The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1920-10-06
Aunt Amanda
By JANE OSBORN


= company of their rustic sweethearts
on summer evenings Laura Perkins
was sitting indoors beside the living
room lamp, intent on getting her mend
ing done for all those little Perkinses
to whom she played the role of big
sister and mother combined. 1t was
not that Farmer Perkins was any less
prosperous than the other farmers,
but it would have gone against the
grain to pay out money to have this
work done when Laura could do it just
as well. In the meantime Laura didn't
get "any young company" In fact.
she never did get any, and it was not
until at the age of twenty-five, when
Farmer Perkins decided to ask Widow
Rollins. down the road. to share his
fireside and Widow Rollins accept
ed, that Laura ever had any chance
for the pleasure and filtration that she
had missed in her girlhood.
But she had for too long been tied
20 the duties of the kitchen and the
mending basket to take very grace
fully to the art of finding a sutton
1hen-for obviously the only thing left
Ioi i-dui ~ uO HOW WAS u injury anu
get home of her own. "Of course.
/ want to have place where l can
do my own cooking and ALL" Laura
would explain, but l don't know as
/ want to get man just to make
crullers for him." But the truth was
that there was man that Laura
would have been quite willing to cook
and mend for for the rest of her life
had he been disposed to ask her to
accept his hand. This was Widow
Rollins son, Who when that lady came
to marry Farmer Perkins. naturally
was squeezed into the Perkins farm
house to live.
"Shes real nice girl" the moth
err had remarked to her son in conf
dence. "But she's got such lot of
notions. Did you hear her carrying
on about that Aunt Amanda cruller
set? You know some of the women
around here got the outfit. Laura was
one of them. 1t has the cutter and a
special rolling pin and the kettle and
the basket for the crullers while they
are in the hot fat. Well, there are
one or two things about it that Laura
didn't like. The basket doesn't slip
into the kettle just the way she wants
it to. So she gets TO looking at the
picture Of Aunt Amanda on the pack
age. and she makes up her mind she
has cot to see her 1t never occurs to
her that maybe there isn't any Aunt
Amanda. that maybe it is just pic
ture on the box cover"
Edward Rollins had listened with
out any great interest. His mother
always changed the subject in that
way. He had wanted to talk of Laura,
but his mother apparently preferred to
talk about cruller sets. He had want
ed to sound his mother on subject
that lay near his heart. He was TWEEN
ty-siX, Just starting out for himself
in the hardware business. with all that
he owned in the world invested in
stocks of hammers and nails and cary
ing knives and wash hoiiers-an end
less variety of equipment for the farm
err and his wife. 1t was quite out OF
the question now to ask Laura to mar
~ him. if that involved making {
home for her. What Edward ha(
hoped was that for the present his
mother and Laura's father might LEI
them board in the old Perkins farm
house. But Edward, always somewhat
in awe of his mother. never got to the
point of asking, and not having asked
and received her consent he never go
to that further point of asking Laura
to be his wife.
Laura was twenty-five that autumn
after her fathers marriage. when sh'
went off to the city to make her owl
living. And Laura herself seemed It
be the only one in the community wh'
didn't realize that with no special ed
ucation or training save that of :
housewife and no special talent o
aptitude save considerable good sense
the future was not very promising 70
her.
Seems as if the only thing she cal
do is to be somebody's hired girl,
uuoth the new Mrs. Perkins for tn
benefit of her son and her husband
both of whom WINGED under this re
mark.
Then old father Perkins died an,
Laura came nome u tile lulleIdi wa
gone back to the city and no one wa
the wiser concerning her mode of max
ing a living. If truth must be told
rift came in the Perkins-Rollins house
hold. in part due no doubt to the sci
Element of Mr.. Perkins estate. At a
events those of the Perkins brood VIII
kept in touch with Laura did not eI
Joy Mrs. Rollins good will. The
moved away and Laura was no NOR
heard of.
In five years the hardware bushes
as carried on by Edward Rollins ha
prospered to the point where he wa
in a position to settle down in life o
his own, and as his mother. the pre-:
ent Widow Perkins. had now unde
consideration an alliance with old De;
con bradshaw. n union of which he
son did not approve, she was anNiou
l.,