The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-03-14
EVENING STORY
Matthew Bradstreet Chooses
By JANE OSBORN.

81 suppose you young fellows Will all
be thinking of getting married" COM
mented Mr.. Hannibal Hopkins, peering
from over the top of the local evening
paper at Mr.. Matthew Bradstreet as he
passed thru the Hopkins living room
to the dining room for late olnner
And then as Matthew paused to hang
his hat and coat on the rack that
graced one side of the living room: Il
see by this here paper that them new
houses being put up by our plant is 10
be reserved for men that are married.
The rest'll have to take pot luck board
ing round same as usual And II was
a young chap like you, Mr.. Bradstreet.
I'd Just look around and pick wife
so as to get one of them houses Whlle
the getting's good. There's pretty girls
aplenty hereabouts."
Good advice, Mr.. Hopkins. But
there are good many things man
has to take into consideration before
he picks wife besides 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 of dinner that her mother
had set in the oven-warmer for the
delinquent boarder.
"Ill wash those dishes, mother, if
you'll take in Mr.. Bradstreets din
ner,'' she said.
The mother looked up and caught
the tell-tale blush of embarrassment.
! OF run along now" she said. NO
need you running your hands in dish
water. What's fused your
Nothing exactly" replied Violet,
"only 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 I just
wish he wouldn't talk about you
young fellows and tease him about
getting married. He's getting one of
the biggest salaries over at the plant
too dignified to be called 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,
responded 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. Il
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. Ina never the least bit
ashamed said Violet excitedly. I'm
only sorry L can't do more. I know
dad is old and everything. and truly
I'm sorry for what I said. I don't
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 men
tai anguish over her mothers mode
of ekiag out the small income.
She would far rather have given UP
her work at the Normal school and
sacrificed the nope of becoming
teacher and gone to work if by SO do
ing she might make it unnecessary to
have these endless mealers around
their board, but she knew that even
to suggest such a 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 Gay,
but the thought that she really was
ashamed of their little home; ashamed
too, III her heart, of the cruoities and
hshabbiness of the furniture in the lit
tie house; ashamed even of her doting
father, because he would insist on
trying to entertain the boarders with
his OWE facetiousness and loquacious-
ness.
The poverty she could endure, but
to expose that poverty and that shah
biness to a 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 al aped back from the
windows with equally stiff. cheap
scarlet ribbon. and the paper roses
that were placed in the vase on the
mantel seemed to strike her sensibili-
| ties with even greater pain.
] She took her place on the little