Evening star., 1927-05-02

u car going home at night. she
never failed to catch the beck.
oning gesture it seemed TO make
for her alone. She wondered about
if standing there berefit under the
two big pines. so old so shabby, so
piteous. With broken window panes,
sagging porch, toppling chimney, rot
ten shingles. Whom did it belong
to? Why was it nobody seemed TO
live there or care for 1t any longer?
Gradually she came to weave
little dream about 1T. Some DAY
somebody who loved it would open
the battered front door and step in
and the little old house would wake
and thrill and respond. Soon the
windows would gleam whole and
clean. the chimney, proudly erect
would float a pennant of blue smoke,
the porch would get mended and new
shingles would replace the old ones,
Flowers would bloom in the yard
and somebody would walk among
them evenings with a watering pot
somebody who was young and wore
hlue and had bright hair. And pres
emily somebody else, who was tall
and brisk and eager, would unlatcn
the gate and there would be greet.
ings and kisses and anxious, Joytui
pIances. Then the blue-frocked one
would pin posy on the taii one ;
coat and they would go IN through
the door together.
Anna lived on the top floor of a
rooning house, where she cooked her
own breakfast and supper. Lunches
she got in town at the restaurant
1cross the way from the office where
che worked. She was so past, tired
with the home hunger natural 10
avery unmarried woman. whose WORN
has become a grind. Thin, oars
earnest, she was a jewel at her 1op
and earned enough for her heeos'
with a bit of saving against rainy
dav She had married sister III
another State, with whom she spent
vacations This was about all there
was to her life or ever would De- as
far as she knew.
She had never dreamed Of having
anv money she did not earn. anu
VET she fell heir to legacy. II w@ds @
not a stupendous gift, Just 10"
thousand. In fact, the dlstant rela-
five who remembered her anu nei
sister. alike left far more TO ms seis, "
ant than to them jointly. But 10
Eva weston it was a fortune, more
than she could nope " ''eO
in many years. naaa
Fraedom. release, rest-she needeo
them ali, for the doctor had told ner
so She was too thin, too tense' !oo
crave. Laughter, sunshine, reiaXatloll
this was his prescription ne
scared Anna into resignlng her w.
sition hut when she would nave gone
10 her sisters Marian wrote thaC tiies
ware about to start on long tIlp,
x,,bict hon. new investment Would
finance. Anna could go with them II II
she liked, but Anna declined. Iha'
was not the vacation she needed'
A home-that was what she wanted
. little house with earth to get her
fingers into, floors to sweep, food TO
cook. She thought of renting 1uf-
nished fat and went into town 70
look at some. But on her way PACK
she saw. again the old empty mouse
under the pines and 1t beckoned so
anxiously that she decided TO become
it's owner if she could.
II was quite an easy matter after all.
Mrs. Fagin knew the agent VINO mao
If in charge and Anna sought hlm'
She rented it, with privilege to buy'
The Young agent thought she was
crazy. presumably, but he took her
ont to the house and gave her the
KEY with an air of you're welcome. ,
For the first time in her life Anna
nossessed a, house key. Her whole
experience of living hitherto had
been small rooms smelling OF things
cooked over a gas burner. rms
house had to have stove and rugs
and furniture and curtains. she
bought them all at an auction sale
old. ia sFiened things which prom
ised comfort and coziness. When
she had hung her new curtains and
placed her old furniture and bulit
q fire in her stove she was at nome.
It was strange at night to be alone.
nobody near at all, for the house stood
apart, but the quiet was blessed ana
she needed it. Moreover, surely Sum
mer was at hand and unaccountably
a, clump of lilies was blooming beside
her door. The pine trees whispered
softly and a wren sang from the roof
of the old porch.
The young agent had done little
toward making the place habitable,
that is, he had had the roof mended
and new panes puttied in and the
topping chimney braced. Anna was
not exacting. She only wanted a
chance to enjoy her house in peace.
1t was not long before the people
on passing trolley cars must have
seen that something new and Won
reful and happy had happened to
the old house. It was sprucing up,
brushing it's clothes, lifting its head,
so to speak. And, lowering about ii
in the sunshine, was a slender young
woman in a blue cotton frock with
her dark hair glimmering above her
white brow.
IL the old house grew lovely, Anna
grew still lovelier. She blossomed
with the petunias. At last she knew