The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-05-21
Euening Story
The Girl Who Was Followed.
BY H. LOUIS RAYBoLD.


Nothing will pail much sooner than
washing dishes. So Emily Curtis
thought as she viewed the topping
pile stacked beside the sink.
Tackling them half-heartedly, she
let her gaze wander thru the open
windows across the meadows, sweet
with ripened grain. Mellow October
sunshine filtered thru the apple laden
trees of the orchard, and the vagrant
wind brought to her ears the dull
chop-chop of the silo.
But Emily had neither eyes nor ears
for the sights and sounds of the farm.
She had had enough of farms.
Pausing in the act of lifting the
dishes from their bath of suds into
the drainer, she dried her hands on the
roller towel. and from her blouse took
a crumpled letter which had been
brought by the rural mail carrier that
very morning. She had not showed it
to John. John had never approved of
Maisie.
only one paragraph in it was really
important to Emily. The rest was
froth in -Maisie's best style.
"You ought to be here. with your
voice like a bird"-the note read
"Old Gunter needs more girls. It's
easy work, and you could bunk with
me. I've been trying to get somebody
It cuts room rent In half"
What good did a voice like a bird do
one on a farm? thought Emily bitterly.
You ruined it shouting your head off
to the men that dinner was ready, or
calling to John that the wood box
needed filling. Singing Sunday eve
nings in the church choir where there
were six altos for every soprano was
only torment. If only she had the
courage of a kitteni
Vague thoughts OF rebellion were
stirring within her, but the dull round
of household tasks claimed her. crowd
ing in on her discomfort.
The next morning, Emily stood pin
ming her summer hat on her trim lit
tie head. It was the day for the
weekly drive to jamestown to do her
marketing and meager shopping. She
always looked forward to it.
But when John entered, to her sur
prise he was in his old farm clothes.
Emily" he began, hesitatingly
I'm sorry, but I can't get off this
morning. That last hand hired went
out on a spree last night and hasn't
shown up.
'There's no need for you to give up
going, tho! Jim can drive you as
well as L" Jim was the boy they had
taken from the County Orphan Asy-
lum to do the thousand and one
things about the place that did not
require a mans strength. "And here"
he plunged his hand into his pocket
"
haps this will help make up for-your
disappointment" he said awkwardly.
tits a little extra I had come in
During the long drive Emily nursed
her anger at John for spelling her
fun, as she put to herself.
A few minutes later Emily sent the
bewildered Jim home, bearing a note
to her husband which she had
scrawled hastily on the back of her
grocery list.
Dear John:
I'm sorry, but I'm sick of farm
life. I'm taking a chance 1 had
to go to the city. Don't think too
badly of me. EMILY.
She herself walked to the small
suburban station and waited for the
express.
Six months later in a nine by twelve
dingy- bedroom, Emily sat at
a bare, uneven legged table, and
dumped out the contents of her pock-
etbook. No, there was not very much
there. Certainly not enough to carry
her long if old Gunter put into execu-
ton his threat to let her go at the
the matter with her voice, he had de-
clared frankly, and she got by with
the dancing, but she hadn't the "go,"
the pep" he wanted in his bunch of
girls.
AS Emily pondered the future, de-
head, the door swung open and Maisic
burst in, very breezy and alive.
I'm sorry. Emily" she said, but
I'm going to give up my share of the
room. I've got chance to go in with
a lot of girls uptown, and"
That's all right" said Emily weari-
ly. She. had suspected for some time
that Maisie's desire for her presence in
the city had been actuated solely by
Maisie's need for some one to help out
with the rent. One thing more or less
to bother did not make much differ
ence.
For Emily had something else to
worry over besides losing her room
mate or her job. She was losing her
confidence in her ability to look out
for herself.
For week now she had been fol-
lowed when she left the restaurant at
midnight, followed by slouching,
stoop-shoufdered Individual, in
shapeless hat and worn overcoat
pulled up about his ears.
Emily had expected to run into all
sorts of disagreeable experiences in the
the city was full of evil. Yet, in her
several months of cabaret life, this
was the first bit that had touched her
personally, and so far this had been
merely annoying and a bit terrifying.
The evening of the day that Emily
had learned Of Maisie's detection, Gun
ter fired her. OBTAINING her after the
other girls had left he asked her where
she came from and told her she had
better go back home.
Go back to the farm? Impossible,
For one thing, rigidly brought up,
strictly conventional John would never
take her back.
Shivering with the cold which pene-
trated her thin jacket. she noticed with
relief that the sinister shadow which
had logged her footsteps had evident
iy given up the idea that she was COM
ing tonight. Yet she cast anxious
chances over her shoulder until she
reached the shelter of the narrow
doorway which opened at the foot of
the bare flight of stairs.