Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1936-03-07

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their memories remained as blank s.
their faces when they shook eacf
: others hands or heard each other
: voices? II she and Bob should separate
! she didn't believe-after IS years-xio
! not after 100 years. that her hear
would not give off some warmth 81
recognition as Il did when she saw
him on the street, or else It would
tremble with her hurt, but there would
be some sensation, surely there must
be some! This was q question she could
not ask her mother.
She got off the stool, crumpling her
paper napkin. Dads coming to supper.
II don't hurry well be late for the
basketball game, and Bob and junior
won't speak to me again. really be-
! lieve we have a team this year. Nom
ma, I wish you could see how they
/ handled that rough crowd at willow
| last week. If act like a customer VIII
you sell me one Of your butterscotch
/ pies, Mrs. Plummer?"
You're not a customer, you're
creditor
June threw the crumpled napkin.
Dodgtng, Mrs. Plummer reached over
the counter and swished at her with
the damp cloth. She went into the
rear room and came out with pie tin
under a folded dish towel. She watched
June step off the high curb. Her faith
er had already got in the car. He
opened the door for her and took the
tin. The straining sing-song Of the
car downhin died away.
It was dark under the old-fashioned
arcade on this side of the square. To
the west, however, a breath OF rose
fingered behind fernlike. far-offl
branches, as 1t were, a colored haze
exItded by the hills. The sky did not
appear to move or change, but mo-
ment later the rose had aged, like the
fresh color Of cheek, into ashes OF
roses, into a lemon-yellow, darkening
rapidly thereafter while the trunks of
the naples in the park turned black.
and glimmering in the headlights of the |
cars but with an air of hard gallantry, |
the brave challenging fate which they /
did not wear in spring.
Mrs. Plummer Strengthened up. too. |
She picked up the paper napkin and
took the empty coffee cup into the
rear room; she sliced some cold ham
for herself, added potato chips from
big bowl, and took her plate out to
the counter to eat and wait. Surely
someone would come, even on a night
when there was no picture show and
the basketball team played out of
town. She could not bring herself to
admit that this little restaurant would
be a disappointment It was to have
been something different for small
town, a sandwich shop in city fashion.
But the young people preferred the
drug store and coke; their elders.
Chill con carne at Doane's; the buses
stopped at Milton's and passing cars,
upon which she and June had counted
for most of the trade, would pause at
restaurants on the highway that never
had heard of sandwiches other than
ham or cheese or barbecue. Besides,
she had not liked to borrow more from
June's husband than she had to; her
were incomplete, and no
more had a customer entered than he
vas beset by desire for what she did
not keep, for beer or cigarets.
She had been glad of a chance to
settle near June. Not that she would
admit she minded working in st. Louis
md living alone. But June thought
nat, at her age, she ought to mind, !
,ught to want an anchorage perhaps
Tune was right. In spite Of marriage
md matronliness, however, there were
till some things that June did not
Mrs. Plummer hoped she
you'd never have to. For instance, these
meetings with June's father. Well, after
ne first 100 years, which were the
hardest, one got over exclaiming at
he queer as the normal and stolidly
wed with it. Was it any more odd to
meet ones first husband as a stranger
\ the presence of their daughter than
0 bear, probably for life, the name Of
man, her second husband, whom she
ad divorced with relief and never laid
yes on since2 Was it any more curious
han her return to this very town
which she had left, she supposed for
yer, nearly 80 years ago. to settle
own contentedly to keep q restaurant
nd be a grandmother
How her heart used to lurch and
ne skin Of her cheeks priclZle at first
ght OF the town when, at intervals,
ne would come back to see Junel
Ter mother-in-law had brought June
p here. She had been fond Of the old
ady--She had no people Of her own
nd JuneS father had behaved very
ell. So had she. They met and they
liked Of June's future. But for sew
al years, on her visits, she used to
void passing the little yellow house
shtnd the Heller place TO which she
I'D gone as bride, where June had
zen born. June lived out that way
ow. Mrs. Plummer passed the cottage
ten. 1t was empty, the siding warped
I'D the roof full of holes. She looked
1t as she might have looked at the
Don through field glasses, distinguish
g idly valleys and charcoal ridges too
mote for contact In the same way
le looked at June's father.
While the weather stayed warm Mrs.
hummer slept in the rear room. It had
enty Of space for a camp bed along
It'll the refrigerator, the electric stove,
Id the rest Of the equipment, and she
as SO tired at night that 1t was q
eSsing to have just few steps be-
1een the shop and bed.
There were no customers to keep her
}. She closed at nine and fell asleep
once.
What sounded in her dreams like the
0oing Of COW awoke her. She was
artled to hear the sound quite close,
r too sllrin and too continuous to be
ade by a COW. Besides there was an
her sound which she recognized The
eese factory whistle.
She jumped up. A reddish light,
ither sun nor moon, quivered along
e window panes. Her window looked
{ on small plot Of ground, bounded
sheds and outhouses, between the
AZ of buildings on the square and the
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