Arizona republican., 1922-01-01

(Copyright 1921, by w. Werner)
The moment she took the letter out
OF the rural delivery box at the road
side Lizzie Andrews felt instinctively
that it bore bad tidings. Mother Is
worse" she said to herself, tearing
the envelope open as she went up the
drive to the ranch house Yet the
news of her mothers death that II
contained was as great a shock as
though she had not been expecting 1t
any time for the last three months
1--WE knew you couldn't come on
her sister Ellie wrote. 80 we did not
telegraph. She had not even written
until the day after the funeral.
Everything was so upset with folks
coming and going and ALL" explained
Ellie. "and there was so much had
| to see to that / just didn't have
spare minute"
Sorrow stricken, but fearless, Liz
| zie Andrews sat on the step Of the
| back porch, where she had Imply
| dropped, the open letter in her shak-
| ing hand. Her mother dead and ev-
erything going on as though nothing
had happened, the sky as blue, the
| flowers as blooming, and the birds
| twittering as happily as before she
heard the creak of the mail wagon
| climbing the hill and had gone out
| to the gate so eager for her letter.
| Her mother not only dead. butt bur-
| led! In the darkness of the thought
her mind groped back to the date of
the funeral. Thursday, the day OF
the Sunday school picnic, her mother
was being buried-and she was on
picnic!
A noisy spluttering broke upon the
sacred silence of her grief. Automa-
tically Lizzie Andrews sprang to her
feet and automatically attended the
boilerful of cloths on the kitchen
stove. AS she put them through the
rinsing water and hung them on the
| line every sound seemed a torturing
cry from her heart--"Mother is gone!
I'll never see her again!'
If only she had got back east on
visit two years before, as she had
planned. But just as she was getting
| ready Billy has been taken with
typhoid. And the next spring when
she began to make her preparations
again Diana had trouble with her
eyes and she had to go with her to
the city for a long course of treat
ment at the occulists. Then the new
baby came.
1t always had been that way.
Whenever she planned visit home,
as she still called it, something had
happened to prevent. Only twice
during the II years they had been
out west had she succeeded in MAX
ing a flying trip east. And now the
gates of opportunity had shut in her
| face, for always it would be too late,
and nobody really cared.
When she told him, Ed tried to be
| kind and sympathetic, of course. But
she knew he was only sorry because
| of her pain. That he did not share
her grief. For when a year after
their marriage Ed had decided upon
! coming out to California to live, her
mother had strongly opposed the
move, and he had never quite for
! given some Of the things she had said
things that had stung the deeper
! because the event proved her moth
! er's Judgment better than his own.
| And to Billy and Diana, who had
4 been left on the ranch with their
| father on her last visit home, seven
years before, their grandmother was
| little more than a name and at most
| pictured face hung by their bed,
| which as kiddies they had been
| taught to kiss every night after say
ing their players.
Nor did her sister Ellie really share
with Lizzie Andrews in her sorrow.
Instead. the letters were all about
what Ellie has suffered-Ellie's ner-
vousness. Ellie's sleeplessness, Ellie's
worn outness from the long weeks of
nursing her mother in her last illness.
If only she could have worn herself
out taking care of her, yearningly
thought Lizzie Andrews, the little
mother. who in the years gone by had
lost so much sleep and had given so
much OF her strength taking care Of
her. for Lizzie had been a sickly baby,
delicate throughout her childhood.
But she had not sat up with her
mother a single night: had not even
had a trivial part in the days little
ministries Of sickroom. Nor was 1t
merely in her mothers last illness
that she had failed her. In the past
long stretch of years had she been
with her, as Ellie had been; there
were hundred and one little things
in which she could have given her