell
low hair that she looked quite like
flower herself as she moved about in
her little garden in blue lawn dress
with little white flowers in il, and her
| lace-trimmed snowy white apron in
which there was neither spot nor wrin-
| kle. She was STOPPING over picking
! dead leaf or two from one of her
| geraniums when shrill, rasping voice
startled her by saying.
How nice your flowers do look, Miss
| S'mira; an how sweet they smell. /
can smell them clean over to my
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
tall, gaunt woman in a 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 woman grotesque
look.
so, Mrs. Sampson, is II yOu?" said
Miss Semira. Come in, won't you?"
mo. il amt with while little time
as I've got 10 stay. Then I've left
some ginger bread in the oven. want
TO know If you wouldn't be willing to
take mealer."
"a mealer, Mrs. SampsonT
"Yes. You see I've got chance TO
let my big front room upstairs if /
can find a place for the person that
wants it to take their meals. | can't
undertake to give anyone their meals
with my rheumatic pesterin' me the
way it does, an Sampson havin' 1t
when 1 don't. Then / amt no cook,
anyhow. But / do want TO let that
big front room. an this person will
take ii If l can find n mealin' place
near by, an here you are right acrost
the road an Twin all alone, an you as
much of born cook as you are 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 q gentleman-but there,
you needn't look so Scairt. Miss S'mira,
for it amt a young gentleman nor a
middle-aged gentleman, but Il 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, an
don't know when I've seen q nicer APP
pearin' man. I'd a sight ruther have
him around than nine out O. ten fus-
sy, fault-fndin' wimmen. Don't you
say no until you think it all over"
Miss Semira thought 1t all over 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 / mind eating my |
meals all by myself. If / just had |
someone that was interesting and |
pleasant to talk to at meal-time
wouldn't mind the rest. l would take |
a mealer If l got a good chance"
Mrs. Sampson had gone trifie be-
you'd the truth when she had said that |
Jared Lyster was real fatherly |
looking old gentleman Miss Semiras |
mental comment when she saw him |
was:
"Why, 1 don't believe that he is |
day over fifty-five."
Miss Semira's own years numbered |
forty-five. She had expected her meal |
er to be a man of at least sixty-five |
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: |