The Fort Peck press., 1936-04-09

c a l1tCle white mouse, never quite o.
both feet at once, as full Of lif
as a graSShopper in August, and too
: his cap off with unWonted care. Their
e was a package of picture postcards i
> the crown of it.
Five of EN-! I bought EN- myself
wrote 'em myself, and now I'm goin
to mail 'em!"
She adjusted her glasses and too
the cards. She looked a little rebuffeI
as she thought how out of it she was
for each card bore a local scene AM
the same printed blurb about some
thing important she hadn't heard OF
She had lived in this town only thre
. months, but she owned her house an
meant to stay for the rest of her life
and she would have liked to have hat
a sense of belonging. You'd have 10 d.
more than she did, though, she sup
posed, and spend more than she tpent
for that.
$50 the town is going to have an OLE
Home week." she said, a little visit.
fully.
Good gosh, Aunty Bixler," his heac
a little on one side in a way he had
his brown eyes bright as a squirrels
amt you heard about that?"
Nobody else called her Aunty Bixler
She wasn't anybody's aunt. and never
had been. She lived alone, and his
CHEEKY, sparroW-like dropping in after
moons, to do odd jobs for the small
weekly sun she paid him was often
the principal event of her day.
There's lots of things I don't hear
about back here on this side street
and when you forget to tell me
but what's the writing about? And she
began to read what he had written on
the cards. Gracious, Joe Henry, you've
actually gone and invited three people
to come and visit you? Lands sake.
boy: whatn you do if they accept?"
She was genuinely curious, and, too,
suddenly relieved. She knew his moth
er was dead and he lived with his
father, but she didn't know where nor
how, nor what his father did for a
living. 1t would take a load off her
mind if it turned out that he had a
place-any kind of place-he could ask
three people to stay in. She took off
her glasses and looked at him nope
fully.
He grinned sheepishly. "Everybody's
dom it, an I didn't want to be left
plumb out of it, but these is to those
Jordan kids Judge Graham sent up to
the Industrial school last summer. They
can't accept. They can't go anywheres.
you know. But Just the same
Shocked at first, she began to
chuckle. IF you're not the beatenest-'
just the same, I thouht it would
be sort of givin' 'em the clad hand to
Maybe you're right at that" she
said, and sighed unconsciously.
She did wish she knew he had a
decent place to stay in. Several times
she had almost asked him about it, but
there was something in him that she
couldn't bear to force, something she
respected, that wanted to be free and
0nr1lID't cfny1I hni,,n Ni+inJ Cl@1 l1~L
always been like that herself.
TIL bet they'll be real glad to know
you thought about them," she said,
handing back the cards.
Everybody is sending out invites. I
maybe you'd be wantin' me
20 go downtown for some for you"
She looked into the eager little face
lard, meager, s~elf-denying years
through which she had worked her
way, unmarried and unaided, to her
PRESENT bare competence, and shook
Ter head. s
mo, Joe Henry. Having peoples too
much trouble for an old oma alone. {
nd company messes your house up.
yaS a quarter of a pound of tea and
pound of round steak, ground, from
he butchers"
Old Home week, she thought, watch /
lg him trudge off whistling, ought to
something to her, o that she c
ad a home, but it didn't. She sup Il
osed she knew more people than any v
ody in town. Probably there wasn't 9
nybody in town that as many people {
ould recognize on sight. ''Well, back u
gain, Miss BiXler? How's business?" =
ut there wa nobody she could ask
come and stay with her. She had
cen in a great many homes in little
towns all over this part of the
States selling corsets, stockings
I'd lingerie. She had lived a pretty fair
zed lifetime in cheap hotels and room
houses. Her sample case had been
most as much a part of her as her
1T. Until at last what she had thought
,out most of the time as she went
door to door was a day when
e could take off the one and put away
other and have a place that she
uld stay in. A place where trains and
Ises and boats didn't mean anything.
d and hear them and not pay any
tention. And now she had it. In COM
riSon, people didn't matter.
She had been making this town for
long time, but it had been like any
her town until the afternoon she
" the for sale sign on this house. She
d saved enough to retire on if she
~ wy In SiNSoPlJ ClAOQSAl oI1C Woo
ed, it was hot, and her feet ached.
lie grass was very long everywhere,
IN between the flagstones in the
TX, with ground myrtle winking blue
in the depths of it and yellow, sun
ed daffodils struggling through. She
ened the gate and came in and sat
on the steps. Two house finches
side by side in the honeysuckle viney
! sang together. She thought, IF I
I'D go inside where it's cool and take
my corset and shoes and lie down
that window behind the lilac bush"
;he found the real estate agent who
the house for sale, but he wanted
re than she could pay. 1t took anoth-
years work to put the deal through,
coming down a little, she coming
And then she bought it and moved
three months ago.
he had been a home owner now for
months, but Old Home week
ant nothing to her. If there had been
who belonged to her, it might
e been different. If there had been
tile boy, now, like Joe Henry
she didn't fool herself; she didn't
1t Joe Henry and he didn't want her.
Ne an pop" he said, 1--WE have the
times of anybody round here.
1900 lzrx L. $500