The Winslow mail., 1919-01-10
Larry's
Grandmother
GN$D
By ANNE O'HAGAN
Copyright, The Frank A. Munsey CG.l

on sorrow, DuC always dduntIeSSGws
Thus 1t happened that their hunSg
was as undimmed, their friendlineas
as unquenched, at seventy as half @
century earlier. Out of a network GG
wrinkles they sparked cheerfulSge
their blue luster heightened by eRa0
parchment brownness of her weathGEs
beaten skin. And whenever they dweae
upon her grandson, Larry Dohertg.
they took q new depth of kindness eEA
brightness.
She accounted herself very LUCKY
woman, she was wont to tell heS
neighbors. To be sure, her husband,
when they had been married only
little over a year, had been killed ia
an explosion in the old country; but h9
had left her Larry, her own som
Larry, the baby in arms, who had
grown to be the best and most stal'
wart of sons. She dwelt upon Larry'S
memory with great tenderness, for hS
was only a memory these many years
now. The ship that was bearing him
to America with his mother, his pretty
wife, and their rosy children, had
been wrecked on the Banks. Only one
of the lifeboats had ever been heard
of again. That one a schooner from
Falmouth Cape had sighted and saved;
and on it was old Mrs. Doherty with
her youngest grandchild, the baby
Larry, in her arms.
To some the chronicle would not
have seemed one of good fortune; but
Mrs. Doherty translated calamity to
blessing in her own fashion.
She was a busy creature even after
the dreadful struggle of her early
years in the new country was past.
Her cabin on the hill shOne with @
cleanliness matching that of heR New
England neighbors. She was a dairy
woman of note, albeit but two cowS
composed her stock. She had chick
en- yard screened from her small y@gGo
table patch and flower bed.
Larry, of course, had no conception
Of the fact that she was o miracle
among grandmOthers, but he loved her
and depended upon her and imposed
upon her and took her as an every
lay matter-until the Downings came
70 Falmouth Cape. Then his eyes were
opened to the fact that his relative wag
not as other women are. Myrtle Down
ng, blonde, given to giggling, and ad
hitting twentythree years, enlightened
aim.
"My" she said, when their acquaint-
ance had progressed to the point OF
personalities, Saint your grandma
funnyT'
''What's funny about herr" demand
ed Larry, startled as if it had been
suggested to him that some fact Of
nature was out of the natural order.
"Now, who did you ever see dress
like that?" retorted Myrtle unanswer-
ably.
Whereupon Larry, recalling the diff
terence between the customary dress
Of the community and the neat peas
ant garb which his grandmother had
never discarded, blushed for her. Later
lie sought with gifts to beguile her into
/ fashion which Miss Downing assured
him was correct
Mrs. Doherty was outwardly CRATE.
iul, though unbeguiled. To herself she
said shrewdly and sadly:
"He niver found out for himself
what L was wearin'. No! An ito lit
tie he'd have cared for annywan's
ellin' him, unless-unless"- sighed
leavily. "Well, l could have wished it
another!''
And the more Larry's grandmother
saw of Miss Myrtle Downing, the more
she wished that it might have been an
other.
She was much alone in her cabin
during the days of Larrys Wocing;
and the light went out of her eycg as
1t had never gone in all the yeaTB OK
her labor and sorrow.
'It's not his leavin' me for anoGheEs"
she used to assure some inward aCs
cuser. Lord save us, didn't see me
own do that, an have JOY wild hlnP
But this girl-this baggage-what does
she know about carin? He'll niver D9
happy wild her-her an her curlsl''
1t was Myrtle's obviously artificial
IllSlClS W oIllNh JliC OAO WOIl1tt4 ItpA
the most violent objection, making
them the scapegoat, as it were, for a2i
the girls shaffowness and shaMla.
Once, in a desperate moment, GAs
made the mistake that wiser ones thaR
she have made She spoke contemptg"
ously of her grandson's sweetheart
she besought him to give Myrtle ulPo
And she accomplished nothing but enc
erecting of q wall of silence and afa'
tagonism between herself and the boy
for whom she lived.
And so it finally came about that s2Fa
heard from the neighbors and not from
himself of his contemplated marriage,
Mrs. Downing, it was reported, had be-
walled the approaching nuptials. "lTle
DOhertys were no match for the Down.
ings," she had lamented.
Now, though she knew that love
10 e,4,r 10