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About The Choteau Montanan (Choteau, Mont.) 1913-1925 | View This Issue
The Choteau Montanan (Choteau, Mont.), 24 Oct. 1913, located at <http://montananewspapers.org/lccn/sn85053031/1913-10-24/ed-1/seq-2/>, image provided by MONTANA NEWSPAPERS, Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana.
===== THE = Melting of Molly By MARIA THOMPSON DAVIESS Copyright, 1912, by the Bobbs- Merrill Company SYNOPSIS The teller of the story, Molly Carter, a young widow, awaiting the return of A1 Bennett, an old flame, who Is now a distinguished diplomat, tries to reduce weight. Her physician, adviser and next door neighbor Is Dr. John, a widower and father of young Billy, whom Molly loves. Mojly Is surprised at play with Billy by Judge Wade, who Is the most dignified and able man in Hillsboro. Billy comes over from next door with his father. Hillsboro receives a visit from Ruth Chester, a friend of Bennett, and Molly finds her delightful. Molly goes to the city for an outfit of clothing. Molly has trouble In reducing her weight. Billy's singing of an old love song about “Molly\ under her window brings tears to her eyes. She flirts with Tom Pollard, her cousin, who Is a \ladles’ man ” She decide« to re-enter Hillsboro society by giving a din ner. The doctor cntches her eating for bidden jam. Dr. John and Molly pay a visit to one of his patients, a young mother. Sho doesn't know whom sho really wants to marry, but thinks she will accept Bennett. Tom Invites Molly to a dance. Of all Molly's dances the one with Dr. John pleases her most. Preparations for the dinner arc Under way. Bennett Is al most duo in Hillsboro. Billy eats too much and becomes sick. A t the dinner, which Is a great success, Molly receives a telegram from Bennett asking permission to come to Hillsboro Immediately. Judge Wade sends Molly a love letter, which Molly thinks Is too long and form al. Billy tells Molly he and his father are going to Europe. Molly disputes the doc tor's Heht to part her and Billy In Ulir moonlight, whlclTT wIsGecPTu my hpnrt somebody wquld.jrut.oiJl. TDey'lshy among’ the lawyers that It is a good thing that Benton Wade Is on the bench, for it is no use to try n case against him when he has the han dling of a jury. He just looks them in the face and tolls them how to vote. Tonight he looked me in the face and told me how to marry, and I’m not Bure yet that 1 won't do as he says. Of course I ’m in love with Alfred, but if he wants me he had better get me away quick before the judge makes all his arrangements. A woman loves to be courted with poems and flowers and deference, but she’s mighty apt to mar ry the man who says. “ Don’t argue, but put on your bonnet and tome with me.\ The fat t that it was too late to get into the clerk’s oilh-e saved me to night, but in two days- Oh. I’m crying, crying in my hcarl. which is worse than in my eyes, ¡is I sit and look across my garden, where the cold moon is hanging low over the tall trees behind the doctor’s house and the light in his room is burning warm and bright. They are right—he doesn't care if I am going away forever with Alfred. His quick toast to him and the lovely warm look lie poured over poor frightened me at Ills side as he drank his champagne told mo that once and for all. Still, we have been so close together over his baby and I have grown so dependent on him for so iuan> things that it cuts into me like a hot knife that he shouldn’t care if he lost me—even for n neighbor. I .shouldn’t mind not having any husband if 1 could a]wn,\ . live close by him and Billy like this, and if I married Judge Wade 1 could at least have him for a family physician. No—1 don’t like thnt! Of course I'm going with Alfred, now that an ¡\oldent has made me an nounce the fact to the whole town lie- fore he even knows it himself, but wherever I go that light in the room with that lonely man is going to burn in my heart. Hope it will throw a glow over Alfred! LEAF TENTH. Dashed] DO believe God gave that wise angel charge concerning me lest 1 get dashed, but I just got dashed anyway, and it’s my own fault, not the angel’s. I have suffered this day until 1 want to lay my fn^e down against the hem of his garment and wait in the dust for him to pick me up. I shall never be able to do it myself, and bow he's go ing to do it I can’t see. but he will. Thnt dinner party last night was bad enough, but today's been worse. I didn’t sleep until long after daylight and then Jirdy came In before 8 o’clock with a letter for me that looked like a state document. I felt in my trembly bones that it was some sort of sum mons affair from Judge Wnde. and it was. I looked Into the first paragraph and then decided that I hnd better get up and dress and have a cup of coffee and a single egg before I tried to read It. Incidental to my bath and dressing, I weighed and found that I had lost all four of those last surplus pounds and two more in three days. Those two extra pounds might be construed to prove love, but exactly on whom I was utterly unprepared to say. I did not oven enjoy the thinness, but took a kind of already married look in my glass and tried to slip the egg past my bored Ups and get myself to chew It down. It was work, and then 1 took up the Judge’s letter, which also was work and more of it. He started In at the beginning of everything—that is, at the beginning of tho tuberculosis girl, and I cried over the pages of her as if she bad been my own sister. At the tenth page we buried her and took up A l fred, and I must say I saw a new Al fred in the judge’s bouquet strewn ap preciation of him, but I didn’t want him as bad as I had the day before when I read his own new and old let ters and cried over his old photographs. I suppose that was the result of some of what the Judge manages the juries with. He’d be apt to use it on a wo man and sbe wouldn’t find out about It until it was too late to be anything but mad. Still, when he began on me nt page 10 I felt a little better, though I didn’t know myself any better than I did Alfred when I got to page 20. What I am is just a poor, foolish woman, who lias a lot more heart than she can manage with the amount of brains she got with it at birth. I’m not any star in a rose colored sky, and I don’t want to inspire anybody. It’s too much of a job. I want to be a healthy, happy woman and a wife to n man who can inspire himself and man age me. I want to marry a thin man and have from five to ten thin chil dren, and when I get to be thirty I want my husband to want me to be as fat as Aunt Bettie, but not let me. An inspiration couldn't be fa t and I'm always in danger from hot muffins and chicken gravy. However, if I should undertake to be all tlie things Judge Wnde said In that letter he wanted me to be to him. I should soon be skin and bones from mental and physical exer cise. Still, be does live in Hillsboro, nnd I won’t lot myself know how my heart aches at the thought of leaving my home and other things. It’s up in my throat and I seem always to he swallowing it, the Inst few days. All the inen who write me letters seem to get themselves wound up into a skyrocket nnd then let themselves explode in tho last paragraph, and it always upsets my nerves. I was just about to begin to cry again over the Inst words of the judge when the only bright spot in the day so far suddenly happened. Tot Buford blew in with the pinkest cheeks nnd the brightest eyes I had seen since I looked in the mirror the night of the dance. She was In an awful hurry. “Molly, dear,” she said, with her words literally falling over themselves. “Tom says you’ll give us some of your dinner leftovers to take for lunch in the auto, for we arc going way out to Wayne county to see some awfully fine tobacco he has heard is there. 1 don’t want to ask mother, for she won’t let me go, and his mother, if he asked her. will begin to talk about us. Tom said come to you and you would understand and fix It quick. He said kiss you for him and tell you he said ‘Come on in, tlie water’s fine.’ Isn’t he a joke?’’ And we kissed nnd laugh ed nnd packed a basket, and kissed and laughed again for goodby. I felt amused nrnl happy for n few minutes nnd also deserted It's a very good thing for a women's con- olt to find out how many of her lovers are just make believes I may have needed Tom’s deflei-tion. Anyway, l don’t know when I ever was so glad to see anybody as I was when Mrs. Johnson enme in the front door. A woman who has proved to her own satisfaction that marriage is a failure is at times a great tonic to other women. I needed a tonic badly this morning, and I got it. “Well, from all my long experience. Molly.” she snid ns sbe seated herself and began to hem a dish towel with long, steady stabs, “ husbands are just stick candy in different jars. They may look a little different, but they all taste alike and you soon get tired of them. In two months you won't know the difference in being married to A1 Bennett and Mr. Carter and you’d have to go on living with him maybe fifty years. Luck doesn’t strike twice in the same place nnd you can’t count on losing two husbands. Al's father was Mr. Johnson’s first cousin and had more crochets and worse. He bad si lent spells that lasted a week and family prayers three times a day. though he got drunk twice a year for a month at a time. Al looks very ranch like him.\ “Mrs. Johnson.\ I said after a min ute’s silence, while 1 had decided whether or not I hnd better tell her all about it (if a woman’s in love wltb her husband you can’t trust her to keep a secret, but I decided to try Mrs. Johnson). “ I really am not en gaged exactly to Alfred Bennett, though I suppose he thinks so by now if he hns got the answer to that tele gram. But—but something lias made me—made me think about Judge Wade —thnt is. be—what do you think of him. Mrs. Johnson?” I concluded in the most pitifully perplexed tone of voice. “All alike. Molly: nil as much alike as peas in a pod: all except John Moore, who's the only exception In all (he male tribe I ever met! Ills marry ing once was just accidental and must be forgiven him. Sbe fell in love with 1dm while he was treating her for ty phoid. when his back was turned, as It were, and It was God’s own kindness in him thnt made him marry her when he found out bow it was with tlie poor thing. There’s not a woman in this town who could marry, that wouldn't marry him nt the drop of hls hat: but. thank goodness, that lint will never drop nnd I ’ll have one sensible man to comfort nnd doctor me down Into my old age. Now. Just look at that! Mr. Johnson’s come home here in the mid dle of the morning nnd I ’ll have to get that old paper l hunted out of his desk for him last night. I wonder how he came to forget it!” It’s fanny how Mrs. Johnson always-knows what Mr. Johnson wants before''he knows him self and gets it before be asks for It! As she went out tbe.-gate the post man came in. and at the sight of an other letter my heart again slunk off Into my slippers and my brain seemed about to back up in a comer and re fuse to work. In a flash it came to me that men oughtn’t to write letters to women very much—they really don’t plow deep enough; they Just Irritate the top soil. I took this missive from Alfred, counted all the fifteen pages, put it out of sight under a book, looked out the window and saw the ginger barber comiDg dejectedly around to the side gate from the kitchen—I knew the scene he had hnd with Judy about the bottle encounters of the night be fore—saw Mr. Johnson shooed off down the street by Mrs. Johnson; saw the doctor's car go chucking hurriedly in the garnge, and then my, spirit turn ed itself to the wall nnd refused to he comforted. I tried my best, but failed to respond to my own remonstrances with myself, and tears were slowly gathering in a cloud of gloom when a blue gingham, rompers clad sunbeam burst into the room. “Git your nightgown and your tooth bresb quick, Molly, if you want to pack ’em in my trunk!\ be exclaimed with his eyes dancing and a curl stand ing straight up on the top of hls head, as it has a habit of doing when he Is most excited. “ You can’t take nothing but them 'cause I ’m going to put in a rope to tie the whale with when I ketch him. and it’ll take up all the rest of the room. Get ’em quick!” “ Yes, lover. I’ll get them for you. But tell Molly where it is you are going to sail off with her in that trunk of yours?\ I asked, dropping into the game as I bnve always done with him, no matter what game of my own pressed when he palled. “On the ocean where the boats go ’cross and run right over a whale. Don’t you remember you showed me them pictures of spout whales in a book, .Molly? Doc says they comes right up by the ship and you can hear ’em shoot wnter. And maybe a Iceberg, too. Which do you want to ketch most. Molly, a iceberg or a whnle?\ His eager eyes demanded instant de cision on my part of the nature of cap ture I preferred. My mind quickly re verted to those two ponderous and in tense epistles I had got within the hour, nnd 1 lay back In my chair and laughed until I felt almost merry. “The iceberg, Billy, every time,” I said at last. “I just can’t manage whales, especially if they are ardent, which word means hot I like ice bergs or I think I should if I could catch one.\ “I don’t believe you could, Molly but maybe Doc will let you put a rope nnd a long hook in bis trunk to try with i f your clothes go intd mine. Hls is a heap the biggest anyway and Nurse Tilly said he oughter put my things in his, but I cried and then he went upstairs and got out that little one for me. Come see ’em!\ “Wbat do you mean. Billy?” I asked, while a sudden fear shot all over me like lightning. “You’re just playing go away, aren’t you?\ “No, I ain’t playing, Molly!\ he ex claimed excitedly. \Me and you and doc is a-going across the ocean for c long, long time away from here. Doi “ Me and you and Doc is a-going across the ocean.\ ast me nbout it this morniug, and I told him all right nnd you could come with us if you was good. He said couldn’t. I go without you if you was busy and couldn’t come and I told him you would put things down and come if I snid so. Wonlt you. Molly? It won’t be no fun without you and you’d cry all by yourself with me gone.\ His little face was all drawn up with anxi ety nnd sympathy at my lonely estate with him out of it, nnd a cry rose up from my heart with a kind of primi tive savagery nt what 1 felt was com ing down upon me. Without waiting to take him with me or think or do anything but feel deadly, savage anger, I hurried across the garden and into Dr. Moore’s office, where he was Just laying off bis gloves and dast coat. “What do you mean. John Moore, by daring—daring to think you can go and take Billy away from me?” I demand ed. looklug at him wltb wbat must have been such fear and madness in my face thnt he was startled as he came close to,the table against which I leaned. His face hnd grown white and quiet at my attack, and be waited to answer, for-a\ long, horrible minute that pulled me.apart like one of-those Inquisition, machines, they UBed' to tor ture women with- when they didn't know any better modem way to do i t ’' “ I didn’t know Bill would tell you so Boon, Mrs. Molly,” he said at last gent ly, looking past me out of the window into the garden. “I was coming over just as soon as I got back from this call to talk with you about it even if it did seem to Intrude Bill’s and my affairs Into a day that—that ought to be all yours to be—be happy in. But Bill, you see, is no respecter of—of oth er people’s happy days if he wants them in his.” “Billy’s happy days are mine, and mine are his. and he has the heart not to leave me out even if you would have him!” I exclaimed, a sob gather ing in my heart at the thought that my little lover hadn’t even taken in a sit uation that would separate him from me across an ocean. “Bill is too young to understand when he is—is being bereaved, Molly,” he sold, and still he didn’t look at me. “ 1 have been appointed a delegate to represent the State Medical association at the centennial congress in -London the middle of next month, and some how I feel a bit pulled lately, and I thought I would take the little chap and have—have a ‘wanderjahr.’ You won’t need him now, Mrs. Peaches, and I couldn’t go without him, could I?” The sadness in his voice would have killed me if I hadn’t let it mad den me instead. “ Won’t need Billy any more?” I ex claimed, with a rage that made my voice literally scorch past my lips. “Was there ever a minute in his life that I haven’t needed Billy? How dare you say such a thing to me? You are cruel, cruel, and I have always known it—cold and cruel like all other men who don’t care how they wring the life blood out of women’s hearts and are willing to use their children to do It with. Even the law doesn’t help us poor helpless creatures, and you can take our children and go with them to the ends of the earth and leave us suf fering. I have gone on and believed that you were not like what the wo men say all men are and that you eared whether you hurt people or not but now I see that you are just the same, and you’ll take my baby away if you want to, and I can do nothing to prevent it—nothing In the wide world. I am completely and absolute ly helpless. You coward, you!” When that awful word, the worst word that a woman can use to a man. left my lips a flame shot up into his eyes that I thought would burn me up. but in a half second it was extinguish ed by tlie strangest thing in the world —for the situation—a perfect flood of mirth. He sat down in his chair and shook all over, with his head in his hands, until I saw tears creep through hls fingers. I had calmed down so suddenly that I was about to begin to cry in good earnest when he wiped his eyes and said, with a low laugh in his throat: “The case is yours, Molly, settled out of court, and the ’possession nine points of the law clause’ works in some cases for a woman against a man. Generally speaking anyway, the pup belongs to the man who can whis tle him down, and you can whistle Bill from me any day. I’m just his father, and what I think or want doesn't mat ter. You had better take him and keep him.” “I intend to,\ 1 answered haughtily, uncertain as to whether I had better give In and be agreeable or stay pre pared to cry in case there was further argument. But suddenly a strange dif fidence came into his eyes, and he look ed away from me as he said in queer, hesitating words: “ You see. Mrs. Molly. I thought from now ou your life wouldn’t have exact ly a place for Bill. Have you consid ered that you have trained him to de mand you all the time and all of you? How would you manage Bill—and— and other claims?” I LEAF ELEVENTH. A Heart of Gold. F there is a contagious thing in this world it is embarrass ment. I never felt anything worse in all my life than the shame that swept over me in a great hot wave when that look came into hls eyes and made me realize just exactly what I had been saying to him. about wbat. and how 1 bad said it. I stood perfectly still, shook all over like a leaf and wondered i f I would eve.- be able to raise my eyes from the ground. A dizzy, nauseated feeling for myself rose up In me against myself, and 1 was just about to turn on my heels and leave him, 1 hoped forever, when he came over and laid bis band on my shoulder. “Molly.\ be said in a voice that might have come down from heaven on dove wings, “ you can't for a moment feel or think that 1 don't realize and appre ciate what you have been to the moth erless tittle chap, and for life I am yours at command, ns he is. I really thought It would be a relief to you to have him taken away from you for just a little while right now. and I still think it is best, but not unless you con sent You shall have him back when ever you are ready for bim. and at nil times both be nnd I are at your service to the whole of our kingdoms. Just think the matter over, won’t you, and decide wbat you 'want me to do?” Something in me died forever. I think, when be spoke to me like that He’s not like other men. and there aren’t any other men on earth bnt him! All the rest are just bugs or bats or something worse. And I'm not any thing myself. There’s no excuse for my living, nnd I wish I wasn’t so healthy and likely to go on doing it It was all over, and there was nothing left for me to live for. and before I could; stop.-myeelf.ii ,buried-jzny face In ¿m yihands , 1 .-..V'W \. V?' . ' < “Billjr ja s k ^ .me |to. go with'him 'on this awful yvhale%h'unt!\ I. spbbetl^out to comfort;myself Jyvlth the. tlfonght that somebody did karefor me, .regard less of just how I was further - embar rassing and complicating myself In the affairs of the two men I had thought I owned and was now finding out that I bad to give up. I wish I had been looking at bim. for I felt him start, but he said in his big friendly voice that is so much—and never enough for me— “Well, why not you and Al come along aud make it a family party. If that is what suits Bill, the boss?” I f men would just buy good, sharp kitcheu knives and cut out women’s hearts in a businesslike way it would be so much kinder of them. Why do they prefer to use dull weapons that mnsb the life out slowly? Everything is at an end for me tonight, and that blow did it. It was a horrible cruel thing for him. to say to me! I know uow that I have been in love with John Moore for longer than my honor lets me admit and that I’ll never love any body else, and that also I have offered myself to him served up in every known enticement and have to be re fused at least twice a day for a year. A widow can’t say she didn’t under stand what sbe was doing, even to her self, but—my humiliation is complete, and the only thing that can make me ever hold up my head is to puzzle him by—by happily marrying Alfred Ben nett—and quick! Of course he must suspect how I feel about bim, for two people couldn’t both be so Ignorant as not to see such an enormous thing as my love for him is. and I was the blind one. But he must never, never know that I ever realized it, for he Is so good that it would dis tress him. I must go on in my foolish way with liim until I can get away. I’ll tell him I’m sorry I was so indig nant tonight and say that I think it will be fine for him to take my Billy away from me with him. I must smile at the idea of having my very soul am putated, insist that it is the only thing to do and pack up the little soul in a steamer trunk with the smile. Just smile, that is all. Life demands smiles from a woman, even if she must crush their perfume from' her own heart, and she generally has them ready. Oh, Molly. Molly! Is it for this you came into the world—twice to give yourself without love? What differ ence does it make that your arms are strong and white if they can’t clasp him to the softness and fragrance of your breast? Why are your eyes blue pools of love if they are not for bis questioning, and what are your rose lips for if they quench not his thirst? Yes, I know God is very tender with a woman, nnd I think he understands, so i f she crept very close to him and caught at his sleeve to steady herself he would be kind to her until she could go on along her own steep way. Please. God. never let him find out for it would hurt him to have hurt me! Some days are like the miracle flow ers that open in the gnrden from plants you didn’t expect to bloom at all. T might have been born, lived and died without having this one come into my life, and. now that 1 have had it. I don’t know how to write it except in the crimson of blood, the blue of flame, the gold of glory, and a tinge of light green would well express the part I have played. But it is all over at last and— Ruth Chester was the unfolding of the first hour petal, and I got a glimpse of a heart of gold that I feel dumb with worship to think of. She’s God’s own good woman, and he made her in one of hiS\ holy hours. I wish I could have borne her, so she me, and the tenderness of her arms was a sacra ment. We two women just stood aside with life’s artifices and concealments and let our own hearts do the talking. She snid she hud come because she felt that if she talked with me I might be better able to understand Alfred when he came and that she had seen that tlie judge was very determined, and she thoroughly recognized hi s force of character. We stopped there while I gave her the document to read. I suppose it was dishonorable, but I needed her protection from it I’m glad she bad the strength of mind to walk with a head high In the air to Judy’s range and burn it up. Any thing might have happened if she hadn’t. And even now I feel that only my marriage vows will close up the ease for the judge, even yet he may— But when Ruth had got done with Al fred she had wiped Judge Wade’s ap preciation of him completely off my mind and destroyed it in tender words that burned us both worse than Judy's fire burned the letter. Sbe did me an awfully good service. \And so you see, you lovely woman you, do you not, that God has made you for him as a tribute to. his great ness and It is given to you to fulfill a destiny?\ She was so beautiful as she said it that I had to turn my eyes away, but I felt as I did when those awful “ let not man put asunder” —from Mr. Carter—words were spoken over me by Mr. Raines, the Methodist min ister It made me wild, and before I knew it I hnd poured out the whole truth to her in a perfect cataract of words. The truth always acts on wom en, as some hitherto untried drug, and you can never tell wlint the reaction is going to be. In this case I was stricken dumb and found it hard to' see. “ Oh. dear heart,” she exclaimed ns sbe reached out and drew me into her lovely, gracious arms, “then tlie privi lege is all the more wonderful for you. as you make some sacrifice to complete bis IIfp Fla ring suffered this, yon will be all tlie greater woman to under stand bim. I accept my own sorrow at his hands willingly, as It gives me the larger sympathy for bis work. ..though; he. v^lll no longer^need-mjriper- ■onal-i'enequrag^enti^ Ke^ ha's^for ^ e u ^ , r ''^ p h e ',U g ^ ,d^. hl|$iqve;tblB -lesser .fe ellng, for. Dr. Moored will soon pasB-away,' and the accord; between you will be complete.” This ’was more than I-- could stand, and, feeling less.' than a worm, I turned my face into her breast and walled. Now, who would have thought that girl could dance as she did? - By this time I was In such a solu tion of grief that I would soon have had to be sopped up with a sponge I f Pet hadn’t run In bubbling over like a lovely white linen clad glass of Rhine wine nnd seltzer. Happiness has a habit of not even acknowledging the presence of grief, and Pet didn’t seem to see our red noses, crushed draperies and generally damp atmosphere. “ Molly,” she said with a deliciously young giggle, “Tom says for you to send him $10 to spend getting the brass band half drunk before 6 o’clock train, on which your Mr. Bennett comes. He has spent $5 paying the negroeB to polish up their instruments and clean up the uniforms, and it cost him twenty-five to bail the cometist out of jail for roost robbing, and it takes a whole gallon of wblsky to get any spirit into the drummer. He says tell you that as this is your shindig you ought at least to pay the piper. Hurry up, he’s waiting for me, and here’s the kiss he told me to put on our left ear!” “ I suppose you delivered that kiss straight from where he gave it to you, Pettie, dear?” I had the spirit to say as I went over to the desk for my pocket- book. “ Why, Molly, you know me better than that!” she exclaimed from behind a perfect rose cloud of blushes. ‘4 know Tom better than I do you,” I answered as she fled with the ten In her hand. I looked at Ruth Chester, and we both laughed. It is true that a broader sympathy is one of the by products of sorrow, and a week ago I might have resented Pet to a marked degree instead of giving her the $10 . and a blessing. “I’m going quick, Molly, with that laugh between us,\ Ruth said as she rose and took me into her arms again for just half a second, and before I could stop her she was gone. Sbe met Billy tolling up the front step with a long piece of rusty iron gaspipe, which took off an inch of paint as it bumped against the edge of the porch. She bent down and kissed the back of bis neck, which theft was al most more than I could stand and ap parently more than Billy was prepared to accept. “Go away, girl,\ he said in bis rudest manner. “Don’t you see I ’m busy?\ I met him in the front ball just in time to prevent a hopeless scar on iny hardwood floor. He was hot, perspir ing and panting, but full of triumph. “I found it. Molly, I found it!” he exclaimed-as be let the heavy pipe drop almost on the bare pink toes. \You can git a hammer and pound the end sharp and bend it so no whale we ketch can get away for nothing. You and Doc ldn put it in your trunk ’cause it’s too long for mine, and I can carry Doc’s shirts and things in mine. Git the hammer quick and I’ll help you fix it!” The paiu iu uiy I ¡resist was almost more than I could bear. “Lover,” I said as I knelt down by him in the dim old ball and put my arms around him as if to shield him from some blow I couldn’t help being aimed at him, “you wouldn’t mind much, would you, if just this time your Molly couldn’t go with you? Your father Is going to take good care of you nnd—and maybe bring you back to me some day.” “ Why, Molly,” he said, flaring bis astonished blue eyes at me, “ ’tain’t me to be took care of! I ain’t a-going . to leave you here, for maybe a bear to come out of a circus nnd eat you up. with me and Doc gone. ’Sides, Doe ain’t no good and maybe wouldn’t help me bold the rope tight to keep tbe whale from gitting away. He don’t know bow to do like I toil him like von - do.\ “Try him, lover, aud maybe bo will— will learn to\— I couldn’t help tbe tears that came to stop my words. ‘Now. you see, Molly, bow you’d cry with that kiss spot gone,” he said, with an amused, manly, little tender ness in bis voice that I hnd never heard before, and be cuddled bis lips against mine in almost the only volun tary kiss be hnd given me since I bad got him into bis ridiculous little trous ers under his blouses. \You can bnve most a hundred kisses every night if you don’t say no more about not a-go ing and fix tlint whale hook for me quick,” he coaxed against my cheek. Ob, little lover, little lover; you didn’t know wbnt you were suylmr with your baby wisdom nnd your rust grimy lit tle paddle burned the sleep plnee on my breast like a terrible white heat from which I wns powerless to de fend myself. You are mine, you are. you are! You are soul of my soul nnd heart of my heart nnd spirit of my spirit and—and you ought to have been flesh of my flesh. I don’t know how I managed to an swer Mrs. Johnson’s cull from my front gate, but I sometimes think that women have a torture proof clause in their constitutions. She and Auut Bettie hnd just come up tbe street from Aunt Bottle’s house, - and the Pollard cook wns following them with a large basket in which were packed the things Auut Bettie was contributing to the entertainment of the distinguished citizen. Mr. John son is Alfred’s nearest kinsman in Hillsboro, and. of course, be is to be their guest while he is In town. “He’ll be feeding hls eyes on Molly, so he’ll not even know he’s eating my Washington almond pudding with Thomas’ old port In it,” teased Annt Bettie. with a laugh, as I went across the street with them. “There’s going to be a regular epi- LContlnued ne xt week! - - ü . >
