Evening star., 1926-10-30
Is Per Cent Off.

~ UBA CARTER and Mrs
y Minch had been friends fol
more than 90 years. 1t was
IL a peculiar friendship. Zuba
was angular and dark and
never smiled. Her stomach was
delicate and her life was made uT
of petty things. chief of which was
to supervise the comings and goings
of Miranda Minch. Zuba was a
dressmaker, that is. she made over
peoples old clothes for them, but
seldom was intrusted with anything
new to work on.
Miranda Minch was Ga and Zuba
60. Miranda had worn herself out
caring for her husband. who had
been much older than herself and
an invalid. and during the years in
which she had carefully tended him
and been unable to leave the house
for fear SANDY" as Mr.. Minch was
called. would set fire to himself
with his pipe.
Miranda had depended much upon
Zuba to run errands for her. In
fact, for weeks at q time Zuba had
been almost the only means Miranda
had had with which to communicate
with the outside world. For Sandy
tied to the house as he was, burned
with jealousy lest some one should
look with favor upon his "old wom-
an as he always called Miranda.
In fact. Miranda had been called old
so long that she never thought of
herself as anything but an old
woman. And Zuba, proud of her
being four years younger than
Miranda. after Sandy died kept right
on referring to Miranda as one being
too old to expect to get much more
out of life
She insisted that there was very
little else for Miranda to do but see
that her burial clothes were kept
in readiness, for, of course, it would
now before Miranda would be called
upon to Join Sandy in his long
sleep.
For the first few weeks after
Sandy died Miranda felt quite as
liStless and hopeless as Xuba said
she would. But after a quiet, rest
full Winter, with plenty of time to
sleep and eat and chance to run
into neighbor's for an occa-
sional call, Miranda was surprised
to find how perfectly distasteful the
thought of going out of this world
before she had actually lived in 1t
grew to her. She began to take on
flesh and one beautiful Spring morn
ing while she was out in her small
front yard raking away the debris
which had accumulated during the
Winter she actually felt a thrill at
the thought that Summer was COM
ing with its flowers and sunshine.
She was glad to be alive and be-
fore she realized it she found her
self whistling a half forgotten song.
Her first impulse was to check the
song, but before she could quite
make up her mind whether she had
been wrong in indulging in anything
as frivolous as whistling she was
startled by some one "Hoo-hooing.
She turned and saw one of the
French girls running down the
street waving big pink paper in
her hand.
"She don't mean me-" thought Mi
randa. But it was very soon evil
dent that Patty French did mean
her, because she cut across the yard
and held the flaming pink thing be-
fore Miranda's astonished eyes.
Read that" Patty demanded.
This says the Flints are selling out
everything in their store at 25 per
cent reduction. The sale begins at
9 o'clock this very morning. May
and 1 are going and we want you
to go with us. I got dressed first,
but May will be right along. Run in,
Mrs. Minch, and get ready. We
can't afford to lose a minute first