The Bismarck tribune., 1933-05-15

Bess had taken charge, Of course.
She wD 20 busy bustling around
making sure that there were chairs
enough for everyone, that every
ones children wers out of mischief,
and would stay clean until it was
all over" that she had time for
nothing more than . hssty kiss and
. ~How are you, Lily Lou?"
Mr.. Stokes, the old minister, was
there, and the minister's wife and
Mr.. Fletcher, and Mrs. Burpee, and
hah q dozen others from the
church.
IT don't know where wsu put
them all when they all get hers. I
wish we'd planned to have the fu-
neral in the church like I wanted, "
Bess worried. ut was my idea from
the first, but dad would have It
here. He said mother would hsve
liked it here. He was the last one
in life to ever know what she liked,
and it worked out that way right to
the end. Well! It's all we can do
now I wish he and Rufe Flet-
cher would come. Dads been OF by
himself, or at Uncle Eph's old place,
ever since mother died. It's awfully
hard on the family to have to put
off q funeral for somebody coming
from the East. Look 1T that child!
Regina, if you dirty your white
dress"
eyes, I know it has been hard
for you. Perhaps I shouldn't have
come," Lily Lou said.
When the family gathered in the
shed kitchen, and overlowed onto
the hack and side porches, Lily Lou
went into the little front room ia
say goodbye to her mother. No one
had thought to take her in. After
al, she preferred to 90 alone.
They had moved out everything
except the piano i. -. the golden oak
piano that had set her feet on the
path from which there was no
turning now -.
The bier was near the piano.
Back Of it two rows Of chairs.
Camp chairs that the undertaken,
Mr.. McRoberts, had brought.
A little timidly she came closer
to her mother.
The LansiAgs, as family, were
forever afterward to date al events
Is before or after mother died.
For years certain scenes were ia
be written on Lily Louis heart, ia
fash on and of in her memory, like
isolated stills from . moving pic
ture.
She had never realized that hel
mother was beautiful. She had just
been mother, . little tired, . little
shabby, altogether beloved.
Now she was to remember her,
wrapped in the majesty Of her iso-
lation. Her hands serene on hel
breast, her dark, silver-streaked
hair brushed back from her beau
tful white forehead in an unfa.
miliar manner. Her lovely mouth
too often frightened into . worried
line in life, younger and infinitely
more gentle now. All the tired
wrinkles gone. All the absorbed in.
terest in her children gone. The
soul, the motherly soul Of her, ded
away. Just the clay Of her body
the body that for years nobody had
noticed was beautiful, left.
Certain other things impressed
themselves almost as poignantly b
Lily LOUIS memory.
The round eyes Of Bess' thre<
children. sitting in . row on th>
table that somebody had pushed II
1t the last moment, their fat leg,
straight out before them.
The drone Of the minister's voice
The heavy fragrance Of florists
flowers. just = little past thei,
lprime.
| The little procession Of cars, ON
limousine, half . dozen divvers
winding down the unpaved road
Ipast willow trees and the dry creek.
bed, to the cemetery.
| Two workers who waited, blue
shirted, shovels at their feet, in tn,
shade Of . magnolia tree near til,
Lansings' family plot, for the las1
words to Be over, 20 they could pill