The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1923-04-19
Fooled by Fate and
Two Ten Spots
By H. IRVING KING

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80. 10y. ~ Mcclure Newspaper syndicst..l
1t was summer and Amanda Lathrop
was visiting her aunt, Miss Jane Per-
kins. Aunt James farmhouse stood
q little back from the road and dom
mated well-kept acres. II was a
most proper farmhouse-everythi
pertaining to Aunt Jane was proper
it was an efficient-looking farmhouse
everything having to do with Aunt
Jane partOOk Of her efficiency. Amanda
was as pretty girl as you would find
In a days journey: Astounding in
health and vitality, but rather given
to day dreams and impressed with the
idea that 1t was incumbent on her to
take hold Of this wandering old world
and set II In straight and narrow
orbit. :.
Under a great tree In the front yard
she and her aunt sat In straight-backed
chairs sewing. The bloom Of the lilacs
had long since faded but there were
other odOriferous shrubs about which
sent faint perfumes wandering on the
languid air, and from q neighboring
field came now and then the. breath
Of new-mOwn hay; and the voice Of
the afternoon was punctuated by the
twittering or the songs OF birds.
You have heard, perhaps, from dis
lance. or from the top of high build
ing, that murmuring sound which is
the voice Of q great city. To q city
bred person the country seems silent,
but 1t Is not; there il voice Of the
country as well as voice Of the city
only II Ii pitched In q 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-solden afternoon
matrimOny was the object Of their ami
interchangeable we're no less con-
dsmnatory 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 undesirabiltty. of the married state,
but disagreed In their statements when
It came to the details Of the unmar-
RED.
Amanda mapped out q strenuous life
~ missionary TO 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
neighboring village Of Ashville.
Amanda today was all the more insist
ent upon the necessity Of her faring
forth to somewhere beyond midas
coral strand to wrest his nose rings
and his idols from the scantily clothed
chief Of some palm-clOthed isle from
the fact that. since she had been on
this visit to her aunt, she had not
infreQuently found herself-with q
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 a 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 susgestions Of. the
hero Of Mr.. Milton's celebrated, epic:
and she confronted them with Z 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 .'just too
silly for anything; and believed Il.
too-besides very likely being right.
Or. 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 q prepos-
ferrous number Of calls and much skill
full, not to say tender, handling by her
medical 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
It every time his fiivver 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 pic
tured the attractions Of life in the
country. began to center around the
future wife Of Doctor Clinton-for. Of
course, the doctor would marry some
time; he was not. like Amanda. dedi-
Gated to celibacy and great work
Struggle ar she would these visions
Of the life OF country Doctors wife
became more and more frequent and
she sternly resolved to down them by
q severe and more constant contem-