The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-11-07
THE LETTER
CHAPTER 1

ne udy IndI brought the IlTSt iel- |
ter from her son, announcing his ar
rival in a week, was the beginning Of !
a great change for Amy Talbot. But /
she did not know that,
She did not even know the letter |
was on its way If she had. she
would have been in a great flutter of
excitement, and would probably have |
put on her sunbonnet and walked up
the road to meet the postman, instead
of staying in the kitchen beating up
biscuits for the midday dinner. Let
tiers were huge event in her life.
Letters from her absent son and
her daughter were, indeed. her only
pleasure. But Amy Talbot had the
one and only blessing that can go
with a life that has little pleasure
she had so much to do she never had
time to think about the absence of it,
The thick white dough was ready.
She lifted out big spoonful of it at
a time, dropping it on flour covered
board and frowning as she watched
it. Amy Talbot never rolled out her
biscuits, she claimed it made them
heavy-she was famous for miles be-
cause of the lightness of her baking.
She rolled the dough in flour, shaping
each bit deftly as she handled it, and
scarcely seeming to touch it-for
every touch, once the beating was
over, tended to make the biscuit less
light and airy! Two big panfuls were
ready for the oven.
From somewhere upstairs young
girls clear soprano rang forth. One
would think that a pleasure to the
woman in the kitchen, for the voice
was fresh and sweet, pure in tone, and
only an expert would know that it
was shallow.
But Mrs. Talbot frowned more deep
~ as she listend
If you love nee,
AS l love you"
The voice scared to the me" and
dropped to the you" Mrs Talbot
shut the oven door almost with
went to the foot of the stairs.
Amy" she called. Amy"
Yes, mother"
stop that song You know your
father hates to hear those silly tunes.
You get them at the movies"
Its the only place ! ever go where
| hear anything except church
Father wants me to sing hymns all
day-or keep still"
The girl appeared at the top Of the
stairs, her hair blaze of Coppery red,
a glorious young creature subdued by
faded calico. Her sleeves were rolled
above the elbow, she had a broom in
one hand and a bucket. in the other.
The womn at the foot of the steps
found no pleasure even in the halo of
gorgeous color that surrounded her
daughters face The little frown
seemed to deepen as she watched her
coming down the steps.
You cd do worse than sing hymns,
she remarked. Some hymns are right
pretty. Your father says love songs
are wicked"
"Mother-they'r beautiful There's
Tosti's 'Goodbye'-do you think that's
wicked?" With damp cloth she be-
gan cleaning the mirror in the hall
rack, lifting her voice far beyond
its true range,
Goodbye, forever, good-by-ye
forever.
Goodbye"
Amy! Your fathers in the garden.
He'll hear | don't mind, you know
that. like that one"
"Oh. all right I'll sign hymns for
him them" In her crossness she
scrubbed viciously at the mirror sur
face with a chamOis, and ii polished
beautifully under her vigorous rub
bling.
Mrs Talbot went out to the kitchen
and began to set the table for dinner
meal taken in the kitchen except
when company" was present Amy
came out and emptied her bucket, anC
washed her hands in the basin at the
sink with hot water from the tea
kettle.
Then she went and leaned agains
the doorway of the kitchen facing the
garden back of the house. The SUI
shone down on her hair, lighting it up
the June breeze came laden with frag
rance from the fields and orchards
Amy wanted to sing, simply from tn,
Joy of being II and gorgeousl.
healthy. But the sight Of a figure II
the garden restrained her.
Then a CLEAN of mischief lit u
her brown eyes She began to sin
we'll known church hymn. using tn
correct words, the correct infection
but in some subtle fashion sh
changed the time little, very little
4 song writer would say she ''ragge
it,. She made the hymn a jolly, TO
licking and weirdly secular tune.
Her father looked up, frowning bu
she only raised her voice so the fan
liar words reached his ears. H
leaned again to his wedding, Statistic
the girl was singing church music
His ear was so unframed he could NJ
detect the actual change of time-h
was quite deceived by the word
The mother looked out the window
then over at her daughter. Suddenl
she smiled too, though she knew yer
we'll she ought to scold Amy for b.
ing disrespectful about a hymn.
The girl jumped from the door wit
an excited cry.