The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-04-16
Eoening Story
Trailing Arbutus.

BY LAURA REID MONTGOMERY.
Something kinda nice about him.
ruminated the blonde at the telegraph
office in The Sixty-third street station.
I'VE went to school together" said
Edith stiftly. She felt that Emma
had fallen into the acquaintanceship
very easily, and she didn't quite like it.
There were few travellers that
morning and Edith did not sell very
many magazines, After she had
busted and arranged her stock of
brightly co1ored wares she had Moth
ing to do but think.
Emma was knitting a softly tinted
couch cover for she was to be married
in a few months, and Edith felt that
it was scarcely decorous for the
pretty, rather bold blonde to chat so
vivaciously with her customers. The
man who had bought his morning pa
per at the newsstand and then nodded
a pleasant good morning at the tele-
graph booth was called the professor.
Edith, lost in a. brown study. re-
viewed the years that had passed
since they had gone to school in the
village thirty miles up the line. She,
also, had planned to teach, but for
several reasons had decided that the
years of preparation were too costly,
and she had remained a clerk.
Ed, on the contrary, had gone stead
lily ahead, and he was now principal
town, but, as there was no library
there, and he was constantly studying,
he found that he could not keep
abreast of his subjects there, and he
boarded IN Chicago and went back
and forth to school every day. He
often stopped to talk with the little
dark-eyed woman who had charge of
the magazines, and sometimes made
an additional purchase after buying
his paper.
Edith sometimes wondered If his
life was as drab as hers. Always reti-
cent, he had grown silent as the years
passed and his hair was touched with
silver at the temples. This she Sc
cretly admired, and even the rubbers
which afforded much amusement to
the frivolous Emma failed to be
funny in her loyal eyes.
Evenings Edith usually spent in her
back room at the boarding house, for
there were many things to be done to
keep her wardrobe in its usual ex-
quisite order, but sometimes she
would let her work drop in her lap
and dream. Would the years ahead
be as barren as the last two since she
had been alone in the city? Would
she keep on making dainty blouses
and frilly little neck things to become
quickly spoiled by the SCOT and smoke
of the city, with no one to care how
she looked or felt?
A bright spring morning would
often cause her to dress with little
excited thrills and hum low snatches
of some old song. Something lovely
must surely happen on such a day of
gold and pink. But the end of the
day would often find her frantica1ly
adding her sales and counting her
change to find out where a stubborn
dime had hidden itself, and the great
est good luck that occurred would be
when her accounts balanced. She re-
- 100. III
back in the home grammar school
for she would be among her former
friends and neighbors.
A sudden blur of pink and white
with the fragrant scent of early spring
aroused her and she saw Ed standing
rather pale face. fY
Danny Smith brought these from
the grove" he said, watching her big
gray eyes brighten, guess they are
the first found, around there"
Lovely" breathed Edith burying
her tip-tilted nose in the waxlike
flowers. -r ~-arG7 =
With a hurried nod he was swept
on with the crowd and the magazine
girl tucked the cluster into the folds
Of her silk blouse.
''Say, you got them after ALL" called
Emma GROSSLY from her counter. HE
stopped here, but a fat travelling man
was sending a night letter, and Iguess
he got tired waiting. Seems to me
you ought to divide" she added as a
wave of color swept across Edith's
face.
She climbed the stairs to her room
rather YEARLY. Two of the younger
girl boarders were already thru din
ner and were sitting on the front steps
waiting for their friends to come to
take them out for the evening. The
fresh young faces under the carefully
T1vlx nd fff,i md hn Nv Sl i'm q
in their high-heeled pumps, made
Edith feel rather elderly, for she saved
part of her salary each week toward
little home in the future.
81 am raising the board a dollar
week." announced her landlady as she
gave Edith her pudding. 1.-THE cost of
food is soaring and 50 greatly that L
may have to raise again before long,
too,' she added as the girls eyes
gazed back at her in dismay.
Edith had just removed her flow
ers, intending to put them in her tooth
brush mug to keep fresh for the next
day. when there was a tap on her
door.
"A man to see you, Miss Jones.
Lands sakes. you never had man
call on you before, but then l suppose
he's an insurance agent" Mrs. Mil
ler's sharp eyes dwelt upon the tired
face before her as she speculated,
'he wouldn't give his name"
.Thank you, Mrs. Miller" Edith S
tone was co1orless, but once again
the thrill Of spring seized her
From the house next door came
dangerous love song. the rather dingy
lace curtains stirred in a breeze
straight from the lake laden with
spicy sweetness that even the flight
across the city had not lessened. From
the tiny flowers in the common china
mug nodded a call Of the woods
glossy green leaves against the linger-
ing patches of snow in cool hollows.
She rearranged her hair slowly,
dallying with the pleasure of anticipa-
ton. 1t might be most any one wait
ing in that stiff. garishly furnished
front parlor with its heavy odors of
Ilong-eaten Yaeals-with the grim at
mospkere of loveless lives that had
tarried>ror a brief stay and then