The St. Mary banner., 1922-12-23
Foiled by Fate and
Two Ten Spots
BY II. IRVING KING
:. ls42. by Mcclure Newspaper syndicate

was visiting her aunt, Miss Jane Per
ktns. Aunt James farmhouse stood
little back from the road and dom
mated well-kept acres. Ii was {
most proper farmhouse-eyeryth
pertaining to Aunt Jane was proper
II was al efficient-1ooking farmhouse
everything having to do with Aunt
Jane partook OF her efficiency. Amanda
was as pretty girl as you would find
in days journey: abounding in
health and vitality. but rather given
to day dreams and impressed with the
idea that II was incumbent on her to
take hold Of this wandering old world
and set It in straight and narrow
orbit
Under great tree IN the front yard
she and her aunt sat in stpaight-backed
cLalrs sewing. The bloom Of the lilacs
mad long since faded; but there We're
other odoriferous shrubs about which
sent faint perfumes wandering on the
languid air, and from neighDOring
field came now and then the breath
OF new-HoWn hay: and the voice Of
the afternoon was punctuated by the
twittering or the songs Of birds.
You have heard, perhaps, from a dis
tance, or from the top Of high build
Ing, that murnuring sound which is
the voice Of great city. To city
bred person the country seems silent,
but II Is not; there is voice Of the
country as well as voice of the city
cnly Ii Is pitched in different
key; drowsy hum made up of the
myriad sounds Of animal and insect
life which turks in fields and woods,
the murmur Of streams and the breath
Ing Of winds through leafy boughs. As
Aunt Jane and Amanda sat and sewed
and talked In this all-golden afternoon
matrimony was the object Of their ami
adyersiOns-which were no less con-
demnatory from the fact that for both
the old maid and the young maiden
the subject was purely academic. They
were perfectly agreed with regard to
the undesirability Of the married state,
but disagreed in their statements when
Ii came TO the details Of the unmar-
ned
Amanda mapped out a strenuous life
as missionary 10 some particularly
depraved and benighted tribe of can
nibals while Aunt Jane declared for
the simple life Of the farm, mitigated
by round Of gayeties consisting of
strawberry festivals. church fairs and
meetings Of the local Red Cross In the
neighboriug village Of Ashville.
Amanda today was all the more insist
ent upon the necessity of her faring
forth to somewhere beyond India's
coral strand to wrest his nose rings
end his idols from the scantily clothed
chief Of some paln-clothed isle from
the fact that, since she had been on
this visit to her aunt, she had not
infrequently found herself-with a
shudder at her own weakness-pic-
turing with half-longing thoughts, the
pleasant and comfortable life that
might be lived amid the rural scenes
By which she was now surrounded.
Such life might be all right for
Aunt Jane, who had no great uplift-
ing work to accomplish In the world,
but for Amanda such thoughts were.
she well knew. the suggestions Of the
hero Of Mr. Milton's celebrated epic:
and she confronted them with a wade
retro Satanas-or words to that ef-
feet. Had you told her that young
Doctor Clinton and not the prince OF
Eblis was the cause Of these wan
derings OF her maiden mind she would
have told you that you were lust too
silly for anything; and believed II,
too-besldas very likely being right.
DIR. Arthur Clinton had come to Ash
vile the year before to take over the
practice OF Doctor Kenyon, superan-
nuated and retired, and had, the pre-
vious summer. while Amanda was on
her usual visit to her aunt attended
her for a bruised thumb acquired by
well-meant but injudicious attempts
at helping put down the new carpet
on the front stairs. Somehow. that
thumb of Amanda's required a prepos-
ferrous number Of calls and much skill
full. not TO say tender, handling by her
adviser before 1t was cured.
And this summer, ever since Amanda's
arrival, the doctor had evinced the ut
most anxiety with regard to Aunt
James health, stopping to inquire after
II every time his f1ivver bore him in
the direction Of the Perkins farm. And
that was so often one might have been
justified in thinking an epidemic had
broken out In that neighborhood.
Strange to say, Amanda's wandering
and sinful thoughts. when they pie
tured the attractions Of life In the
began to center around the