T1IK SUNDAY l.ER: OMAHA. AL'Gl'ST 20, 1922.
fkuts lii slmdi. Ss J couldn't vc
ii v t hiii ir."
"I lu wish," said Althra. I
could have embroidered tonic ali i,
Ui course, the woolen thing rv
iihM inijxtr t.ii t tliit weather, but 1
wanted a (nlly tap, loo. Poor
baby! won't be gosng out
inuili !n tliii weather, but I'd like
jo see him in one. There' noth
ing iute like a baby's fate with
a friil around it and a bow under
Jbe rliiu.
"Well," said Mr. Mack, doubt
fully, "at' terrible the way they
tt ribbon mils in their mouth.
);kd for tin in and hard on ribboru.
JYou tie tlifin under one car,
not under the thin. Hut even o,
Ihry always get l In in anl cnew
hrm." .
"By tle bye' said Althea.
feuddciily, thrn stopped with a ohy,
.sidelong look. .
"Yes, my dear?"
1 "I wish that little trunk in the
attic, the one behind your father's
model. Are you sure therc'a
clothing in it but drawings and
Jhings like thai?
"You are thinking of your old
t tic ghost? O, my dear; don't
get the notion that it ia anything
more than a phantom of your poor
little hungry tummy. The first
thing the fakirs and those people
slo when they want you to tec
tisions is to fast. You'd been
.wanting to get into that (junk, of
course. Children always want to
et into shut things, and you cer
tainly had been fasting. Besides,
ou were sick not long afterwards,
poo. I dare say you had a tempera
lure at the time."
"And vet," said Althea, touching
Jhe little display rather discon
tentedly, avarisciously, "did you
ever look into it clear down to
'he bottom?"
"Why, no; not to the bottom, but
jjtnough so that I could see. It's
only drawings. After my mother's
Weath my father just put everything
away, stuffed his drawings into
the trunk, dragged the poor old
gniodel in front of it, and forgot it,
tas well as he could. He had had
great hopes of it, but it would have
kaken money to finish it, and when
she went and be had me to keep,
Hie just took a bookkeeper's posi
tion at the Tracy lumber yard and
IJiiilshed out bis days there."
"I should think mothers would
ftome back, if anybody ever does,"
unused Althea, "I would."
."Would yoa, my dear?" Mrs.
Wdack thought it over. "Yes," she
agreed, "it's hard to imagine any
thing keeping one away, I don't
ace now death could be strong
rrnough," she said, thinking of Joe
Lin the other room, Althea in this,
and the other now so near and all
M them with only herself to help
lihein in their need. Mrs. Mack
Efelt that she at least must be a
stronger force than death. And if
fshe, why, then other mothers.
(Death could never quench that ter
rible anxiety to help. "Many wa
ters cannot quench love."
"I thought then," raid Althea,
.'It was old doll things she was
booking over. But now I know,"
land she pointed at her own col
Icrtion, "it wasn't doll things. If
r if I could," she said. "I mean,
Uf it were wise I suppose it would
n't be I'd ask you to let me go
up and look."
"Why, you dear, persistent little
Fatimal I'll look; of course I will,
though I'm afraid you'll be disap
pointed. It wouldn't do for you to
go up those stairs and pull heavy
attic things around, of course. How
tunny it would be if there should
tie anything under the poor old
drawings. There's just one thing
that makes me think you may be
fight, and that's my not being able
to find any of my own old things
before Joe came. I hunted every,
where. I did want them. I felt
ust as you do now. I wanted
toceani of lovely things for my
fcaby, and in my case I really bad
plenty, but I was greedy for more,
nd there wasn't a sock or a cap or
'a nightie of what I had worn. I
concluded she must have sent them
ito the Chicago fire sufferers. You
Jtnow a tide of old clothes set
toward Chicago in 71, just as our
things all went to Belgium. That
dva the year of her death. I con
cluded it was that, and let it go.
"I was only a year old when she
'died," said Mrs. Mack, looking
swiMfnlly at an ill done rryon por
trait, "I have no memory of her at
all."
She paused and" then repeated
the tragic little story, Althea had
heard it, and she knew that Althea
ad heard it, yet she repeated it. as
'erne does some well known u!c or
! nng.
"She had gone cut to piik a rem
grape for jelly. You know in those
'davs there was a tongue of the
teal woods that ram down then
f rtwecn our garden and the village
Hunters tomtltmrt followed their
time there, honestly sunposit.g
there were ao houses near, On that
morning my father heard shots and
Vent e-ui, a he sometimes did, ta
ware, them. He found fir Utt wha
bad ItiM got a f" and were i
proud of their pWnhd petti He
lm the hoft, a-td e f
il i-tts e( ni pioitiei's, lots, s'l
V Ifpufll term M i t ( ft
lira to find her and show hrr their
pn. And there the lay, with the
grape trattrrcd about here . . ,
brought down like a partridge!
'Poor bovsl After these car,
I ache more for them evi-ii than for
my father and mother I Of course,
they knew it kiii one of their bul
lets that had killed her. though
there was no way of telling wiio'
had fired the shot not that it real
ly mattered. But the bovhood of
them all died then and there along
with her, 1 hey only stayed long
enough to be her pallbearers and
be exonerated by everybody. Thru
they fff town. One of them died
in the Indian fighting, and another
in the Spanish war. The other I
don't know, J'hry just dropped
cut."
"I believe she came bark," said
Althea. ".She would 1"
"if the could," agreed Mrs. Mask,
"and now, I must sec to the fur
nace." "You're going in to Joe fiist?"
"Yes."
"Jf he's sleeping, couldn't I
just look?"
"I don't believe I would hi
sleep it so light, you know."
"Oh, well it won't be long now.
The baby will cure him. If I
didn't believe so but he will! Now
go and sit with him. J.et him find
jour hand whrn he wakes. The
sound of snow flicking against the
window it so desolate. I'm afraid it
will make him think of those
things. When you are there it is
almost as if I were allowed to go in.
I'll go on with this bootee and
then you'll look in the little trunk,
if you aren't too tired? I suppose
it was only a dream, but I shan't
be quite satisfied until I'm sure."
So Joe's mother went softly
into Joe's room. Not the room
which she had given him and his
little wife during their wild
snatch of a honeymoon before Joe
went away through black seas to
that business of putting out a
world fire, hut the room of his
boyhood, with its dado of lacrosse
Sticks, snowshoes, tennis rackets,
newspaper cartoons, thumb-tacked
to the wall. The antlers of hi
first buck were over the center of
the mantle piece, and underneath
it the picture of Althea, hi first
and only love. Because of the
child of the night the had put
over him his bearskin atrophy of
his father's
So Joe lay on the bed where he
bad lain as a little boy, and the
glimmer of his half open eyes
showed he was awake. ' And
while she stood there looking
down at him, to all appearance
serene at heart, strong, -comforting
unbowed by any trouble, it
seemed to her that her real self
was upon its knees hysterically
wailing and calling upon a deaf
God, gathering her wasted son in
her arm, cursing the powers of
destruction that had struck him
down.
"The world is no place for wo
men," he whispered from his pil
low. "You should have told me."
She sat beside him, taking the
left hand that lay outside, so
white and gaunt and large upon
the black bear skin. The other
one was still helpless. But re
covering O, yes I Some day, if
this wound of the soul permitted,
he would walk about and have
two arms and hands. Had it been
a mistake, bringing him home?
Should she have left him at the
hospital? It had been so costly
so difficult, getting him back
into her own care, but she had
been so sure that Althea and her
great hope would rouse and cure
him. And he had given just one
understanding, terrified look and
shuddered away. 1
"Don't let her come in here,"
said Joe. "But tell her you tell
her that that I didn't know. I
thought it was right to love."
"It's the most right thing in the
world, little son. You did no
wrong."
But he had only moaned and hid
his face, saying again: "Tin's is
no place for women."
It was hard not to plead and
argue agaiust this' terrible convic
tion of hi. At first she had tried,
but it only brought on that ter
rible shuddering silence worse
even than the outbreak of curs
ing. So, a the doctor advised,
they were all agreed now, to wait
for that person who wa on the
way, whose journry was nearly
done who might come at almost
any minute now, for though, a the
doctor had promised, time would
cure all by itself, the one who was
coining might take the matter out
of the hands c( time. He had seen
such miracle worked btinre by
such tiny person. .
Joe shut hi eve ami tinned his
head away. She would have staved,
but she w alert about htr other
nestling tin stormy nig! t, Br
side, there wa the luinace to
see t, and the question of food,
and she wa only file mot'ur It
dis tiff) thing -tm) thing.
As Mr. Mack stood In mo.
latent ia the doorway, timing bask
t Althea. the gul thotuM oc
agiiti ) safe and (! h f she
wa. here nh Ji's moihir, and
the i'.l. at the elder wnnua't
for. tse,f,i0(( itntMv tat wrtn
she should be 50 and had trouble
she could stand a ttiaiv.ht and
calm under them. And yet hour
little gray there had been in hrr
hair when Joe went away, while
now it wa white. N the white
that i said to mine with S.itaru
lar S'l.iUnne, overnight but a
swift, steady, unrelenting storm
through the month, the result
seeming complete Innipht, and
nialthiiig the while of the frosted
pane and the drifts beyond it.
1'or ail instant, a realization f
this cluinge came to Althea, she
ratight at the tear, and had a bat
tle wilh thrin, before she could
mile bark calmly, and take up lit r
knitting with a placid face.
But perhaps if she could have
seen that other fare as it turned
away hrr ttitrhr would have set
less smoothly. And perhap if
there had been any visible watch,
ers just then if, for example, the
Purple I.ady of Althea's attic
dream had hem a little restless
that night wilh whatever old anx
iety railed her back to wander
through those rooms once so fa
miliar and dear to her, and if in
those wanderings the had come
upon that fare as, in turning away
from Althea's door, it changed
she must have cried out and fled
bark to her own world.
Haggard, fierce, threatening, old
50? This woman was 70 or
more. Her eyes were the eyes of
a deer with the hounds slashing
at its flanks, or of a woman in Bel
gium seeking escape and finding
none; but not giving up, no, not
giving up I Merely, just for the
moment, unmasked of that show
of courage which must be assumed
if others are not to despair also.
Not needing for a little while to
pretend to be unafraid.
And yet, you know, 6he was
merely going down to see about
the furnace and to plan the morn
ing's breakfast. That was really
quite all she had in her mind at
the moment; at least, all except
her constant anxiety about the
wounded mind and body of her
son, and her knowledge of that
which was waiting for Althea
waiting to torment and rend, per
haps to slay.
Her only light through all that
dark part of the house was one
candle, though in Althea's room a
pink shaded lamp burned cheer
fully. The house was wired for
electricity, but there was none in
use. She had given Althea to un
derstand that this was not only
because of the poor quality of
service supplied by the town, but
because she really liked candles
and old-fashioned lamps better.
Althea never had the slightest hint
that the meter had been taken out
because the bills had not been paid.
And when, at intervals, she heard
her mother-in-law handling saw
and ax in the cellar, and knew by
the smell that the furnace was be
ing fed with wood instead of coal,
it never occurred to her that they
were enduring a sharper coal fam
ine than other families in town;
that carload after carload of coal
had come in, but that they had had
to let their allotment go because
they had no money to pay for it.
Nor did Althea know of the mort
gage, and how the money from it
had all been licked up by old debts
so quickly that there , had been
barcly enough to finance that ter
rible journey after Joe.
No although Althea knew of
plenty of trouble, she was care
fully uninformed concerning the
wolf which was not only at the
door, but, as it seemed to Mrs.
Mack on this night, fairly past it
as if it met her, intangibly fear
ful, in those dark rooms, and pad
ded after her wherever she went,
sniffing at her hctls. But so far
she had kept it from those two
doors, and somehow somehow
she would continue to keep it from
them I
Whrn she had fed the furnace
with four foot lengths of stout oak
planks for the bins like the rest
of the old house, were solidly and
honestly built, Mrs. Mack listened
for a minute at the foot of the
stairs to make certain that there
was no sound of need from above,
then lifted an inverted box and
took from beneath it a hen which
had bron indignantly awaiting her
fate since morning. She wa the
last the last of a flock of 50, and
a pet. Mr. Mack gave a short
sigh, but did not falter. What must
be, must.
She had become skilliul since
first, for love' sake, she had
learned how to tlav a living thing.
Probably no butcher wa ever
more iiierrtt'ul or quiiV. and no
lrot( stititj ('' k troubled other
ears.
Ihm rame the scalding and
tediottt iu sins', but since l.mm
mif herself ti thl M oi taik she
had arrai t,'d tbnis' rl'lu iratts" in
her lillle vrllar abattoir. i hot
wat. r of the furnaie was at ham),
and the wet it uiier wrr s.hui
adtb'd tu the cthrit in the brrl,
to te buiwd wn.br th gi.ti vin
when spring rame while what was
k ft was JM'I thkkrll no tnre
tttjirrssiKg in it at..t t'iit any
fw sou stug hi titv ef a rsp.
H'r I. ' hrr,
But it was the la t-and now,
what?
As the mounted the ollar stairs
with the cam lie in one hand and
the ihiikcn dandling from the
other the almost nuled at a switt
grotesque vision of herself making
use of her knowledge of her neigh'
but' ln roots; rooM which had
not been depleted. Yet was it
so impossible? Wa there anything
in the wide world that the would
not do for those two upstairs if it
was possible mid safe? the had
always sworn the would never get
into debt but the was in debt; that
she would never, under any clr
i uiiHt.iiii e, mortgage htr house
yet how quickly the had done it
when it wa a question of getting
Joe home.
How would briny a chii krn thief
be worse than being o in debt to
one's grocer that credit had at last
been refused? And In her imagin
ation that figure persisted, slink
ing, witchlikr, stealing through the
moonlight, calming the dogs tb.it
knew and loved htr, and quietly,
skillfully obtaining food like any
other wild mother loping safely
home with it.
As the entered the kitchen she
had a moment's glimpse of hrr re
flection in the black circle of the
kitchen window, a yet uncovered
by frost, and her hrart leaped. It
was so like the evil face of famine
itself peering in I
Yes if the Purple Lady had
been invisibly present and had
seen that face one can fancy she
would have fled.
Or being who she was would
she have only peered the closer,
tried to gather that white head to
her bosom, kissed it, soothed it,
. kept near step by step, through all
the sordid agony? Would she have
been Irving to help, going from
Joe to Althea, from Althea to Joe,
relieving the other from sentry
duty while those necessary things
were done in the cellar and kitchen
from Althea to Joe and then
back again to touch the white hair
yearningly?
Mrs. Mack hung her fowl upon a
nail and went the rounds of the
kitchen. There wa a little rice, a
bit of dried codfish, perhaps half
a dozen jars of jelly. (She had sold
off her great store of fruit and
preserves longf ago at a loss to
more prosperous neighbors.) And
there was a little fat left over from
her last cellar sacrifice but one.
How strange, how unbelievably
strange, that there should be no
more credit from the grocery
where she had traded 30 years I
How cruel people could be to each
other, she reflected, calling to mind
the smug, fat face and near-set,
bleared eyes of her creditor. She
could not remember that she had
ever been cruel, or unjust, or un
generous. But perhaps she had,
unknowingly. .Sometimes she had
been rather grudging to beggars and
peddler who came and bothered
her at her back door; but only
when their faces had betrayed
them a slimy, shiftless, idle crea
tures who ought not to be encour
aged. Well, perhaps that was the
way her grocer and coal dealer and
the man who held the mortgage
judged of her.
At any rate, sufficient unto the
day. Rice, chicken, jelly that
would see them through tomorrow.
Perhaps she could bring herself
to lay the case before Dr. Robson
if she must. He would not let
Althea suffer surely not! And, in
time, the government would send
Joe's pay some day. And when
Althea was all safe, why, then
then there were all sorts of work
one could do.
And so she smoothed her face,
straightened her shoulders and
went to look at the children again.
Joe was asleep; really asleep.
After all, this was not so different
from that time she had so nearly
lost him with scarlet fever. He had
been delirious then and her heart
had died within her. This was only
the same agony on a larger scale
what else? She had had the same
aching ganglion under the hrart
then, and had been younger les
able to bear it. . . .If one
could only believe that his dream
were calm! But in the half light
she could still sec the knotted fore
head, the clrnched hand, so white
against the black bcarkin.
She stole out and went to look
tit Althea. But that wise child had
gone to bed and wa aslrrp also.
Here, to, Mr. Mack paused. So
autrrcly lovely o childlike still.
Hough fate must surely lutti aside
fiom that!
She lifted her rlrurhrit hand
and held tlirin as aint her dry eve
fur a moment a she turned away;
then, seeing the g.tv, espeetartt gar
riiriits still feinr g briore the dying
ine, she took m her rami! .me
mine and went uuthe garret stairs.
She could tbv th.tt imu h, Thfiis:h,
i fiUine, there would limlniii,
Is'ie bad pusmised,
What an oll sua -tiuii v I il.iw.
n in the r! A brea'h of It
.het AHh4 1.4,1 use 4 for her
prrttirs. nn tloti'.t. but ! H nxs.
tnent Mts, MlV ws.uf.t l-iv ind
sr. imt'l a tkv pink
The V rre' t trt..laikiiJ t(-
f r ? no 1 a-M at alt fret
hf fnJI f"' . 'v it V
Iquare of the tiny window llnng
back, a sp.iik aa dim a her own,
one small fla.li of greeting a she
pasted. It waa by that window,
Althea and Jn had p!acd with
their .i r ladle and anim.il. In
deed, had she cared to search them
out, Mr, Mack could have found
their faded fragments still in a
box of tiM that stood thrre. Kvctl
the Purple I.ady, not muih differ
ei,t in appiaraine from that other
day, although gone a little spider
webby ami dusty, still pointed her
one giareful toe, aiul i bowed a
trace of her smile under the
smudge left by Althea' greasy
finger.
The machine wa not perceptible
until she brougtit her flanir almost
against it dark skeleton, but she
knew it well could, indeed, have
almost gone about this bu-ine
blindfold. She hoped a she set
her caudle down and laid hold of a
dusyt lever, that the noise of it
dragging would not reach her
sleeper. But perhaps the rush of
wind, the sharp rurtlc of the snow
thrust against the windows was
loud enough to cover in whatever
the had to do.
The trunk was locked, the key
forgotten and lost long ago. She
prized the old hasp ojien, Poor,
patient old drawings! There they
lav. So many years of a man's
lite so much hope, so much skill
so much rubbish! She had no
knowledge of mechanics to enable
her to follow and understand the
purport of those 'careful, careful
line, but the time, the labor, the
hope, the ultimate failure there
was no misreading these.
She laid the drawings gently at
one side. Under them were boxes.
The first she lifted out was heavy.
She knew what it must be, but
lifted the cover to make sure. Yes,
these were the disjointed part of
a small model of the machine. Ex
quisite bits of polithed wood and
carefully wrought metal, all ar
ranged in order like a child's build
ing block after a day of play. She
put this box on top of the draw
ings and lifted the other, a large
one, fitting the bottom of the
trunk like a tray. If there were
anything in Althea's vision this
must be the right box. It came
up with such a different feel from
the other box, so light, yet full I
Her hands trembled. She lifted
the pasteboard cover and touched
the yellowed tissue paper.
"Mother!" she whispered,
Motherl"
And then, just a she would
have looked further at the con
tents, she heard herself called in a
soft, guarded voice, and there wa
that in the call which turned her
blood to ice. O God I On a night
like this now?
Still holding the box and the
candle, she darted to the stairhead
and saw as she knew she should
see Althea's face looking up at
her. Althea also held a candle,
and she, too, was as white as the
drifted snow. Her forehead glis
tened, her eyes were wide and
black, but a smile fluttered upon
her lips.
"Coming at once, my darling,"
Mrs. Mack sped down the stairs
like a swooping bird. "Back to
bed. Don't be troubled. It will
be all right all right all right 1
"Now I must telephone."
"How ever can the doctor get
through!" gasped Althea. "Isn't
it drifting terribly?"
"O," said the other serenely,
"you don't know doctors. He won't
try to use his sleigh. He'll just
get on his little black cob. I've
seen them going about in worse
weather than this."
"The wires may be down."
"They won't be."
"I wasn't worrying I only
meant if they should he don't
worry. We can get along. Other
women have." Then he shut
her lips tight on a cry that almost
came. But neither that wail nor
any other passed her lips during
that long night. For the sake of
Joe, dreaming terrible things in
the next room; for the sake of
Joe who had heard, God knows
what cries I and so could hear no
niore, she kept silence silence!
The wires were not down, but a
redder thing than storm thrust her
back whrn Mrs. Mack sent her call
into the night.
"We can't take any more call
from you," came back harp and
tine with a cruel edge of satisfac
tion in the underbred voice. "The
service is suspended for nonpay
ment of the last three months'
charges."
"Really r said Mrs. Mask "How
careless of me. I'll tee to that to
morrow. But I must ak you to
take tlii call, because " ami she
went on confidently to explain,
But she found neither understand,
ing nor pity in the only tar htr
sui louhl reaih. Surily that
i out. I ni t bo a lai'ichl Some
oiiii l o( the storm, b'rak.li in.
s hnnun firatme iou!t !ngh.
"tlrdsll is or.l.rs," dttr.ril tbe
Stuiif. And teni'al an.wtivd htr
n.t mi ore.
Put Sf i wa for anyer,
1 h tn alsst n is,hh" - but t!t
iif.uil ttou wa vloitil lor Hie
vsiiittf.ih house ly4 lh. t kd
no phone, act any fxs t to
4Csitw4 m re i