The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-07-24
A Stenogrdpher's
Romance
BY JANE PHELPS
SHORTHAND AND BICYCLE
RIDING.

SHORTHAND AND BICYCLE
RIDING.
Chapter z.
what a lonesome sort of a. place
this Big Town is!'' Nellie said to Cora.
! It's something fierce
You won't notice the loneliness
| when you find the kind Of work you
want and like" Cora returned, ct was
sick with loneliness at first
Honest? Well, guess if you stuck
1t out can! Then have you. What
on earth I would do without you now
n don't Know. Jump off the dock,
guess
"Oh. no you wouldn't. unless you
can swim You have too much grit
to give up, Nellie" Cora spoke serI-
ously now, "and am not going to lose
faith in you-your pluck"
Nellie's forlorn condition appealed
her. Altho unaware of the fact, she
needed Nellie almost as much as Mel
lie needed her.
Nellie worked hard. At times Cora
was afraid she would break down,
but tiny as she was she seemed to have
a wonderful store of reserve energy.
She earned all and more than Mrs
Thompson gave her, SO gained her
good will. She studied for hours.
spelling each word out loud several
times until she knew it perfectly. She
practiced on the typewriter to increase
her speed, and as this was the part of
her work she really liked, she i'm
proved vastly with a rapidity that
astonished the more plodding Cora.
But shorthand-that was her de-
spair! The little lines and pothooks
that meant so much, or were supposed
to mean so much, stood for nothing to
her. Yet she kept on doggedIy, de-
claring she'd not be stumped by those
horrid little scratches, not if she knew
it. Nevertheless, it was slow work
Even Cora became almost discouraged
at times.
'It'n come all of a sudden some
day." Gladys Doran, a friend of Cora's
told her. Il was just as bad as you
are, Nellie. I couldn't seem to make
any sense out of shorthand at all.
Then after I was almost discourag ed
it came to me, and now am called an
expert, because can read the short
hand others write as well as my own"
That's the way riding a bicycle
came to me-" Nellie replied, much
ride his'n. tumbled off oftener than
l got on, gee, you should have seen
me! was that black and blue!
Honest you couldn't find a place big
Then, just as most give up, 1t come
as easy and I never tumbIed off
again.
That will be the way shorthand will
come to you" Gladys returned laugh
ingly: only you won't be black and
Won't I? I guess If you could look
into my head, you'd find my brain
black and blue-if- I've got any"
You've brains enough! Too many
perhaps. But you see If I'm not
right"
you've encouraged me anyway. I
seem to feel it will come now-but I
hope it won't be after I'm dead"
Gladys Doran really had encouraged
Nellie; that and the remembrance of
hINVR1A Io1 So l.,
long, then suddenly seemed so easy
She applied herself more closely than
ever, fretted less about her failures, let
her small successes encourage her.
Immediately Cora noticed an improve
ment.
Nellie is the sort that needs encour-
agement. Some of us are the other
way, the harder it is for us the better
we do; but she wits without a little
praise. She's always had it hard, been
kicked around, and a little apprecia-
ton goes a long way with her." Cora
told Gladys as they lunched together
shortly after Gladys visit. "You must
come again and talk to her-and don't
forget to notice her improvement"
'Tn come soon. the poor kid, and
so pretty"
GLADYS Doran had left home when
she was 5 years old and had struggled
for five years to attain her present
position. She knew what 1t was to be
DOIn hungry and cola, out Sne naO al
ways kept her Independence. She was
quick, a good worker and a good girl.
But she knew the seany side of office
work far more intimately than did
Cora, who with her better education,
her refinement, due largely to environ
ment, had never been exposed to the
coarser side of life at home, had seen
little of It, due in n measure to her
letters of reference.
Gladys. like Cora, realized that
Nellie's unusual beauty might be more
of a hinderance than help to her am
but neither of them told her
so. She would find it out for herself
soon enough.
(Tomorrow-Study and hard work.)