Gilpin observer., 1920-09-23
Aunt Amanda
By JANE OSBORN

&C., 1890. by Mcclure Newspaper syndicate.)
When the other girls of her age
were sitting out on verandas in the
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,
put 1t would have gone against the
grain to pay out money to have this
work done when Laura could do 1t Just
MS well. In the meantime Laura didn't
get any young company" In fact,
sne never did get any, and Il 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 Irritation that she
had missed in her girlhood
But she had for too long been tied
to the duties of the kitchen and the
mending basket to take very grace
fully to the art of finding suitor
| then-for obviously the only thing left
for Laura to do now was to marry and
get home of her own. "Of course,
want to have place where I can
do my own cooking and ALL" Laura
would explain, "but / don't know as
l want to get man Just to make
crullers for him." But the truth was
that there was n 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.
"She's a real nice girl" the moth
er 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 1t 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 got to see her. 1t never occurs to
her that maybe there isn't any Aunt
Amanda, that maybe It is just pic
ture OH 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 a subject
that lay near his heart. He was twen-
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 bolers-an end
less variety of equipment for the farm
er and his wife. 1t was quite out of
the question now to ask Laura to mar
ry him. If that involved making n
home for her. What Edward had
hoped was that for the present his
mother and Lauras father might let
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 got
to tha, further point of asking Laura
to be hts wife.
Lauta was twenty-five that autumn
after her fathers marriage, when she
went OF to the city to make her own
living. And Laura herself seemed to
he the only one in the community who
didn't realize that, with no special ed
ucatioh or training save that OF a
housewife and no special talent or
aptitude save considerable good sense,
the future was not very promising for
her.
Seems as II the only thing She can
do Is to be somebody's hired girl"
quoth the new Mrs. Perkins for the
benefit of her son and her husband.
both of whom WINGED under this re-
mark.
Then old father Perkins died and
Laura came home to the funeral; was
gone back to the city and no one was
the wiser concerning her mode of max
ing a living. If truth must he told n
rift came in the PerkinsRollins house
hold. in part due no doubt to the set