The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1926-10-14

@F
Mine, too" said Charlie Jack
arguing about?"
Her Dress" growled Kent. ri
don't see anything the matter with
IT, do you?"
Nope, and it's on the prettiest
girl In the room, too, eh, KentT
you bet" returned Kent, believ-
ing, though, that he lied, for Olga
was as pretty as a tea rose.
Lydia blushed and gasped.
"If you won't dance, come Oh
over and have some lemonade"
suggested Kent.
IF I sit in the window, will you
bring me a glass?" asked Lydia,
still mindful of the back breadth.
You take her to the window and
III get the lemo, Kent said Char
lie.
Kent led the way to the window
seat. You're a good old sport,
Lyd," he said. "Charliell look out
for you. I gotta get back to Olga"
He returned to make peace with
the pink organdie. She was very
lovely and Kent was having his
first Irritation. Yet before he went
to sleep that night the last picture
that f1oated before his eyes was Of
a thin little figure with worn nit
tens clasped over patched knees
and a ravished child's face looking
into his.
Charlie Jackson sat out two
whole dances with Lydia. Their
talk was of Adam and of fishing.
Lydia longed to talk about Indians
with him but didn't dare. Prompt
ly at ten, Amos appeared at the
front door.
Lydia's first party was over.
Amos and old Lizzie were charmed
with Lydia's description of it and
were sure she had had a wonderful
time. But Lydia felt that the dress
had made of the party a hideous
failure. She knew now that she
was marked among her mates ~
a poverty-stricken little dowd whom
popular boys like Kent and Charlie
pitied.
And vet because life is as kind
TO US as we have the intelligence
to let ii be, 1t was out of the party
that grew slowly a new resolve Of
Lydia's-to have some day as pref
ty hands and as weif-shOd feet as
Olga and Hilda and Cissy, to learn
how to make her dresses &c that
even the composing of an organdie
might not be beyond her.
John Levine was running for
sheriff on the Republican ticket.
He was elected early in April by q
comfortable majority and invited
Amos and Lydia to a fine Sunday
dinner In celebration at the best
hotel in town.
Lydia's life was so different from
that of any Of the children that
she knew, that growing into Adde'S
cence with the old bond of play dis
she fell back more and
more on resources within herself.
This did not prevent her going
faithfully one a month to call on
Margery Marshall. And these Wis
its were rather pleasant than 9th
Margery was going through
the paper doll fever. Lydia always
brought Florence Dombey with her
and the two girls carried on an
elaborate ann Of m~ake-believe, the
I~ntricacies of which were entirely
too much for Elviry Marshall, sit
ting within earshot.
Amos garden was a thing of beau
~. It's rows of vegetables were bor-
dered with synflowers, whose yell
.ow heads wed in height with the
~nCt1fnn norc Of anrnp Amos hhd a
general grudge toward life. He
had a vague, unexpressed belief
hat because he was a descendant
IF the founders of the country, the
world owed him an easy living. He
lad a general sense of superiority
o his foreign-born neighbors and
the workmen In the pillow fac
DRY.
But in his garden, all his grudges
disappeared. He always felt nea
r. to his wife, in the garden. She,
90, had been bred on a New Eng
and farm. He always felt as If
he fine orderliness of the rows was
or her.
Lydia greatly preferred wedding
he garden to cleaning the house.
indeed the contrast between the
inc garden, the well-kept patch of
and the disorderly house was
tartling.
One afternoon in August, clad in
Ter bathing suit, now much too
mall for her, she was working in
he garden, when a voice behind
Ter grunted:
"Eat!"
Lydia jumped and turned. The
Id squaw of two years before stood
egging. She was as pitifully thin
S ever. AS she stared at the ugly
Id Indian, Lydia's throat tight
ned. She seemed to feel baby Pa
ience's fingers clinging to hers IN
"Want some vegetables?" she
sked, %motioning toward the gar
en-.
The squaw nodded eagerly and
ED up the dirty apron she was
Lydia began slowly to fill
!, talking as she worked.
"Where do You live?" she asked.
The Indian .ierked her gray head
1ward the north big Woods"
but that's twenty miles. 1t
lust take you a long time to walk
!. Poor thingr"
The squaw shrugged her Shout
ers. Lydia stared at the tooth
,ss, trembling old mouth, hideous
wrinkles, then at the gnarled