The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-05-07
Names in the News,
EVENING STORY
Tin Peddler & Co.
BY BERTHA PORTER

q BEhI6A FOh1En.
Mr.. Valentines late" announced
Esther, as Matilda came in with her
hands full of arbutus. Did you see
him anywhere? I'm anxious to have
that blue gingham."
Matilda, cheeks as pink as the flow
ers she carried. laughed with all the.
joy of her twenty years. Il wasn't
looking for any old tin-peddler," she
replied. Not even il he is travelling
department store and bringing my
dear aunt ner new summer gown
I was listening to the robins and the
hunting for Mayflowers. Why, auntie
dear. it's spring-and summer Is COM
ing and anything may happen in
summer, even if you do live deep in
the woods and have only one old
horse to go gadding with"
Esther caught but a part of her
words. She was at the window. look
ing after a great automobile that was
laundering madly down the narrow
country road, scattering hens and dust
impartially.
II should rather have a horse than
one of those destroyers," she declared.
And surely something will happen
right now if it meets anything"
Before the machine was out of sight
it happened. Old Mr.. Valentine, driv-
peddler's cart up the narrow road
had no chance. The horse leaped to
escape the monster bearing down up
on him, but that did not save the cart
splinters, old Peter galloped away out
of sight and was not located for sever
al days. In the other direction the
car raced as madly. its drunken occu-
pants intent only on escape from what
they vaguely realized as a smash"
OF Aof 10 af1ead
the wreck they found the wagon less
| damaged than had seemed possible.
| Old Peter had swung it nightly, and
| splinters and scratches were the worst
| Of its hurts. Not so with Mr.. Valen-
tine. He lay in the road, unconscious.
Its his hip" said Aunt Esther,
STOPPING to examine his injuries. I'VE
mustn't move him. Run and telephone
for the doctor. And bring pillows
when you come back. I'll watch in
| Old Mr.. Valentine was relic of the
past. Before the days of automobiles.
drummers, and mail order houses. he
and his pedd1er's cart had been a reg
u1ar, IL not as frequent, on these coun-
! try roads. as the mail stage. He was
progressive, too, and carried, not only
the conventional kitchen ware and
brooms of the tin peddler but buttons,
thread, cloth, ribbon; anything that
the jewellers in the country, far from
stores might want. He was indeed. as
Matilda had called him. a travelling
| department store. Now the advent sof
automobiles owned by the farmers had
| almost killed his trade, but there were
a few customers who bought from him
| for the sake of old times. There were
some, too, like Miss Esther, who liked
the CHEEKY little old man and looked
forward to his monthly visit When
ever he came to Miss Esthers house
he timed his arrival to be able to stay
to dinner. and she somehow knew his
favorite dishes and they always ap-
peared on the table when he came.
Remember. Mr.. Valentine had been
| coming for many years. Miss Esther
knew about his son, too, who was q
commercial traveller, and about the
wife, who had died when the boy was
| born.
! Now she sat with his head in her
lap, watching the road for the doctors
buggy.
thought it might be when Matilda call
up, so I brought Alick along to help
me move him. Run ahead and get the
room ready. girls. This is no woman's
job here-Alick. rip a picket off Miss
E,sther's fence"
Next day, the old wagon. repaired
by Alick and the doctor. stood in Miss
Esther's barn, no more helpless than
the impatient man that lay in the
spare bed.
"He's worryin' about his trip some
thin awful" Esther confided to Ma
tilda- 1T know it amt good for him
bein' so upset in his mind"
I'll go in and talk to him."
Twenty minutes later she danced
out of the room. Aunt Esther-he'.
all right now. I'm going to finish the
trip for him, and you must get Flora
whipple to come and help you do the
work.
Matilda Peters. what are you talk.
| in about? And where are you goin
to get a horse? And how do yor
know where to go? And what IL yo,
should meet a. drunken automobile
like he did ?"
I'm going to take your horse. dar
ling. And I've got a little brown oooi
here that tells me just where to go
And I'm going to take my chance or
"a drunken automobile-and every
thing else. It's going to be the great
est fun"
And it was. Everywhere she drov,
the queer-looking old box of cart
all honeycombed with drawers ane
4 closets, packed full of good reliabl,
. She had only to produce the littl'
. brown book with orders given thu
month before, to find eager interes
and sympathetic inquiry about Mr.
Valentine And while Miss Matild;
was gathering Mr.. Valentines harves
VI ooiAoL ., q Acse~. SAAS AAeAA ~ eeSAs =
him before starting. was having al
most as varied travels as she. 1t wa
following Mr.. Robert Blaisdel1 on hi
: annual trip thru Virginia At last i
caught up with him and told him yer,
| briefly that his father. Mr.. Valentino
, Blaisdell, had met with an accident
) but was being cared for by an oil,
} friend, Miss Esther Peters. while tn
writer was endeavoring to carry o.
J his business to the best of her ability
Ion his-Mr. Roberts return-sh
would be pleased to furnish him witt
{ a statement of the financial situation
| L 1t was signed Matilda Peters"
t Holy cats" gasped Robert Blais
dell, poor old pa-laid up in TIN
clutches of two old maids, who vii
> probably run up pretty bill OF ex
!, pense- financial situation, indeed.
; And as another and worse though