The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-11-20
EDening Story.
PROSTATE Roses,
~ RuDY DouGLu

/
Il don't see why such a lovely
thing as a rose should be called a
PROSTATE rose" declared Hope Saun-
ders as she stood at the foot of a ter
race that was a veritable carpet of
PROSTATE roses in pink and red and
white
And why not?" asked her com
panion- DO they mot make lovely
niilside?"
Hope nodded. Yes" she ad-
nnitted. but it seems all wrong for
them to lie SO humbly on the ground
when they have such a wonderful
beauty
The other girl did not reply She
was absorbing the loneliness of the
bank ahead of them.
''Why-folks might walk on them
by night-tread them down under
foot" continued Hope They should
be standing erect, Haunting their
beauty in the eyes of every one and
defying any passerby to trample them
down"
"Oh, no, so that's your idea of
what beauty should do, Hope. I won
der If you are right or wrong?"
Right, of course" interrupted
Hope, quickly.
Maybe. But it seems to me that
these PROSTATE roses are performing
la wonderful mission by means OF their
beauty and humbleness of position.
They are making an otherwise unat-
tractiVe bank of earth most lovely.
They are climbing about SO gayly and
happily that they invite the attention
of every one to this homely hillside.
Is that not a kindness? Is it not a
thing that makes them 1ovable,
Hope?"
Hope turned to walk on, but did
not answer her companions query.
She herself was very lovely to look
at But she was of the consciously
beautiful type that asserted itself
wherever it went. Perhaps she knew
that she had opened up this very line
of thought for her companion to pur-
sue as an example, subtle as it might
be, for her own absorption
After the two had walked on for
some distance Hope broke the silence
"Helen. do you think that 1 am
NO said Helen, simply, but with
out conviction
Tell me-do you?" =
Helen looked at her. ''No-not ex-
actIy, dear. But you are very naughty.
You are selfish. You are SO sure OF
your own beauty that you think you
do not need to be sweet and kind
Hope gasped. Am I?'' she asked.
cam I, truly?"
And yet. feel that you have a better
self hidden beneath this selfish ex-
terror"
Again they walked on. Hope was
the opinion her best friend had of her
qualities.
When she reached home and Helen
had walked on. she went to her room.
She threw herself on the couch that
looked out into the lovely garden be-
longing to her father. 1t was there, |
last night, that she had told Bob War
ner that she was tired of being neg
lected at dances and had quarreled
with him.
Now, as she thought it over, he had
done anything but neglect her. He
had danced with some plain cousins
who were visiting his. mother and had
showed them, because they =. weret
the attention that he should show
them. And Hope had been piqued
because he had been accustomed to
asking her for nearly. every dance.
She had had plenty of partners. but
she wanted him also.
was selfish?" she asked herself.
Does my beauty-which is no ac-
complishment of my own, no credit 70
me-make me this way2 Might I not |
have been kind, instead, to Bob's cou-
sins? Might not have taken them |
with me. so that the men who always
surround me at dances would have
asked them, too, to dancer"
She thought of the beautiful roses |
clambering over the homely, unat- |
tractive bank. positively dragging the |
attention of all who passed to the spot. |
Might she, perhaps, have tried to slim |
ulate their efforts, by being kind to |
the less lovely girls who were
strangers?
Instead, she had been unkind.
Jealous, selfish.
She went to the telephone beside |
the wire she could hear the loneli-
ness of his tone.
'.Win you-please come up to see
me tonight, Bob?" she asked.
81 f-I~,, II
added amazement at the humble
pleading in her tone. made it almost
impossible for him to believe it was
Hope.
Nevertheless. he found her in the
garden by the fountain that night
She was lovely in white, in the moon
light. At once he began to tell her so,
inspired by the picture she made.
''Don't-Bob. You know I am not
lovely. I may be pretty to look at
with my clothes that daddy gives me
and the hair and color and lines that
God gave me, but-what have made
of myself is anything but beautiful.
am selfish and unkind and"
mo. DON'T. / am going to tell you
all the things I have been thinking |
since last night, when quarreled with
you and sent you away. Helen really
brought me to my senses and I'll tell
you how"
She told him of the roses and of
what Helen had said She explained
her own reaction, and it was not long
before she was in tears on the stone
bench at his side while he was telling
her enough to make her vain for life
and undo all the good of the days in
trospection.
You tell me this because am cry
ing. You do not mean it-but," she
sobbed, unashamed of the tears that
marred her beauty, you will mean
them, some day. shall try to be like
those roses. L shall try to use my
beauty to do good tiff YOU Will only
love me again, Bob
There was no use trying to hear
what Bob replied, for it was lost in