The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-01-07
El,ening Story
DonaId's Daddy.
BY RUBY DOUGLAS.

w AS"4JOl4dio addoS- Oiis NH
ard, do come here. Edith jumped
u, from the comfortable swinging
hammock in which she and her friend,
Marjorie, had been sitting. She ran
out the front gat- and after her own
youngest son. who was fast gaining On
her in the chase. Richard. Rich
ardn" she called.
Marjorie folded her hands eon-for-
tably and, to herself remarked that at
least there were some advantages in
single blessedness.
'iDonald's daddy. Well. that's def
mite, I'm sure. I suppose after one
is married one is merely somebody's
daddy or somebody's ma NINA or senle-
body,s wife, she soliloquiZed, while
her friend still gave chase to the
truant son.
Marjorie had been doing settlement
and social work in various parts of the
country and now was taking a vaca-
ton as the guest 9f her college room
mate NJ re than once during the
fortnight hat she had spent at this
house she had seen the tall form of
the man across the street Always he
had been just disappearing behind the
great trees that led into the weeds to
the station, but always there had
flashed through Marjerie's mind
vague feeling that she had seen the
man before,
Edith came up the garden path
quite out of breath and leadi young
Richard nee too gently by the hand.
ooh, Mari, my dear, stay single. Ro-
nance is all very well. but-well,
there is more than romance with the
big r to getting married"
'Iil say there is, Edith" Marjorie
retorted. laughlingiy.
Edith sent the young son into the
house and sat do n again beside Mar
jorie-
"Donald's daddy must have some
ether name, has he not?" Marjorie
ventured aftef a moment.
"Oh-of course he has, but that's all
we know-and the funny part of it is
he really isn't"
Isn't WHAT"
Isn't Denaid's daddy at ALL"
lis there a Donald?" asked Mar
jorie, sitting up. The plot thickens."
.'Oh yes, there is Donald, duck of
a Donald five years DID, Edith began.
you see, Donald's daddy had some
kind of a romance in his young life
once upon a time, dear. and one day,
five years ago when he was on ira N
going out west to direct some moving
pictures in his great California studio,
he met a young woman who was lug
ging an infant from a home where
there was no room and no food for it,
towel, to some place where it would
be taken care of. The short of it IS
that the baby is Donald and the
man is Donald's daddy. The young
woman was a social worker and was
taking the trip with the infant. Why
the matter, dear?"
Matter enough-Im the GIRL" r.
"Marjorie!"
"Oh-Im not his romance-Tln just
the social worker that was taking care
of the baby and 1 thought the MAJ
looked familiar. Isn't it too weird for
words, Edith?"
"Weird-it's queer"
The two girls talked the story over
and finally decided to invite Donald $
the little social worker what progress
he had made with his adopted son.
Faith, matron-like, was all a-quiver
with the thought of the next chapter
in the story. She had dinner prepared
with especial care; she admonished her
husband not to talk too much: she had
all the candles lighted in the living
We'll have freight and candle ligh
and
And lovelight." laughed Ned.
Edith's husband.
mot SO soon,'t protested Marjorie.
Donald's daddy explained how-he
had always wanted the companionship
of son and of how he had never
married because-well, he skipped
over the because And, when, Just in
the reaction from the shock of losing
the girl of his early romance, he had
CHANGED upon this lovely baby appar-
emily without'a home that would ever
give him adequate bringing up-he
took the opportunity to have a son to
educate and love. Donald had proved,
thus far. to be all that he would have
wished in his own child.
70 II,
ment almost of the fate that brought
him to me-should happen to be right
here in my own neighborhood. Miss
Beacon, seems almost unreal" he said
to Marjorie. as they sat before the
flicksring logs
ut does seem a strange coinci-
dence," Marjorie said, She had a
who had crossed her path for the Sec
ond time.
"feu see we're not always just
Ships that pass in the night Occa-
sionally we pass by daylight and we
see each other and-reme EN- ber," he
added. almost dreamily
When Edith and Ned retired from
the room, since they seemed to be, not
too popular. Ned remarked. "I'll say
there's lovelight with the freight,
Edith, What do you think? ~
I'm no matchmaker. Ned. And
besides, Marjorie does not intend to
marry. She is married to her work,
she says
so were you. dear-till you got
a glimpse of me,"-
Edith did not deign to reply further.
but in fortnight-at the end of Mar
jorie's visit-she was called into a re-
mote corner of the porch one evening.
"Edith-do would you think
it too awfully quick tiff Bob and /
were to be married next month";
Marjorie. IL thought you were
welded to your work. Edith ex-
claimed as she took the- girl into her
arms.
IL was till sew how badly DON
aid needs a mother, Edith"
Copyright 1890, by the Mcclure News
paper Syndicate.b
little BEkNY's NOTE BOOK |
NY I