The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1928-07-27
LEANING
ON FRIENDLY
SHOULDERS
&c by D. j. walsh.l


q IDNEY RUSHTON felt very much
out of place and therefore very
" much annoyed. Nothing more
disagreeable could have hap
pened, she thought than that she
should have missed the express at
Haverleigh and been obliged to take
the tedious old local with its jolting
bumpers, uncomfortable seats and
dingy lights. But there was no other
train before midnight and she was
anxious TO reach home as quickly as
possible. Even a few hours might
make great change in her fathers
condition.
In the smudgy panel mirror beside
her seat she saw herself slender, fash
ionable, haughtily self-cOnscious
sitting erect iest she soil her expensive
coat by contact with the worn plush.
The little mirror framed the one pleas
ant thing there was for her to see,
because it was already too dark for
any appearance outside the window.
And the swaying, creaking old coach
held barely a dozen people, stupid
looking people in whom Sidney could
take no interest.
Twenty years before Sidney Marsh
had married Scott Rushton and
slipped out of the old environment as
she believed forever. But one thing
prevented her doing so-her father in
sisted on staying in Hillville. Even
though Sidney was able to keep him
with her for weeks at a time he al
ways went back to the old place. Lat
terly he had stayed there more than
ever, and now he had fallen sick there.
For the first time Sidney was COM
PEELED to go back to the old home
town for which she had developed a
strong distaS.e as her husbands for
tunes lifted her into an important
new sphere.
She was resolved now to renew no
acquaintance, connect no broken
threads. If her father died she would
be done with Hillville anyway, and
if he grew better she meant to take
him home with her and not allow
him to escape again back to his old
haunt. 1t was ridiculous the way he
hung to the old place with it's coarse
stupidity and behind-handness. Ger
tainly, there was nothing in it for her.
At this point in her reflections she
was conscious of a step beside her,
of hand laid on the back of her
seat, and she looked up into plain,
Is that nIl
ries.
1--WE been trying to make out it was
you ever since We left HaverIeigh,"
the woman said, holding out her hand
in gray cotton glove. "HOw do you
do Sidney? I'm glad to see you are
going home to look after your father.
He certainly needs you"
Sidney with a flush had accepted
the cotton-gloved hand, trying to
murmur something inconsequential
but appropriate. She was further an
noyed when the woman slipped into
the seat beside her.
you haven't changed much In
twenty years, Sidney" she went on
coolly. "But you've grown to look more
like your father as you get older. He
is a splendid man. We are all going
to miss him if anything happens to
him. But Mrs. Cotton has been won
derful to him."
Sidney bit her lip. She didn't re-
act favorably to this frank familiar
ity. Why in the world was it that
she could not have entered Hillville
without running across Mary Andrews?
81 suppose you are still teaching?"
she commented.
"Yes" Mary laughed at little "Yes,
I've been teaching all these twenty
years you have been away and mar
ried. And ] like it yet, Pm in the
Haverleigh high school, have been for
four years. | 60 home Friday night
Il call Mrs. COtton's home. | teach
civics and mathematics and chemistry.
] suppose they sound stupid, but they
are lively enough subjects, can tell
you, when they are mixed up with hui
man nature"
So she lived at Mrs. Cotton's. There
was no getting away from her. then
Sidney became silent.
"Your children must be about the
age of my high school boys and girls p
pursued Mary.
Roland is nineteen and in Harvard.
Julia, who is seventeen, is at a finish
ing school on the Hudson"
They were going down the grade
into Hillville now, and the rafting and
the bouncing made conversation al
most impossible. Presently the train
stopped with a bump before the dim
little station.
There won't be anybody to meet
this train," Mary Andrews said. sand
it is good ways to walk. I'm afraid
it is going to be icy, too. with this
sleet falling"
1t was icy and Sidney, on her high
heels, with only sandals to protect
her feet, slid about terrifically. Mary
however, strobe along confidently.
There had been slight embarrass-
ment when they first started out by
Mary's insisting on helping Sidney
carry her bag, but Sidney was de-