The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1940-01-18
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Brother And Sister
Chapter One

- into the big living
room with her own pc
~ culiarly light footed
step. She was flushed
and tingling from the crisp
October air. Her dark, eyes.
which had a trick at times of
seeming far too large for her small
oval face, sparkled at the sight of
the first wood fire of the season.
fBless Maggie's hearth she muir
INJURED, coming to rest one small
brogued foot on the old brass rail-
ing which had enclosed the fire
place in her mothers girlhood
home.
She stood there for some time,
smiling to herself in conscious en-
joyment of well being. 1t was good
to have walked for miles among
the rustling leaves along the river
bank until the rapidly falling dusk
drove her homeWard. 1t was good
to come into this spacious room
whose every furnishing had been
familiar to her since her baby
hood, though now it occupied a
comfortable apartment instead of
the big house where she and her
brother Allen had been born. It
was good-it was best of all! to be
tWenty-four and not unattractive,
and the youthful mistress of this
new home!
want I should turn on the
lights, Miss Sue?" Maggie asked,
entering quietly. "MoSt time to set
the table for dinner"
Sue reused herself with little
laugh. Il suppose it is! And I must
have bath and change before
then" She came close to the old
woman. Il smell of woodsmoke
and dusty leaves and walnuts.
They're thick under the big tree on
Wyeth Hill" 80
miss Sue, you haven't been up
thsre alone again-and this late
in the day besides? How many
times do have to tell you faint
safe up there? Jesse James used
to hide in Dug Cut"
The girls laugh rang out again
and she seized the old servant in
herlarmS and Rugged her.
Maggie darlin', they laid Jesse
James in his grave before l was
born-before you were born, if it
comes to that! 1t was grand up
there, watching the lights come on
in the city, the planes circling
down to the airfield. And" she
foreStalled the automatic protest
wh1Ih she saw on the others lips
M wasn't alone! Barbara was
with me-"
Maggie shifted, unmollified.
miss Barb'ra'd be a heap of
, help if tramp should creep outen
those woods" Suddenly the -impli-
cation of her young mistress first
speech dawned on her. "Sue Day.
enportl There amt no walnut trees
whatever right on the. hill! You
must have went right down into
the woods to find them nuts. Hon.
estly, honestly, Miss Sue! You
amt no more fit than a baby to
be out after sunset. I'm going to
speak to Mr.. Allen"
Sue laughed a trifie ruefully. It
was perfectly true that even yet
the woods along the river bluffs
occasionally harbored undesirable
characters. She DETECTED the out
ragged Maggie's rage with the
adroitness of experience.
Look at my hands, Mag dear!
Wouldn't You know I'd take off my
gloves and get all stained up the
very day before Barbara's party?
Do you know any way to get this
horrible brown Off"
"Pumice stone, Miss Sue: that
is, if you haven't used soap on 'em
yeti" She examined the small
palms s.nxiously. "Come straight
into the bathroom with me! Body'd
think you was only four!"
Easy On The Eyes
AN HOUR later Sue presented
n herself to Allen, contentedly
reading his paper before the fire.
Her dark cap of curls lay smooth
and shining, she had exchanged
her dusty wooden suit for a silky
brown velvet gown with a wide
creamy collar, she smelled pleas
antly of fine soap, powder and a
hint of her own special perfume.