Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1931-07-23

they were always laying aside and put
ting on again as they changed their
roles perpetually from waiting women
to hostesses. Miss Amelia Buss took
Eileen TO her room.
Water. Matches. Towels. Can
dies. A lamp. she murmured. When
ever you want a nice hot all-over bath
Just give us notice. Your east win
dow sticks but if you want air, prop
up the southern one. You get full
morning sun and a slip OF afternoon.
If the birds flutter about it's because
the gentleman that has had this room
always put bread out for them. Some
times they fly right in. Here's your
writing desk, ink, blotting book, pens
and waste basket. Supper's at six.
The house without any roof you're
looking at over the trees Is Mr..
| Groome's. He's building. His old
house burned down. He comes in here
for his meals mostly"
Eileen was disappointed. She want
ed to be Miss BIS only boarder. This
Mr.. Grome was decidedly a fly in the
Miss BIS ointment.
She washed in the basin. delighting
in its clean and homely inconvenience,
enjoying the pouring out OF clear wa
ter and the slippery emptying OF soapy
used water into a slop jar. A Slop jar!
Antinque and quaint and beautiful it
looked to Eileen in its sturdy white
simplicity. She liked the square of
oilcloth on which it stood, she liked
the splaSher back Of the basin, and the
tooth mug and the covered soap dish.
She liked everything except the immin-
ent Mr.. Groome.
He was not there for her first sup
per. for which absence Eileen remem-
bered him in silent grace. Unfolding
her napkin, which she took out of its
ring, she allowed the two Miss BIS to
present to her relaxed and open mind
their engaged personalities. She re-
Trained from comment. from her eter-
nal comment, checked that wearisome
perpetual annexation of the writing
mind.
The two stocky little women chat
tered and smiled. Never was anything
more cheerful. 1t would be impossible
to imagine either of them wiStful OF
ennuied. They seemed to Eileen hap
pier than birds. She did think-before
she could stop herself-of Words
Worth's line:
THE slightest movement that they
made it seemed a thrill of pleasure.
And all this cheerfulness was direct
ed out toward busy little circumstance
chickens and eggs, honey and bees, 6
pony and his pasture, berries and ap-
pie blossoms, and asparagus.
After supper Eileen, firmly but con.
scious of timidity, lighted her first con-
spicious cigaret.
Isabella" they said, tenderly, MAR.
tins wife Isabella used to smoke, too
Amelia, where's the ash tray, dear?"
They both looked gently on her oc-
cupation. That smoking should be
habit with this pale, frail, large-eyec
girl had for them, it would seem,
trait of humorous pathOS. THE poor
little thing!" their eyes commented
"she must have her cigaret then, bless
her!'
A pleasant sense of childishness stole
over Eileen in their company. Nothing
could have been more restful. To re-
turn to the pretty little age when
woman is queen and kitten and play
mate to the world. What a pity that
tomorrow there must be a Mr.. Groomt
whose gaze would add instantly twen-
ty-odd years to this delicious, artifi.
ciaIly induced sense of childhood. Tht
threat, to be sure, added a peculiar
poignancy to the peace of her first
evening.
Eileen strolled out with her cigeret
and wandered as far as the gate
against which she leaned in the fash
ion of a village girl. How she had for
gotten night, the simple, naked, un-
bedizened night. She listened to sill
ence. Above her trees moved against
a sky all freckled with real stars. A
horses hooves plodded past her dowr
the lane some one riding belately
YEARLY to his home. Here was an.
other thing she had forgotten-that
finding ones way home late and lonely
and silent through the dusk. There
vas a smell of dew. Lights came Out
here and there in bosky places. Thu
two Miss BIS lighted their parlor lamp
behind the lilac bush.
Eileen went up to her room ant
lighted her own two candles there
| Her shutters had been closed, but tn,
) southern window vas propped open
and the o smelled pleasantly O
shingles across which a sun had movee
all day, Of floor wax, and we'll cared fol
; linen, and Of lilacs.
, For hours she had not thought O
Horace Willowly. Now she tried II
think of him, but his image escapet
, her, s solid, so convincing had sudden
| ly for some reason become the homely
l forgotten, outer world. Her chair, he
table . seemed exciting, like oil
r friends newly encountered. She fel
E consciously the difference beneath he
E feet between the rag rug and tn
l board floor. Her hands fingered wher,
. they touched. The smell of things in
2 trigued and captivated her. She ha,
Y forgotten this affair of texture. 1t wa
( an absorbing Observation-Disclosures agair
. On the writing table she laid dow
2 Horace's book of verses. She ha'
f meant to read it before she slept, bu
. the thought of his violent and entangl
. ing words was ~curiously ~fatiguing t
her She took ont Some letters RI n