Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1919-06-27
SUES MONUMENT
81 AeNEs 6. RRoeAN.


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,
It 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.
It was a part Of her faithfuIness 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
Hment 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
record Of her own unappreciated
life. "She hath done what she could"
they would read, and thus she would
not die wholly unrecognized and I'M
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 a separate thing,
and Sue began at once. As time
passed. adding to this store was her
greatest pleasure. and in her strange,
absorbing endeayor Sue became each
day more brusque and forbidding. She
wondered caustically why neighbors
who smiled freely at each other passed
her with a 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
bouse burst suddenly open and a child
stood in its frame.
L IL.
announced. She Rugged a kitten in
her arms and raindrops gIistened on
her own curly hair 'Traddles and l
are wet. we want to sit by your fire."
LAND sakes y 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 reproachfuIIy.
I'm staying round the neighbors while
mothers in the hospital l ran
up this way after Traddles, he
was on your porch Traddles always
rams away now; he doesn't like stay
ing with neighbors My name is JOY"
the child further confided
She divested herself of cap and cloak
as she talked
Land sakes :" murmured Miss Sue.
The wet kitten had been carefully
waited uncertainty, JOY with sigh
of great content climbed into Miss
Sues arms and rested her curly head
against her unbending shoulder
'Tt's nice here she said happily.
you're a new neighbor. too. aren't
yoa? I'm going to stop this night
with you"
WHAT'S 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 "oyer 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 10 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
neighhors are looking after me. Moth
er will never walk straight again; it's
hership. you know-unless she has an
operation"
"Why don't they do it them" Miss
Sue burst out She had been listen
ing breathlessly.
JOY shook her head. "only one doc
tor knows how" she answered,
shrewdly. IAN folks without money
can't send away for big doctors"
II want to stay with you Joy
murmured drowsily II 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 dragged 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 monument after I'm dead!"
1t was severafsdays afterward when
JOY ran down to meet her friend.
you've been gone so long" she greet
ed. "Traddles an l has watched an