The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1933-09-26
STOLEN LOVE
By Hazel Livingston
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n don't want any foolishness,"
Aunt Evvie used to say when Joan
as a child begged for a pet or q
playmate. And, ~ don't want any
foolishness," she still said, when
seventeen-year old Joan asked for
silk stockings, or permission to
stay and play tennis after school.
That settled it so far as Aunt
Evvie was concerned. But foolish
ness" is not 50 easily settled when
you are seventeen, and it's spring.
It was April. The lilacs on the
old Van Fleet place had burst into
bloom over night. Yesterday they
were tight, dark buds, and now the
feathery blossoms sprayed over the
summer house and dripped, q glor-
ious purple tide, onto the sun-blis-
tered bench beside it..
Joan grinned impishly and kissed
the sweet green wood of the lilac
tree. Joan was always loving
things-the little new green shoots
in the old cypress hedge, the swell
ing buds on the rose bushes, the
poor, rusty iron deer, who had stood
for SO many years firmly planted in
the middle Of the garden.
When you aren't allowed to have
real friends you have to have make
believe ones. At least Joan did.
Major, the deer, was the best be-
loved Of them all. Many were the
warm kisses she had pressed on his
cold iron nose, many the fearful se-
crets she had poured into his deaf
and rusty ear. Major! Silly name
for q deer, but she was only three,
and thought he was q dog when
she named him that. Perhaps, she
thought, the doggish name would
give him little more life, inspire
him to pick up his iron heels and
run "woof- woo6ng" around the
yard like the Sedgwicks' dog next
door. Joan was always imagining
"Silly thing!" Mrs. Heeley, peel
ing potatoes at the kitchen window,
watched her disgustedly. .Ste's
been up to somethin'!" The brosS0
parings slid in thin spirals FROM
her red, bony hands, onto the news
paper-covered drain board. "Wait
till Miss Evvie gets after her !.
she'll catch i'll"
There was an odd exulting CLEAN
in her sunken old eyes, something
vicious in the way she handled the
sharp little pairing knife. "Old
Crazy Heeley," the Sausalito chill
dren called her: Thirty-seven years
she had worked for the Van Fleets.
"Workin' my fingers to the bone,
takin' Miss Evvie's lip, and no de-
cent wages :. they'll see when I'm
gone :" She was always threat
ening to quit. But she never did.
She hated change.
She hated Joan, too. Joan-who
was young when she and the Evan
Fleet" girls were old. Joan-with
the too red, too laughing mouth.
Joan-with the fy-a-way golden
hair, tomboy Joan, always rushing
and running and tumbling over
things, never stopping to grow up
into . proper young lady.
"Lookit her now. Playin' with
them flowers like they was human.
I've = good mind to call her in
an"
The big front door, swollen after
the long rains, creaked loudly on it,
heavy hinges. A voice on the front
porch, authoritative, manly. Nc
need for Heeley to call Joan. Miss
Evvie would see TO everything.
Joan picked up her feet slowly.
Her heavy common-sense shoes
scraped on the patch. They
weren't dancing feet any more. The
little secret smile had faded. JoaE
was afraid Of Aunt. Evvie. Aunt
Evvie had found out; somebody
must have told on her. She might
have known. Aunt Evvie alwayl
found out =.
Aunt Evvie was waiting In thu
very middle Of the big red rug II
the library. She stood, square ant
crisp in her stiff white shirt-wais,
and black alpaca skirt, : black
browed executioner, waiting for TIL
culprit.
Over in her corner near the ugly
air-ti9ht stove, Aunt Babe pullet
her pink ice-wool shawl closer owe
her narrow shoulders, and rookie.
very fast. The disciplining Of Joan
though pleasurably exciting, va
nerve wracking, and likely to Civ
her headache. Evvie never knew
when to stop. III.
$50 YOU spent the afternoon viii
tAe SsdsNifk tiElss" Aunt EYyie'