The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-09-13
Eoening Story
Aunt Amanda.
BY JANE OSBORN.

When the other girls of her age
were sitting out on verandas in the
company of their rustic sweethearts
| on summer evening Laura Perkins
was sitting indoors beside the living
room lamp, intent on getting the
mcnding done for all those little Perk-
| 1nses 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 farm
| ers. but 1t would have gone against
the grain to pay out money to have
this mother work done when Laura
could do it just as well. IN toe
meantime Laura didn't get "any young
company" In fact, she never did get
any, and it was not until at the age of
rs. when Farmer PerkinA decided to
ask Widow Rollins down the road to
share his fireside and the Widow Roll
Inns accepted. 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
to the duties of the kitchen and the
mending basket to take very grace
fully to the art of finding a sutton
/ then-for obviously the only thing left
for Laura to do now was to marry
and get a home of her own. "Of
course, want TO have a place where
I can do my own cooking and ALL"
Laura would explain, but 1 don't
know as I want to get a man just to
make crullers for him" But the
truth was that there was a man that
Laura would have been quite willing
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 Per-
kinS farmhouse to live.
shes real nice girl the mother
had remarked to her son in conf
dence. But she's got such a 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 ket-
tie and the basket for the crullers
while they are in the hot fat. Wen,
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 package 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 picture 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 cru1ler sets. He had
wanted to sound his mother on a sub
jeet that lay near his heart. He was
twenty-six, just starting out for him
self in the hardware business, with all
that he owned in the world invested
in stocks of hammers and nails and
carving knives and wash boilers-an
endless variety of equipment for the
farmer and his wife. 1t was quite out
of the question now to ask Laura to
marry him if that involved making a
home for her. What Edward had
hoped was that for the present his
mother and Laura's 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 that further point of asking Laura
to be his wife.
Laura was twenty-five that autumn
after her fathers marriage, when she
went off to the city to make her-own
living. And Laura herself seemed to
be the only one in the community who
didn't realize that. with no special edu-
cation or training save that of a house
wife and no special talent or aptitude
save considerable good sense, the
future was not very promising to her.
Seems as if the only thing she can
do is to be somebody's hired girl"
huoth 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 for the funeral; was
gone back to the city and no one was
the wiser concerning her mode of
making a living. If truth must be told
a rift came in the Perkins Rollins
household. in part due no doubt to the
settlement of Mr.. Perkins's estate. At
all events those of the Perkins brood
who kept in touch with Laura did not
enjoy Mrs. Rollins's good will. They
moved AWAY and Laura was no more
heard Of
In five years the hardware business
asNcarried on by Edward Rollins had
prospered to the point where he was in
a position to settle down in life on his
own, and as his mother the present
Widow Perkins had now under con-
siderAtion an alliance with old Deacon
Bradshaw, a union of which her son
did not appro9e. she was anxious
enough for her son to marry.
Edward was not lacking in friends
among the younger girls of the vii
lage who might conceivably look with
favor upon his suit. -
And remember. Edward" the
mother laughed, one day when she
had called at his store. you once had
me worried for fear you'd marry that
carrot-haired Laura 1 don't suppose
you ever gave her, a second thought"
II wonder whatever became of her."
said Edward, and it was not the first
time that this question had occurred
to him.
1t was funny" unused the mother.
Said she was going to see Aunt
Amanda, she thought IL was a real
Aunt Amanda that put out those crul-
Ter sets. So 1 suppose she went and
looked up those Aunt Amanda people
in Nhe city and made a fool of her
self%
LAS far as that goes there really is
an Aunt Amanda" Edward Rollins