The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1920-05-27

ulOSL dllcCtlOudte DdDlcS-
She began to tell him stories o.
wonderful ~ten-year-olds who were
Socialists by conviction, and read
economics, and dazed little atypical
sixteen-year-olds who read Mother
Goose, and stopped even that be
cause they got married.
you poor little girl" said Allan
~unheeding. What brutes they were
to you! Well. thank Heaven, that's
owe now!"
"Why, Allan!" she said, laying a
soothing hand on his. Nobody was
a brute. There's never more than one
crank-in-authority in any library,
they say. Ours was the Supervisor
of the Left Half of the Desk, and
after got out Of Circulation l never
saw anything of her"
Allan burst into unexpected laugh.
ter. ut sounds like a Chinese title of
honor" he explained. Grand Ward
er OF the Emperor's Left Slipper-Ro-
sette,' or something of the sort"
THE Desks where you get your
books stamped" she explained.
land the two shifts of girls who at
tend to that part of the work each
have a supervisor-the Right and
Left halves. The one hat was horria
had favorites, and snapped at the
ones that weren't. l wasn't under
her, though. My Supervisor was love-
ly, an Irishwoman with the most
florid hats, and the kindest, most
just disposition, and always laugh
ing. We all adored her, she was so
fair-minded."
you think a good deal about
laughing" said Allan thoughtfully.
Does it rank as a virtue in libraries,
or what?"
"You have to laugh" explained
Phyllis. IF you don't see the laugh
side OF things, you see the cryside.
And you can't afford to be unhappy
If you have to earn your living.
People like brightness best. And it's
more comfortable for yourself, once
you get used to it."
$50 that was your philosophy of
life," said Allan. His hand frightened
compassionately on hers. "You poor
little girl!
Tell me about the cry,side, Phyll-
lis"
His voice vas very moved and
caressing, and the darkness was
deepening as the fire sank. Only an
occasional tongue Of flame Tinted a.
cross Phyilis's silver slipper-buckle
and on the seal ring Allan wore. It
was easy to tell things there in the
perfumed duskiness. 1t was a great
many years since any one had cared
to hear the cry-side. And it was so
dark, and the hand keeping hers in
the shadows might have been any
kind, comforting hand. She found
herself pouring it all out to Allan,
close by her; the loneliness, the
strain, the hard work, the lack of all
the wotnan-things in her life, the
isolation and dreariuess at night,
the o~ver-fatigue, and the hurt Of
watching youth and womanhood
sliding away, unused, with nothing
to show for all the years; only a
cold hope that her flock Of little
transient aliens might be a little
better for the guidance she could
give
And then, that wet, discouraged
day in February, and the vision of
Eva Atkinson radiantly fresh and
happy, kept young and pretty by I'M
limited money and time.
Her children were SO pretty"
said Phyllis wistfully, "and mine,
dear little Williams, were such dirty,
untaught, rude little things-oh,
it sounds snobbish, but I'd have CIV
en- everything I had to have a dainty
clean little lady-child throw her arms
around me and kiss me, instead Of
my pet little handsome, sticky Pol
ish Jewess. Up at home everything /,
had been so clean and old and still
that you always could remember it
had been finished for three hundred
years. And Fathers clean, still old
library
Phyllis did not know how she was
revealing to Allan the unconscious
motherhood in her; but Allan, fem
ininely sensitive to unspoken things
from his long ~sojourn in the dark
Allan did. It was the mother instinct
that she was spending on him, but
mother-instinct Of g kind he had
meyer known before; gayly self-ellac-
ing, efficient. shown only in It's re-
suits: And she could never have
anything else to spend It on, he
thought. Well, he was due to die in
q few years. . But he didn't want
to. Living was just beginning to be
interesting again, somehow. There
seemed no satisfactory solution for
the two Of them. Well. he'd
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