The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1919-07-03
Matthew Bradsbeet
Chooses
By JANE OSBORN
Copyright, 1878 by the Mcclure News
paper Syndicate.l
By JANE OSBORN


paper Syndicate-1
81 suppose you young fellows will ali
be thinking of getting married." COM
mented AIR. Hannibal Hopkins, peering
from over the top of the local evening
paper at Mr.. Matthew Bradstreet as he
passed through the Hopkins living room
to the dining room for late dinner.
And then as Matthew paused to hang
his hat and coat on the rack that
graced one side of the living room: II
see by this here paper that them new
houses being put up by our plant is to
be reserved for men that are married.
The restIi have to take pot luck
boarding round same as usual. And
if was 4 young chap like you, Mr..
Bradstreet, I'd just look around and
pick a wife so as to get one of them
houses while the getting's good.
There's pretty girls aplenty here
abouts."
Good advice. Mr.. Hopkins. But
there are a good many things man
has to take into consideration before
he picks 4 wife besides q pretty face.
You agree with me there, I'm sure"
In the dining room Violet Hopkins,
filling Mr.. Bradstreet's water tumbler,
blushed unseen with embarrassment
and as he entered the room she re-
treated hastily to the kitchen to get
the plate for dinner that her mother
had set in the oven warmer for the
delinquent bOaTder.
''Pu wash those dishes, mother, if
you'll take in Mr.. Bradstreet's dinner"
she said
The mother looked up and caught
the teIl-tale blush of embarrassment.
you run along now" she said. "NO
need you running your hands in dish
water What's fused you?"
Nothing exactly" replied Violet,
"only I wish dad wouldn't talk to the
boarders quite so much sometimes,
specially TO Mr.. Bradstreet. You know
I'm crazy about dad, but still 1 just
wish he wouldn't talk about you young
fellows and tease him about getting
married He's getting one of the big
geSt salaries over at the plant even if
he is young and somehow he's too dig
nified to be called Il young fellow, and
besides every one says he's going to be
engaged to Edna Dorkins, and then
he'll be son-in-law of the president of
the whole plant"
Never you mind what dad says" re-
sponded the mother after Violet had
returned from the dining room again.
"And never you mind about Mr.. Brad
street" And then she saw the tears
yelling in the daughters eyes. 81
know it's hard, US having to take in
bOarders and you having to wait on
table, but others have had to do harder
things on account of this war"
"Oh, I'm never the least bit
ashamed" said Violet excitedly. ''Pm
only sorry I can't do more. I know
dad is old and everything, and truly
I'm sorry for what I said. I don't
care a straw what Mr.. Bradstreet
thinks or anybody else"
But in spite of her prOtestatiOns
Violet Hopkins really did care, and in
spite of her loyalty to her father.
whose own efficiency and salary had
waned and food prices and taxes had
increased, she endured hours of mental
anguish over her mothers mode of Elk
ing out the small income.
She would far rather have given up
her work at the normal school and sac
rificed the hope of becoming a teacher
and gone to work if by so doing she
might make it unnecessary to have
| these endless mealers around their
board, but she knew that even to Sug-
gest such q sacrifice would cause her
| parents unhappiness.
What caused her the most intense
unhappiness was not so much that
| there were these outsiders gathered
around the board three times a day,
but the thought that she really was
ashamed of their little home ashamed
too in her heart of the crudities and
shabbiness of the furniture in the little
house; ashamed even Of her dOting
| father, because he would insist on try
| ing to entertain the bOarders with his
| own righteousness and IOquaciousneSs.
The poverty she could endure, but to
expose that poverty and that shabbi-
| ness to q host of outsiders was what
seemed to her so difficult to put up
with. AS she passed from the kitchen
| to the little living room she was I'M
| comfortably aware of the cheap, stiff
cotton curtains draped back from the
windows with equally stiff, cheap scar
let ribbon, and the paper roses that
were placed in the vase on the mantel
seemed to strike her sensibiIities with
even greater force.
She took her place on the little
| stool by the piano. There would be q
| few moments, she thought, before she
would have to clear away the things
after Mr. Bradstreets dinner, and
she would use those moments to play
some of the music that most pleased
| her father. For it was her father
who had gone without things for him
self in order to buy this piano, and
now by playing to him perhaps She
would make up to him for the lack of
loyalty OF which she felt guilty even in
| thinking as she had done.
And before she began to play Mr..
Bradstreet, looking from the dining
room into the living room, had also let
his eyes rest on the paper roses. and
he, too, was sensible OF the clash Of
color and taste. The stiff cotton cur