The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1918-11-28
ThePatriotisrn
Of Susan
gA<D
By JANE OSBORN
Copyright, 1918. by Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate.)

Ever since fifteen years before, when
the Yagers had the quaint old Dutch.
porch of their house on High street, in
| Tilton, turned into a ful-Aedged front
| piazza" Horace Slocum had entertain
ed a passion for Susan-hopeless, but
| none the less absorbing. For Horace
was at that time simply carpenter by
the day for the builder who built that
| piazza, and though he had no mean
idea of his own calling and had no very
| definite notion Of the social superior
| fly Of the Yagers over the Slocums,
still 1t was obviously impossible. Moth
| ing could come Of 1t. "Old Man Yager'
had made what for that town was a
| fortune IN the leading dry goods store,
| and Susan was his only heir. More
| over she possessed radiant red hair,
a defiant tip-tilted nose, fair, rose
| colored skin only the more dazzling for
the contrast of a few freckles-and
thus embodied Horace Slocup's ideal
of all that was feminlnely lovely
During those days that he sawed
and nailed the boards of the wager
piazza the twenty-year-old Susan had
worn a heliotrope Bingham dress as
she puttered about the garden, and rs
Slocum caught gimpses Of her through
the windows; and since then there
| had been an asSOciational thrill about
that particular hue that had remained
still vibrant, showing that the thirty
eightyear-old "boss carpenter was as
bewitched by Susan as ever. But 1t
| was more hopeless. She was regard
ed as one of the best fixed" spinsters
IN town She belonged to the Country
club and had n center-aisle pew in the
church attended only by the old arts
tocracy of Tilton.
History moved slowly in TiltOn dur
ing most Of those - years, and though |
Horace fed on despair, he had little
cause for jealousy, for there really |
were no eligible bachelors in Tilton |
nor any reason why they shonld come |
that is, until Tnton awoke one day |
ana found itself a war Industries cen
ter. Then for the first time since |
there had been a winter barracks in |
old Tilton i'm the days of the Reyolu- |
tion the male population far outnum-
bered that of the women. only the |
males in this case were workmen, me-
chanics foremen, directors and pro-
motors Of n half dozen war-deveop- |
Ing Industries.
one morning in the first weeks of |
this new regime Horace was feeling |
particularly down at heart. The house |
where ne had boarded gloomily for
these - years had been bought up |
at a good price as an extension to one |
Of the plants, and he faced the propo- |
stlon of being homeless within week. |
1t was the morning he was putting a |
side porch on Widow Smiths house
next to Susan's-for by this time front |
porches had gone ont and side porches |
were in demand IN Tilton.
"Too bad about Miss Susan" the |
widow remarked. She had brought |
her pea Smelling to the side window,
for she was nothing loath TO converse |
with the comely carpenter who stop |
ped saving MS if suddenly paralyzed |
and gazed back blankly at the widow.
"What's wrong?' he managed to
ask.
''Oh, She would manage her own af-
fars-dld her banking all in an out |
of.towu bank, wouldn't have lawyer,
ana now" the widow Smith here |
spoke with slow emphasis as she fold
ed her hands over the dish Of peas
and looked hard at Horace, "Now
she's keeping boarders."
excepting boarders :" Horace gasped.
ayes, and you can believe me that
when any one as proud MS Susan va
ger would keep boarders she's pretty |
well reduced But she would have her |
own way and now-now she's reaplng
the results"
The fact really was that Susan had
n houseru Of boardcrs; and as every |
one sald-and all the neighbors were
gossping about it-she couldn't have
"become reduced" nj better time, for
there were hundreds Of out-of-town
war workers only too eager to snap at
chance to become part Of that house
hold
Horace had 50 long been accustomed
10 a mood of calm despair that the pal
pitation he experienced on actually |
seeking admission for himself in SUI
snn's boarding house was immensely
disturbing Perhaps he would not have
been 50 reckless, but now for the first
time The element of jealousy entered
There were some 80 or 60 apparently
eligible bachelors In Tlton and Of
these Susan had undertaken to accom-
MEDIATE under her spacious roof six.
Horace was the seventh.
Apparently Susan was Il great mana
ecr, for soon the excellence Of the fare
Of her board became proyerbial
through Tllton She retained her old
Southern cook, got a couple of young
girls in to wash dishes, and wait on
able and still managed to make a 90
of tor apparently She did, for pco-
pie soon observed that coat Of paint
was being applied and other signs OF
a fun purse were In evidence. Then
| she drew Horace aside one evening
after the other hourders were leaving
! the dining room and asked him Wheth.
/ or lac would undertake the Job Of nut
| ting ON a side porch like that of Mrs.
Smiths, and, though Horace had an
opportunity Of taking some contract
work for one Of the new industries at