Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1930-09-18
IN TWO PARTS-PART ONE

THEY took Louise back and forth Il
school four times a day, although
she was now in No. 3 and almOS
9 years old. When mother herself ha(
been a little thing gypsies had taker
her away, and kept her all day befor,
she was found, so that grandmother
was full of fear for Louise. Usually
mother went with her. or Aunt Agnes
or sometimes. if the weather were fine
grandmother herself walked with the
little girls hand safely in her own.
All the other little girls, going along
by twos and threeS with their arms
around another's necks, with their
delightful secrets, and the little notes
they stopped to read, paused on the
edge CT the walk, and let the cavalcade
of Louise and her escort go by in re-
spectful silence, looking up with big
brown and blue eyes and small, lovely
silent faces. Louise looked at them
~longingly from under her eyelashes,
but she did not speak, and neither
did they. All of the Lesh women were
tall and dignified, and entirely salts
fed with the Lesh way of doing every
thing. And one of their rules was
that Louise should not go on the street
alone, nor play with other children.
At recess, of course, 0 n of the three
guardians was with her. But a little
girl cannot, in fifteen minutes, three
of which are spent in line, pierce into
intimacies formed in dawdling walks
back and forth to school, in hours
spent roller skating over Hilltown's
uneven walks, in long Saturdays Of
having shows and tea parties. going
to one another's houses, whispering in
the twilight-not in fifteen minutes
twice a day can such comradeship be
shared. Besides, by the time they were
in No. 3 all the little girls were paired
off. There were Martha Pierce and
Martha Reid. Barbara and Mary,
Kathie and Mimi, Resale and Mar
celia. There were even two little col
ored girls who we're inseparable. None
SO mean in No. 3 that she did not
have that indispensable satisfaction of
the soul-a chum! None, that is, save
Louise Rogers.
OF course, the chums were not al
ways constant. Barbara and Mary fell
out and would not speak to one an
other for three weeks, and it hap
pened, now and then, that three of
them got mad" at one, and they
walked on opposite sides of the street
and called back and forth to an
other quite unkind things. And IN
thrilling week all the girls in the room
except Louise were angry at Kathie
and shut her out of their games, be-
cause she tattled. But even in her ex-
tremity Kathie did not seek Louise.
She spent her time wrangling with her
enemies. These difficulties had, for
a fascination quite unbearable.
When she thought of them a longing
and emptiness came over her that
made her feel quite faint, so that she
could not eat. But she did not have
any idea why she felt that way, and
never thought of telling any one.
She stood at the front window, one
late March afternoon. and watched the
girls skating up and down the long
slope OF the hill. and made up little
in which she and Barbara quar-
relied and made up. For, of them all,
Louise liked Barbara the best, and
would have liked to have her for q
friend.
The girls came swooping down the
hill, all the girls in No. 3. They had
been skating for two years, most of
them, and they had what they called
Dali bearlans,' and they did stunts.
Barbara was the tallest, and she was
the best. She came first. and she bent
n knee and let the other foot trail
behind her, like a dancer making q
curtsy. So, STOPPING forward, arms
outspread, her eyes shining, and her
yellow curls huttering behind her. she