The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1921-01-28
BROKEN BARS
BY SYLVIA .. BELL.

ONCNG0CNO0dSd O601060CNOOGO
20 1921. BY Mcclure Newspaper syndicate.)
The golden sunlight of June rested
invitingly on the cross-stitch motto.
God Bless Our Home" which hung
above the door Of the Lanes sitting
room. Attracted by the sunlight Mary
had been gazing at the motto for
several minutes, thinking in her child
ish mind how typical it was of the
room itself.
Mary was extremely fond of pretty
things. She worshipped beauty in ev-
cry form, lavished affection on all liv-
ing things and craved it in return. Yet,
paradoxical as it may seem, she was
the child Of stern, unsympathetic, rad
ical, matter-of-fact parents. Conse-
quently, they had never understood
her, and had regarded her as sort OF
an anomaly. They were sorely tried
one day when she cried herself to
sleep because they refused to get her
a dress with pink roses in it. They
tried in vain to crush this spirit of
worldliness, as they termed it.
In this moment of meditation, bitter
thoughts crowded into Mary's mind.
She reviewed the episode that was the
cause Of her present punishment. The
night before, in the hope of making
herself pretty, she had done up her
straight bangs in curl papers.
Joyfully she went to bed, dreamed
dreams Of pretty faces surrounded
by curls.
In the morning her mother, busy
about breakfast, did not notice the
curls, but after the customary read
ing from the Bible, her father leveled
his eyes straight on Mary and the
precise brown ringlets on her fore
head. With reddening cheeks she
heard him say, MARY shall do thirty
examples in arithmetic and show them
to me before she goes to school this
morning, as a punishment for lapsing
into worldlness."
Moved by a spirit of rebellion, she
determined not to do them. She would
deceive him!
She remembered that not long ago
she had undergone the self-same pun
ishment and had saved the paper with
the examples on it, and this she would
show to him. Furthermore, she would
read her book of fairy tales during the
time she was supposed to be doing the
examples
The story book was very dear to
Mary's heart, and with tender fingers
she took it from the drawer where she
had hidden it; close beside it was a
candy box with pink roses on it, and
| lifting the cover, she took out several
| pieces Of ribbon, then bottle of per-
| fume. All We're presents from her
friends which she kept from her
mothers sight, knowing full we'll that
| she would call them worldly.
Dear, innocent treasuresl Mary
priced them above all else in the
world.
Urged on by a rebellious feeling,
she decided NOT to go to school that
day. Instead she would spend the day
in the woods. She always took her
lunch to school, so her folks would
, not miss her, she knew. III they should
question her, she would lie to them.
Yes, she would lie and be wickedl
SO handing her father the bogus
arithmetic paper, she took her lunch
and started. The clear morning air
filed her with an exquisite feeling of
joy.
Always hedged in by facts, she now
let her Imagination run riot. Lying
there in the cool, sweet grass. she
caught sight of an old boat, and her
fanciful mind Immediately connected
it with ''5rhe Lady of Shalott," which
she had recently read at school. She
suddenly decided to play that she was
the Lady of Shalott," and with a pen
Gil from her school box roughly traced
the words THE Lady of Shalott'T on
the bow. She pushed off from the
shore and, lying in the bottom of the
boat, she sang softly to herself, as did
the lady of the poem and "Aoated down
to Camelot."
A rough, grating sound came to
Mary's ears, and she sat bolt upright
to see what was the matter The boat
had run against some rocks, which had
punctured a hole in the bottom, and it
was rapidly filing with water. Mary
called Justify for help, and then every
thing went black before her
The next thing size knew she was in
a room where everything was white;
flowers nodded to her from a table be
side the bed, and in the distance she
heard soft music. A blond young per-
son all dressed in white entered the
room, brushed her hand over Mary's
brow, patted her cheek and vanished.
Immediately Mary's fertile brain told
her that she was in heaven and the
blond young person was an angel.
Then she heard familiar yoiees-her
fathers and mother'si They We're say
ing something about RESCUED from
drnAnnino.n - and thnr Il N 1870. l. q .l- ]