The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-09-16
EUening Story
HeIen's River.
By RUBY DOUGLAS.

This from Ruth Frost as she laid
her big summer hat on the rustic
table at the waters edge.
81 don't like the word 'dominat-
ing" protested Helen Demmins.
Am that sort of person."
Ruth went quickly to her side.
THAT sort of person? Why, dear,
you certainly are. You are so sweet,
SO wonderful, so-oh, so everything
all of us are going to include you in
the history of this place forever"
Helen made fruitless protest. She
Fhad taken the little house by the
roadside on the impulse of the moment
one day when she had been driving
with friends thru old parts of Con-
necticut The house had seemed to
beckon to her to come into it and
make it home. A house was the last
thing in the world she had expected
to acquire, now that Ronald was gone
and she had the two boys education
But, somehow" she was explaining
again to Ruth, when I saw the river
running on so bravely at the foot OF
the garden and heard it murmuring
constantly over the rocks and pebbles.
it seemed as if l could not help COM
ing here. And now I love every inch
of it,
SIT is the first time you have not
seemed lonely since-since Ronald
died." Ronald had been her husband.
Il am not lonely here" admitted
Helen.
There was more than one reason
for her lack of loneliness. First, there
were always innumerable things to do
inside and outside the old house. The
garden was her joy. And it was in
den that she had learned to be less
lonely
Frank Harwood, a landscape arch
itect, had happened upon the place
at almost the same moment that
Helen had bought it, and he CHANGED
to meet her at the rivers edge one
afternoon when he was still contem-
plating the purchase.
But have bought it," explained
Helen.
A look of disappointment caught
his expression.
'Pm-sorry. did not know you
wanted it so much" said Helen.
"A passing fancy. perhaps" he said
lightly. But then he went on to tell
her of the water garden he had plan
sundia1 he had hoped to place in the
upper garden.
I'm sure shall never be able to
do SO much with it," Helen deplored.
And after that he came to see
her and to tell her that he had
found, in the artists colony just above
little place that was for sale.
I'm take it if you will let me help
you plan your garden he had said.
And Helen, being swept on, as she
seemed to be, by Fate, had consented.
Now she and her friend Ruth Frost
were sitting at the rustic table in the
very water garden Frank HARDWOOD
had planned and watched grow. He,
too, called it Helen's River. Lets
go down to Helen'S River every one
said when they meant to stop in at
the hospitable little home for a cup
OF tea or an evening of~music on the
big porch under the moon.
Frank has made me keep a garden
seed in the ground" Helen was say
ing.
What do yoy put in it?" asked
the city-bred Ruth.
"Oh-everything, from a record of
the first tiny shoot that appears above
the ground to-oh, to the names of
every one who visits it. And-I have
a picture of the landscape artist in the
front" she admitted.
Ruth looked at her scrutinizingly.
do you need the picture, Helen? Isn't
he here every day to watch progress
and-let you see him in person?"
Helen blushed.
HE is so fond Of the boys. you
know"
"Yes-Tve noticed how he looks at
the boys. And how he walks by
the river-with the>>boysl"
The man under discussion appeared
at the brow of the hill at that mo-
ment. He was big, curly-haired fell
low with boyish face and a buoy
ant gait. He whistled the familiar
bird-ca1 they had chosen for their
signal.
Come on down We're about to
have tea-or something" called Helen
Leaping down the hill as if he were
sixteen instead of nearly forty, Frank
HARDWOOD Joined the party at the rus
tic table.
do you know that it is three years
today since we had our first cup of
tea here at this table in this river
garden?" he asked, looking at Helen
mo; is it? " she asked, pretending
innocence.
at isl he said, deliberately.
Ruth felt as if something were go
ing to happen. She felt a thrill in
the air, a magnetized atmosphere.
And if you don't hurry up, Helen,
and tell me that I may come here to
share your home. your garden, your
1ife-and give you all my love-
Frank" protested Helen.
Il don't care for Ruth or any one
else. You have kept me at arms
length as the landscape artist, the
Now, please tell me-"
Ruth looked help1essly up the hill
toward the cottage. If Helen will
promise not to say no again IlI-rn
20, Sno SdlO, 6InDarrdSSeQ.
Helen looked at her, tears coming
to her eyes. II have wanted to
say yes for long time, but-somehow
II couldn't. I'm such an old-fash-
Toned person and
They would not let her finish. They
knew that she would say that It
seemed such few years since the
boys father had gope-the same ex-
cuse she had given before.
"And-we'n be married right down
here, with Ruth and the others to see |
us?" Frank asked. He had put his |
arm across her shoulders and they |
stood watching the river tumbling !
over the rocks below.
THE river seems to say-Iet's co."
Helen murmured.
Ruth was vending her way up to |
the house.
But it will still be Helen's River"
she was saying to herself.
Copyright, 1922, by Mcclure News
paper Syndicate.)