The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1931-10-16

and precision.
Sometimes the literary society, or
the dramatic club of which Lottie was
also member, met in the modest lit
tie home where Sibbie took great
pains to serve excellent refreshments.
There was girl named Edda May,
OF wealthy parents, who had come to
be a great chum of Lottie's. Some
times they practiced their dramatics
together, while Sibbie held the book
and prompted them. Lottie and Ed
da were bound for the same college.
Once, too, Lottie was chosen to play
Juliet opposite Lon Browns Romeo
in the school production of that play,
and it seemed to Sibbie, sitting there
beholding, that no fulfillment could be
finer than this vicariOus one that was
hers. Compared to the joys of be-
holding in this girl of hers the frui-
ton of her own stunted and blunted
desires, the years of struggle, grief
and despair, were as naught.
In a way, Sibbie used to argue with
herself, it was blessed dispensation
that she had been too silly and ignO-
rant girl to realize the incalculable
advantages of an education. Other
wise, she might never have realized
thus keenly how essential were the
cultural attributes she desired so pas
siOnately in her daughter
The world was filled with women
who had suddenly found themselves
in the routine rut of homes, without
having had time to equip themselves
for life; women without the capacity
to desire the better things. Sibbie
had been such a woman. The ave-
nues of good reading, of foreign Lam
guages, of art were closed to her, be-
cause she had never prepared her
mind to understand or love them.
There came to be something hor-
rible to Sibbie in the news that this
and that young girl of Lottie's ac-
Quaintance had married.
Too soon, too soon, was what her
heart tolled when tidings such as these
came to her. These young girls, just
out of high school. had not time to
prepare themselves for the better
things; the banquet-things Of life's
table.
When Lottie was eighteen, she was
graduated with honors from her high
school.
There were three months between
her and the time she was to enter
college; months that were heart-hurt-
ing and terrible to Sibbie in many
ways, as the time of her separation
from this child approached, and yet
months that were lit with the fame
of fulfillment
To add to the excitement and the
fine quality of her anticipations, Lot
tie won travelling scholarship of
two months in Europe, on the strength
of an essay she wrote for local
newspaper. 1t came out of clear
sky, because Sibbie had not even
known that her daughter had entered
the competition. Two months In Eu-
rope! Two months among the art gall
leries, the palaces and the capitals of
, ulaHCC, oCilnoAJ anu AletAys
Why, that in itself was enough to
give girl running start in cul-
tural life that was limitless in its
possibilities.
More than that, think what 1t would
do to jerk the pretty Lottie, tired
from the arduous activities Of her
graduation, out of the apathy which
had come over her of late.
But as matter Of fact, the effect
was just the contrary. Like flow.
err dropping of its own weight, Lot
tie somehow failed to respond to the
incredible good fortune that had be-
fallen her and for some reason, all
the old enthusiasm about her entrance
into college had flowed out Of her,
leaving her a wan and listless girl
who was puzzling to her mother.
After ALL it was impossible to ac-
count for lassitude SO deeply root
ed as Lottie's, merely by the strenu-
GUS activities attending her gradua-
ton. Something fundamental was to
be reckoned with in Lottie.
1t all became startlingly clear, just
one week before she was to sail for
Europe She eloped with Lon Brown.
The effect upon her mother, the sub
sequent happy setting-up of the two
young people into small homestead.
and the resultant years of good for
tune and tribulation, happiness and
heartache, are precisely what would
be expected. Sibbie, with the uncon-
querable resiliency of the human be-
ing, recovered from the shock of her
disappointment and learned. to accept
in good faith the really pleasant des-
tiny that had overtaken her daugh-
/ ter. Lon was a good fellow, indus
trious, ambitious and capable. Their
first child was born on Lottie's birth
day.
She is six years old now, her name
is Sibbie. The nest-egg toward her
college education has already been
started in the savings bank.