The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-09-06
JUST A>CIRL
By JANE PHELPS
A DIsCOURAGING TIME.
CHAPTER IS.

CHAPTER IS.
| Things were going along beautifully
We had made little more than our
expenses from the very start, and now
were earning more than either of us
ever had. altho we only took out SIS a
week as OF salary. This was due to a
/ suggestion made by Mr.. Pope. He
had said:
! In a partnership business it is al
ways better to draw a regular salary.
1 Then what is left can be applied to
the extension of the business or saved
against the time it might be needed. -
| We had adopted his suggestions at
once, and had every reason to be graft
| lied. L was taking the same salary 1
mad at the restaurant and the store.
Mary was not getting quite so much
as she had as head waitress, but she
was perfectly satisfied to let every
thing over and above the So go back
! into the business.
! It's no>fun at all to go good for you
! two! l gets nothing at all out of it.
L suspected l might have to be a car
ryin' you for bit, and here you are
| maxim money like a pair of old hands
at the pancake business" Mrs. Fagin
srumbled, delighted that we had made
good.
But her delight as far as I was con-
| cerned, was to be short-lived In
some way 1 contracted a bad cold; it
settled on my chest and while I drag
sed myself to the shop every day, 1
felt far from well. Then one day I
| tainted. They took me home and put
me to bed-"pneumonia," the doctor
said. 1 was i'll for weeks, but dear
| Mrs. Fagin refused to let them send
me to a hospital
Sure, the poor dear can't afford a
private room, and she is better off
! here with me than in a ward with
every Tom, Dick and Harry around
her" She had had her way, and 1
stayed in my own little room.
Mary had to hire another girl to
| help; but even SO. she made money.
| So 1 lacked for neither medical at
tention or nourishing food.
Il said I'd pay you for pawnin' your
/ Jewelry some day" she told me when
I said she was spelling me- This
is part of the pay"
When 1 was better 1 made mother
and Aunt Susan visit. 1 felt at first
almost as if 1 were in Heaven, so calm
! and peaceful was it, Mother and 1
had so much to talk over.
! But 1 could see that my coming to
them had stretched Aunt Susan's re-
sources t9 the limit. She was proud
and would accept no board from me,
altho Mary sent me my IS a week
regularly. I had to have a physician
and medicines for some time and Aunt
Susan said II I attended to all the rest,
SAO 6uSSheQ she COulQ DOdTQ me-Indl
L didn't eat more than a bird anyway.
Had she allowed me to have what
| she and mother had, I would have
| been but little added expense. But
she was constantly getting me extras,
hoping to build me up more quickly.
. When became strong enough to go
! out of doors, I was delighted. 1 Logged
to potter about the flower garden and
to decorate the house with the lovely
blooms. / never had been in the coun-
try, the real country for any length
of time before. As a child, when dad
was alive we always went either to
the mountains or the seashore. So
everything was new and interesting to
me.
one rainy day rummaged in the
attic. What a delightful place I found
it! Quaint old furniture-battered be-
iyond repair some of it; old-faShioned
lclothes"things Aunt Susan had as a
girl, and which for one reason or an
other she had stored away; pictures
of relatives-some of them also dis
ltant relatives of mothers; bags OF
IheBbs-all sorts of odds and ends were
there.
1 had almost finished my search for
entertainment and was about to go
downstairs and ask dozens of ques-
tions about some things I had discov-
cred. when in a corner back OF an old
washstand, l found typewriter. No
miser ever gloated over bag of gold
more than did I over that machine, so
Unexpectedly found When 1 removed
the cover I found it was in excellent
lcondition, and a popular make. if it
was an old models I afterward
learned.
Altho I was still weak, and 1t was
heavy. laid down all my other treas
lures and-carried the typewriter down
to the sitting room where mother and
Aunt Susan were fixing up my clothes
flor me.
Everything must in order when
you go back, and have always called
a rainy day mending day" Aunt Susan
said when I objected.
(Tomorrow-Aunt Susan tells story-)