Evening star., 1935-02-24

send him westward, had single-handed
put new roof on the Coax summer
kitchen and. the year of little Tillie-
bellies infantile paralysis, had man.
aged the most of Sherman's scant
harvesting for him. Ethel, who in the
days before her own lightning struck.
had always laughingly declared that
frustrated infatuati0n for Sherman
had blighted her own life. had con-
tributed many an afternoons vigil
beside the couch of the recuperating
little Tilliebelle. So had Ervine.
No, looking upon the broken pat
terms of the love-lives of those about
her. there, was little to set at work
within Ervine the pangs of frustra-
tion. Escape. rather!
Oh. oh, oh. her mind tolled to her.
the folly of lying there bright day after
bright day. the sin of lying there
drained of the impulse to live.
Throughout the years of the phe-
nomenon of bearing upon her frail
shoulders more burdens than it seemed
they could bear, Ervine had worked
toward this clearing; chopping away
at the troubled forests that hedged her
in. telling her obstacles one by one.
tackling the stiff problems of her
brothers and sisters: hacking and hew-
ing their destinies into shape; and all
the while. wringing from the too-often
reluctant soil of the farm. her final
release from the bugbear Of mortgage.
Even through the drought years of
struggling single-handed against the
almost insuperable obstaclesof blasted
crops and withering cattle. Ervine had
been saving herself for this day.
Blonde hair had not been allowed to
60 gray. Ashes of roses instead. it in
some way caught blue tinges from her
eyes. Ervine would always be slender
and her hands fast and white. For ten
years she had slept in gloves. and kept
away dryness from her fine-grained
skin by applications of a cream which
she packed in jelly glasses and sold.
with no small success. to the Spring
field and Althea Women's Exchanges.
Ervine was still what she had al
ways been. right pretty" And as she
put it to herself morning after morn
ing, lying in the vast bed that had
been her parents. her face to the
daintily re-papered walls of what had
been their room, "still young enough
to want passionately to tie her sled
onto some of the good things of life.''
And now this. out of a clear sky! The
deadly empty vacant this. Days.
which even though she could fill them
to suit her pleasure. seemed empty to
her listening ear - herself the one
and only lonely pea rafting around
in twenty-four hour pod.
The day that the letter arrived
from Ethel. it lay for half the after
noon unopened on top of the coverlet
where Margot. the maid -of-all- work.
had placed it. for the simple reason
that Ervine could not bring herself to
the volition Of the act of splitting the
envelope and reading. When she fin
ally did, it was dusk and Margot had
already turned on the bedside lamp.
which in its gay cretonne shade was
part of the renovation of her parents
erstwhile solemn room into something
brighter.
Straight into the target of her
tired brain. there flew the words off
that letter. pricking it. wounding it,
startling it to the first attention it had
known in weeks. No need to re-read
Ethel's great sprawling handwriting.
There it was. the portent and the
misery. -.
Ethel. secretly married to Kellog
all these thirteen months! Imminent
birth of her child. No longer able
to keep her position. Kellog in final
tiff between them. shipping for the
China Seas. Funds at their lowest
depths. ..
Her lovely, frightened Ethel! What
prodigal. Shame, pity. the desire to
wind her chilly arms around the big
with-child body of her wayward-
hearted sister smote the body of
Ervine awake as if it were gong that
had been struck.
Ethers room. the one which Ervine
had taken over to use as her little
library. must be made readyl Ethel
mist no made m fool that tho ~yor,,,