The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1929-08-02


~ 1t was an old fashioned brus.
sells carpet, thick and hard as
board and the faded roses were
dusty. Delia's mother cherished the
carpet for she had bought it herself
with butter-and-egg money during the
first years of her marriage. But Della
hated the carpet just as she hated
many like things In her young life.
Now in thrashing the brussels roses
she was trying to get rid Of rebeIli-
GUS energy SO terrific that it fairly
obsessed her. T .s
Della was eighteen, a slim thing
with smooth black hair-long, Of
course-gray eyes full Of light, red
lips and a stubborn white chin. She
was not pretty, but she had enough
charm to make Alec Bruce pick her
out Of all the girls Of his acquaint-
ance. -F
1t was Alec who now came whistl-
ing round the corner of the house.
his arms full of groceries. Alec owned
the grocery store and sometimes drove
the red delivery car himself, He was
tall, with sandy hair, white teeth and
humorous crinkles at the corners of
his blue eyes. Scotch with tang of
Irish, his ancestors had settled on
the north coast Of Erin, drifting thith-
er from the more rugged country.
Alec's father had been born beside
a peat fire, but Alec was first, last
and always American.
"Hey, there!" he accosted Della.
"What you think you're doing, any.
way-tanning the hides of all the
hoodlums in the Guideboard district?"
Delia's only reply was to thump
away harder.
Alec took the groceries into the
house, where Mrs. Watkins received
them. Then he returned to Della.
"Quit furnishing that poor old rag
a minute, can't you?" he laughed.
"Here, let me have the club" He tried
to take the carpet-beater from her
hand, but Della chung to it. Their eyes
clashed. "Come, Della! This is man.
sized job" he said earnestly. It'll fin!
ish cleaning the carpet for you"
II wish you'd go on about your
business and let me alone" Della said,
exasperated. She was keenly conscious
Of her looks, tear in her old blue
Bingham, smudge on her nose and
patched shoes. Besides, she had a
broken finger-nail that hurt cruelty.
And she had just got speck of dust
in one eye that was making it red and
watery.
e "Too nice morning to be whipping
carpet" Alec said, taking his hand,
\ from the beaten. Better hop into the
ia10 nd go VIII y ffssy gott
Ike a couple sacks Of flour out to
Peterson's."
tell you I'm busy. And-you're
ling me-"
"Sorry Guess I'll ask Helen Morse,
then" Alec was nettled. He did not
whistle as he went away.
Della gave the old carpet two or
three more hard thumps, then she
collapsed against It in a fit of passion
ate weeping. She had been horrid. She
had driven him to Helen Morse, which
was just what Helen had tainted her
into doing. She peeped out around the
edge of sthe carpet at the next house,
the big, handsome house where big.
handsome Helen Morse lived. But Alec
hadn't stopped there for all his threat.
in VIII
give her. She'd had her lesson; next
time she'd behave.
Della finished beating the carpet,
dragged it off the line, got it into the
floor. Mrs. Watkins bossed the job
without lifting a finger. Thin, pale,
anemic, she was obsessed with the
idea that she had heart trouble; she
saved herself at the expense of her
daughter.
After dinner mother lay down and
Della, having bathed and put ON a
clean frock, sat down at the desk
in the living room to puzzle out the
family accounts. Some bills must be
struggle to get bills paid. Besides, she
had to earn the money herself, teach
ing forty weeks year in the Guide
board district. That was job, be-
lieve me. Twenty-three kids of as
sorted sizes and unruly dispositions. to
say nothing of dirty noses and "things
in their hair" She sighed heavily as
she opened her crumpled little account
book.
Voices, laughter coming in through
the open window. She pulled aside
the stiff Nottingham lace curtain and
peeped out. Helen Morse stood on the
steps anC Alec was just putting a
package into her lovely white hands.
Helen looked into Alec's eyes-and
dropped the package. White sugar
flew in every direction. Helen gave a
little scream of dismay. "That's all
right" Alec said. "Ill bring you an
other five pounds"
Mothers waiting for it." Helen