The Winslow mail., 1919-08-08
SUES MONUMENT
BY AGNES G. BRoGAN.

|
locked an old box fragrant of sandal
wood, and counted her savings over
in the lamplight.
With what sacrificing each penny
had been put aside, only she knew:
Susan Trent's youth had been spent
caring for an invalid parent, and when
at last she was left alone In the world,
1t was to find herself apparently for
gotten by neighbors and friends whose
| lives were filed with their own new
| er interests or cares.
Sitting upon the porch on a sum-
| mer's evening with laughter and mer-
rymaking coming to her distantly she
wondered what one might do to be
appreciated-to be remembered or
missed when one was gone.
! 1t was part of her faithfulness to
| go each week to the hill cemetery to
put flowers upon her family graves
marked with their modest stones. And
this was Sues plan. When she was
| gone forever, she would leave mon
ument to mark her resting place. A
noble stone with her name standing
| boldly out upon it, so when strangers
must pass, they would. stop to read
| a record of her own unappreciated
| life "She hath done what she could,'
they would read and thus she would
not die wholly unrecognized and un-
| known.
The money from the selling of her
| tiny home would not more than pay
| debts and expenses; the saving for the
| monument must be separate thing,
| and Sue began at once. AS time
| passed, adding to this store was her
| greatest pleasure, and in her strange,
absorbing endeavor Sue became each
| day more brusque and forbidding. She
wondered caustically why neighbors
| who smiled freely at each other passed
| her with nod.
"Susan Trent has always been
queer" they said, but it was well Miss
Sue did not hear.
Upon this certain evening as she
| returned the money to the sandal
wood box the front door of Miss Sues
house burst suddenly open and child
| stood in its frame.
81 want to come in" the little girl
announced. She hugged kitten in
her arms and raindrops glistened on
her own curly hair. CRADLES and /
are wet, we want to sit by your fire."
LAND sakes!' calculated Miss Sue,
''where'd you come from? Why don't
you go and sit by your own fire?"
Haven't got any own home any
more" the child said reproachfully.
"Pm staying round the neighbors while
mothers in the hospital. 1 ran
up this way after Traddles, he
was on your porch. Traddles always
runs away now; he doesn't like stay
ing with neighbors. My name is JOY"
the child further confded.
She divested herself Of cap and cloak
as she talked
"Land sakesw murmured Miss Sue.
The wet kitten had been carefully
deposited in a chair. Then as she
waited uncertainty, Joy, with q sigh
| of great content, climbed into Miss
| Sues arms and rested her curly head
| against her unbending shoulder.
You're a new neighbor, too, aren't
you? I'm going to stop this night
with you"
whats your father thinkin' about"
Susan Indignantly exclaimed, 'lettin'
child run around this way, when her
mothers in the hospital?"
"Daddy's in a hospital, too," Joy
said, "over In France-where he, was
| shot. He's been gone so long, he
doesn't even know about mothers
| sickness"
Mother fell down the high stairs
| from the room where we went to live
after Daddy went away. An she's
been hurt so long that every bit of
| our money is gone. SO that's why
she had to go to the hospital, an the
| neighbors are looking after me. Moth
| er will never walk straight again it's
| her hip, you knoW-unlesS she has an
| operation"
"Why don't they do it thenY Miss
Sue burst out She had been listen
ing breathlessly.
Joy shook her head. "Only one doc
tor knows how" she answered,
shrewdly, "an' folks without money
| can't send away for big doctors"
81 want to stay with you," Joy
murmured drowsily. 81 love you"
AS Miss Sue tucked the child into
her own white bed, her hands trem-
bled, and later that night she sat, her
sharp eyes. softened still with their
| tender mist, when the draggled kitten
| confidently cuddled to her side, Miss
Sue smiled, and the smile erased the
| tired lines of years.
''That brave, wounded man over
there" she whispered "an' his brave
wife keepin' her suffering a secret;
that homeless lamb wanderin' around
in the rain, an me, Sue Trent, savin'
for a monument after I'm deadI"
It was several days afterward when
| To- 10 hpT friend