The Wolf Point herald., 1924-06-05
The House
They
Wanted
By MYRA CURTIS LANE
60. 1924. Western Newspaper rJn,on)


THEY couldn't get 1.-THE Wards
couldnt-that old-fashioned littl,
house on the outskirts of the town
They had liked it at first glimpse of il
but they couldn't get it. The Cravens
rlch meat dealers, got it. What bust
ness had the Cravens with the little
old-fashioned house?
Craven explained to Ward one day
on the train. But first about the
house. 1t was a hundred years old.
1t had one of those old-fashioned gar
dens that one dreams about and hard
ly ever sees. And it had that atmos-
phere of all the previous occupants
that made it what it was 1t was the
generations that had been born there,
loved there, married, and passed on
that gave it its unique feeling which
the Cravens could never understand
Then what business had they TAX
ing it away from the Wards? The
Wards were just too late. They had
/ in these days of house scarcity-they
had to take little yellow bungalow
nearly opposite the old house. A star
ing thing with a lot of sparse grass
growing about it. Not priyet hedge.
Not flower or tree. Drab, ugly. Mrs.
Ward cried when they bought the
bungalow-after Craven had laughed
Ward out of the little old-fashiOned
house.
Its just too dreadful for words"
said little Mrs. Ward, "that the Cra-
vens should have that dear little house
which we want so much and they can
never appreciate. And we've got to
have this hideous b-b-bungalow."
"Cheer up," said Ward. ''Perhaps |
he'll die"
"Oh, wish he would l' snapped Mrs.
Ward viciously.
"Or maybe he'll get tired of the
place. 1 can't for the life of me see
why man like Craven, who deals in
meats and looks it, should want
little place like that"
Il just know they'll never get tired
of it," sobbed Mrs. Ward. 81 m-met
Mrs. Craven on the street today and
she told me she adored the little house
just to spite me. There was such
1 malicious look on her face when she
told me-"
The winter passed. Once q gleam
If hope came to the Wards when Cra-
zen was reported dangerously ill with
pneumonia. How they watched the I
loctor's carl They had really reached
he stage of wanting Craven to die. I
But he got well. And then, when he
lad begun to commute again, he ex- [
'lained to Ward on the train:
"Queer little place, more like
working mans home than a gentle 2
mans, Ward. But I've just been wait
ng for building costs to fall before 9
ulling it down. Its going to be the =
est investment in this town, that cor
er. I'm going to build a gentleman's ;,
ONE there"
Ward repeated this to his Mortified :
ife And few weeks later carts ar
we'd with sand and cement, workmen
agan the demolition. 1t was hideous 3
see the little house being pulled re :
to pieces. 1t was hideous to ic
e the little garden smothered under
caps Of sand.
Bit by bit, timber by timber, the old 80
)use was taken down. And in it's
ace a glaring monstrosity of a "gen-
eman's house" began to arise.
At last, when it was clear that moth
g could save the little house, Mrs.
ard collapsed. She was i'll for days,
ID she was only the shadow of her
If when she came downstairs again.
Dear, let's get out of here" she
Id.
"Sell the bungalow"
"Yes. I shall never be happy here.
haven't told you, but"
Ward folded her in his arms ten
rly when she told him. 1t was a
emn and sacred moment for them.
But wherever we go we shall take
tn us the memories of the house we
nted and can never have" said
ard. "What was there about that
lie house that meant so much to
?"
The atmosphere, the sense of the
)ple who had lived and died there"
4 suppose in the beginning it was
It an ordinary house? Those peo-
had to make it what it became.
ten, dear, I've got an ideal don't
wv what you'll think of it. Suppose
just stayed here and made this
lgalow like the little house-with a
den, and children. Don't you think,
ing each other, we could?"
Il think we could" answered his
'e gently, Because it is the peo-
who make their houses, isn't tt"