Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-15
~ RS. HOSEA G. BREWSTER al
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ri "A Der and April. She started with
the attic and worked her purl-
fying path down to the cellar
in strict accordance with article l, section l,
unwritten rules for house cleaning. For 20
wears she had done it. For 25 years sne nao
hated it-being an intelligent woman. For 20
wears. towel swathed about her head SKIRT
pinned back, sleeves rolled up-the costume
dedicated to house cleaning since the Gays Oh
what's -her-name mother of Lemuel (See Prov
cribs IL Mrs Brewster, had gone through the
ceremony twice a year.
Furniture on the porch, woOIens on the lne,
mattresses in the yard-everythmg that couio
be pounded, beaten, whisked, rubbed, Mapped
shaken or aired was dragged out and SUP
iected to one or all Of these indignltleS. AlUer
which. completely cowed, they were dragged
in again and set in their places. Year a1ter
wear in attic and in cellar things had piled
IN higher and higher-unless things, sentl-
mental things; things in trunks; things In
chests; shelves full of things wrapped up In
brown paper parcels.
NOV don't gather from this that Mrs.
Brewster was an ample, pie-baking, glng-
named old soul. Nor that Hosea c. Brewster
was spectacled and slippered. Not at ALL The
Hosea C.. Brewsters of Winnebago, Wis, were
the people you've met on the veranda OF the
Moana Hotel at Honolulu or at the top OF
Pixies Peak, or peering into the restless heart
of Vesuvius. They were the prosperous Middle
western type of citizen who runs down to Chi
cago to see the new plays and buy hat, and
to order dozen Wedgewood salad plates. The
Brewster house was honeycombed with Sleep
ing porches and sun parlors and linen closets,
and laundry chutes and vegetable bins and
electric surprises, as your wel-to-do Middle
western home is likely to be-.
That home had long ago grown too large for
the two of them-physic ally, that is But as
the big frame house had expanded, so had they
in tolerance and understanding and human
ness+until now, as you talked with them, you
felt that there was room and &c spare OF sun
filed mental chambers, and shelves well stored
with experience, and pantries and bins and
closets for all your worries and condolences
BY noon of this particular September day
"a blue-a nd-gold Wisconsin September day
Mira Brewster had reached that stage in the
cleaning of the attic when it looked as if it
would never be clean and orderly again. TAX
ing into consideration Miz' Merz MRS. Merz by
the-day, you understanO and Gussie, the girl,
and Fred, there was very little necessity for
Mrs. Brewster's official housekeeping uniform
She might have unpinned her skirt unbound
her head, rolled down her sleeves and left for
the day, serene in the knowledge that no cor
hidden, so high, so glittering, SO ornate that it
might hope to escape the rag or brush Of one
or the other of this relentless and expert
crew.
The smell of soap and water and cedar, and
moth balls, and dust, and the ghost of a per-
fumery that Pinky used to use pervaded the
hot attic Mrs. Brewster, head and shoulders
in trunk, was trying not TO listen and not
to seem to listen to Miz' Merz' recital of her
husbands relations latest hagrancy.
Families is Nix I says. I got my own
family to look out fuh,' says. Like that.
Well SIS he, wen it comes to that SIS he,
guess got some" Punctuated by thumps,
spatterings, swashings and much heavy breath
ing, so that the sound of light footsteps along
the second-f1oor hallway, young, clear voice
calling, then the same footsteps. feeter now,
on the attic stairway, were quite unheard
PinkyS arms were around her mothers neck
and for one awful moment it looked as if both
were to be decapitated by the trunk lid, so
violent had been Mrs. Brewster's start of sur
prise.
"Pinky! Why-my babyl We didn't get
your telegram Did you-"
mo; don't. I just thought I-don't look
so dazed, nlummy-you'-o all smudged, too
what in the world" Pinky Strengthened her
hat and looked about the attic. why, mother!