Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-12-27
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Romance, Sentiment, Suspense

with God" she said. II feel worse
about my being cross to you than /
do about your ankle
Just like your selfishness," Michael
growled, and then they laughed a lit
! tie but not much.
Archie, son of Luther Burns,
came up To feed the COW and the
horse and the poultry. Noon brought
Mrs. Luther Burns, with o ba sket
| We'll, she said. surveying them, Il
pose I've got YOU both on my hands
| now for while. I'm glad to do it
but | should think you might have
had more sense than to get down
sick"
Seeing Michael shift and redden.
sther hoped to turn her thought anG
asked: What do YOU hear from Min
ME and Dean"
They'll be home for the holidays"
said her mother. After that Deans
got 1t in his head to 60 to Europe for
ms art-says they can live over there
cheaper than they can here All non.
sense. I'm going to spike that | can
| tell you"
why not leave EN- alone" asked
Michael bluntly
Leave EN- alone" cried Minnie's
| mother shlilly. IF had. they
"odiuH De married YET. Al least
not with the decent wedding was
| bound they should have She
| stopped remembering Just how she
had managed that decent wedding. ="
10 he sure, her husba nds huyer had
| changed his mind about taking that
| North 40, but that wasn't her fault
and Luther had paid the bills some
way.
EVERY morning for week Archie
Burns fed the chapins' stock
and at noon either Luther Burns or
his wife came with "A bashket
Don't trouble like this" Esther
begged her. And big Minnie re,
| sponded:
enjoy doing my duty"
BlIt don't come every day" Esther
urged.
III | don't bear my cross this way.
! now am ! going To bear it," Nrs
! Burns demanded
A week OF this. and there came the
second row For hours the roads were
lfnpasSa bic. 1t was noon before any
! one arrived To feed the stock: then il
was Luther and his hired man. who
! had broken road down the VALLEY
| The next day his wife drove over in
the cutter and delivered her decision.
am going To bundle YOU two up
| this afternoon" she said, and take
| YOU up 10 our house
Michael looked up at her. and some.
( thing of the Gaelic and Scottish blood
( OF ms mother surged into the stoIid
lace lie spoke with the terrible
authority OF prenonition. hut II NAV
nave been rather his intuition OF the
womans thought.
Yes, and We'll never get back. Yes
ana We II never get back he almost
Chanted.
Not till these roads break up." said
Mrs. Burns grimly
In the sleigh. the two bowed figures
sat. with big Minnie on the edge OF the
seal, urging forward the la borIns
morse. AT the top OF the last hin
Michael twisted in his seat and looked
back at the low house from who's.
chimney no smoke rose His chant
became a wall of mourning loud and
terrible, IKE the keeping of the Gael:
eS. and We'll never get back
MIS-. Luther Burns silence was more
! sinister than her words AZ IL oh.
might have been thinking: Well. and
what II You shouldn't" And the two
hSufes bowed beside her as II they
We're DEVASTATED by her thought.
She put them in low clean room
pare ana warm with its Philadelphia
heater: they sat down in the two
padded rockingchairs on the braided
rug.
Now" said Michael, I'VE can wait
to die. =
Don lets wait-long" said Esther.
rig Mlnnles voice came charging IN
the stairs and down the pa ssaee as IL
| IL had on boots.
Telegram telephoned up she
shouten: Minnie and Dean'Il be here
NE North Express was hours late.
and all the way from the station
the dfifts lay deep. But to Minnie
ana Dean, warm in the robes while
the little car CALAMITY attacked ,be
highway, the night might have been
| mat one in Autumn when they had
hrst driven away together.
ne door of the Burnses' house came
open and golden gaslight Jared across
the blackness
Darlins.' Dean cried Look at it,"
uheF stood together, looking at the
yellow hood sweeping down the dark
ana gliding the white boughs. That
strange world melted and flowed in
brightness and in depths.
lie said: IF | could paint that"
wv hat you standing out there in
the cold for. freezing us to death keep
ing the door OPEN" cried Mrs. Burns
on the threshold.
Her very welcomes were warlike.
even though there were tears in her
eyes. This welcome was also bust
neSsilke. Now" she said. while her
husba and was still offering his subdued
greeting, there's two folks upstairs
that wouldn't go to bed until YOU
come. You'd best ma rch right up nd
see them. Who? The Chapins. We
brought EN- up here. bag and bag
gage. to end their DAYS
Mother. They'll hear you
Well, but they know it." said big
Minnie. and led the way.
In that bare room sat Michael and
Esther, loking like figures in a paint
ing by Millet. Worn, tired folk two
body wanted, whose scant posses
Sions others waited for. while a dole of
kindness passed for relationship.
Mrs. Burns poured it all out, the
cold. the ailment, the accident, the
snow. and. we're going to keep them
here right along" she ended compla-
Gently.
But do YOU want to stay" her
daughter dema nded of them.
It's the best way" said Esther: II
can see that
It's the best way" said Michael.
and muttered something else, but no
one heard.
Mrs. Burns had not intended to
make her proposition that night, bu.
she always felt that there was no time
like the present. and she went on:
And | was thinking: Your going to
. Europe to study art Is all nonsense,
Dean. Dragging Minnie across the
ocean. Why don't YOU two settle right