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Copyright, 1909, by David 0. Cook Publishing Company.
YVJBLISEED
Von. VIII. No. 26. i,,,,,,,,
DAVID C. COOK PUBLISHING C0., ELGIN, ILLINOIS, AND 36 Wssnrxarox S'r., CHICAGO.
June 26, 1909.
-teed-as-ttrss The new or Pmtolccw
BY i3er-utha Gerneaux-Vvoods.
her. The table had seemed to balance
“ Us
IN THE first place, Matie didn’t want
just right before Patience came.
four and no more” had perhaps been the
unconscious sentiment of Matie all her
happy, girlish years, with mother radiating
cheer and comfort from behind the codee
urn, father,‘ dear and handsome, at the
other end of the table, and Leslie, her
beloved Leslie, opposite her own place.
Of course, occasional guests were pleasant
and desirable. But that was quite diEer-
ent, this second cousin, who was almost fl.
stranger to all of them, coming to board
for :1 whole year in the pretty cottage
home. It hadn't seemed possible to re-
fuse when the father and mother, mission-
aries in :1 ar country, ha sent such 11
touching letter commending their “little
girl” to the care of these relatives in the
home land.
And “hospitality without grudging”
V had been promptly extended by mother and
father's letters. Leslie had added a bit of
a girlish postcript, but Matie had man-
aged to avoid writing at all. “I don't
want her, and I'm not going to pretend to
be glad when I'm not," she had said, do-
cisively. ,
“But you needn't say you are glad,”
Leslie had suggested. “ 'ou could jus
write in friendly little note.”
' But Matie had answer-ediwith a slight
i 5 shrug of the shoulders, softened by a flying
kiss on a stray curl of her sister‘: hair.
Then Paticnceixhad come. “A pathetic
sort of a name,"‘Leslie said, warm-heart
edly. ,-1”’
“ I don't like it,” Matie responded.
“She's probably just the opposite of Iwr
name. Most people are! Names don't fit
in real life the Wily they always do in
stories."
“ She's almost like a child in some ways,
isn't she?" Leslie said one day to Mutie.
“She came to me in the most appealing
way this morning to ask me about her
necktie; didn't seem to have the least idea
what sort of a thing to put on with that
new shirt-Waist suit. She’s' really child-
like.”
“More childish, isn't it?" responded
Matic. “ You'd think she would have more
self-reliance-the oldest child in a big
family like hers. I have an idea she's
been sort of selfish, perhaps.”
“ don't know 2'' Leslie's voice
was slightly shocked.
“I suppose I haven't any real reason
for thinking so." Matie added, with u be-
lated conscientiousncss. “But her abs(‘nt-
mindcdness does seem to make her the least
little bit selfish sometimes, or it amounts
to the some thing. There was the way she
forgot all about her suit-case that first
night, and poor papa had to make a second
trip downtown. He was all tired out, too,
and I don't think she was quite so apolo-
getic us you or I would have been under
the circumstances.”
W] , I don't knoweperhaps not,"
said Lcslie. “At the time it just struck
me she was confused and felt strange and
shy."
Somehow, as the days went.by, it be-
(‘nme the most natural thing in the world
to comment on Paticnce’s little peculiar-
ities, and cvcu very small ones became
glaring when there were two critical, girl-
ish heads to be put together.
At first Leslie had thought her cousin a
decidedly attractive-looking girl. “ Her
hair curls so prcttily around her ears," she
had said, “ and how her face lights up
when she talks!"
“ Yes," Matie’s tone was unconsciously
grudging, “ it does, but she isn't what you
would call a pretty girl, Leslie. She's a
long way from that. Her mouth is too
large, and haven’t you noticed how she
twists it when she laughs? You wouldn't
call it exactly uncouth--oh, no, not so bad
as that, but it gives her a sort of an awk-
ward look." '
“I don't know but it does," said Leslie.
“And you know that someone has said,"
added Matie, “ ‘ God makes our other fea-
tures, but lets us make our own mouths.’
It seems too bad that she hasn't made a
better piece of work of hers, when some
of her other features are quite good, as
u say."
“ We'll probably have to wear ourselves
out taking her sight-seeing,” Matie said,
one morning. “She was so crazy over
Mount Vernon. I suDP05e We Wgllt to take
her to Alexandria some day. id you ever
see such a hero-worshiper? I expect she'll
melt into tears if we let her see George
Washington’: church!" It was said with
a slight sneer, '
in quest of the sexton, and Matie limped
after her. Perhaps it was a slightly os-
tentatious limp, exaggerated for her cous-
in’: benefit. But Patience did not see.
She stood with a. rapt look on her face,
trying to take in all the details of the
quaint old church, and already, in imag-
ination, inditing a letter to go across the
sea to father and mother, describing it all.
“ I'm all worn out! Do hurry, Leslie!
It's a perfect nuisance taking people sight-
seeing. I suppose we might run our feet
off and it wouldn't affect her!" Matie said,
in an impatient undertone to her sister.
" Do you know it's two -o'clock?’
“It's’too had," Leslie answered, sy‘m‘-
pathetically. “I suppose it really hasn't
occurred to Patience that you're tired.
She's been so absorbed.”
“ It ought to occur to her,” Matie said.
So, somehow, it happened that when, a
few minutes later, Patience, with a. beatitic
expression, on her face, was sitting in
George Washington's own pew, and trying
to fancy Martha herself in fascinating
ruffles and flutings beside her, her cousins
stood rather stidly by. .
Perhaps some lack of responsiveness in
the other two struck suddenly on Pa-
tience's consciousness. At any rate, the
animation died out of her face when she
looked up, and she rose rather hurriedly.
“ Oh, I’m afraid I've been keeping you too
Martha Washington, fair and stately, in
snowy, putfed hair and tluted rutiles, faded
quickly ‘away into the far past. Little
Nellie Custis vanished, too. They were
just three everyday, modern girls who
went quietly out of the church in quest
of a modest cafe, where they could rest
and refresh the inner man.
It was over their iced tea and rolls that
Matie, glancing up suddenly, saw some-
thing that made her wince. Patience was
looking industriously into her plate, and,
yes, there was no mistaking it-struggling
for self-control. There was something
piteously childlike in the quivering mouth
that Matie ad pronounced too large for
beauty. What could be the matter? Les-
lie, too, had caught sight of the expression
on her cousin's face, and came to the res-
cue in perhaps the best way. She would
spare Patience the rnortitlcation of break-
ing down right there, with that round-
faced, staring woman looking on from her
place behind the counter.
“Did you know, Patience,” she-asked,
briskly, “there's one spot on the banks of
the Potomac where they say George Wash-
ington used to stand and throw a dollar
clear across the river?"
Patience looked up with quick relief at
this query. Evidently the girls had not
noticed her quivering lips, after all.
“Why, no," she said, “I never heard of
r > n
“The rcason for it," said
bu it was
something that Matie should
oEer to make the trip.
An so one morning, the
three girls took the electric
car for Alexandria, Patience's
face suffused with delighted
nntlcipations, and some faint
trace of her pleasure refiected
in her cousin’s eyes. a
It was a morning of joy to
Patience, and she turned al-
most pale with delight when
they made a stop at the old
Bra(ld0ck‘h0use. She knew
all about the famous general
who had made it his head-
said, softly. “Oh, girls, it's
so fascinating, I wish they’,
co see it!" And the
others smiled with unwanted
sympathy upon her. Suppose
it were they-in a far coun-
try, away from their nearest
and dearest! .
But, after all, it soon began
to pail upon them-this sight-
seeing-as the day grew hot-
ter and more oppressive. ' -
ticnce would probably want to
spend some time in the
famous old Christ Church.
They would better hurry her
there and have it over, Matie
managed to say in an aside to
Leslie. . -
Once in the old church, Pa-
tience looked about her with
owed interest. “I can't really
believe I'm here,” she said.
“ Oh, Leslie, do you suppose I
could go and sit in Washing-
ton's pew just for a moment?”
“ We'll call the sexton.
I ought to remem-
nnturedly.
show us the exact one.
her it myself.
it's slipped out of my mind."
comfortable. Iler sister was already going
“Why, yes," Leslie responiled, good- long," she said.
IIe'll thinking how it all used to be."
.&I.' .n.' . ..,..... N...’ ,
ngwas A MDRSISG 01-‘ JOY TO PATIENCE.
“I just lost myself,
“Oh, that‘s all right,"
I've been here before, but quickly. “Take your time."
Leslie, “is that a dollar went
a good dcal farther in those
days than it does now. There!
didn‘t I catch you nicely?
Someone caught me on that a
while ago, and I've been wait-
ing for a chance to pass it on
ever since.’
Somehow this very unre-
markablc joke cleared the air.
Patience finished her roll with
a little smile on her face, but
neither of the other girls could
forget that look she had worn
a few minutes before.
They told mother about it
in the evening, when they
three were alone together. Pa-
tience, up in her room, was
linishing a letter to far-away
India. I
“Perhaps she felt home-
sick," mother said, quietly.
“ I suppose it overpowers her
sometimes, the strangeness of
it all here.”
The girls were very quiet
for a moment.
Then Matie burst out with
a vchcmcnce that had some
unmistakable remorse in it.
‘ did want her,
We had to have
couldn't refuse,
But here she
lamcly, and Leslie spoke:
“ I suppose we haven't done
all we could to make her
ands"
“And I know I haven't,"
Matic added, promptly.
“You've been better than I,
slie"
C. .
Another silence (all. Then the mother
said, “Do you know, girls, I am a little
L95“? Said: afraid you haven't been drawing out the
best of Patience. She's really a dear, lov-
"YPS, (Rite 3'0!-ll‘ lime." I1<ld<‘d Mime. With able girl, and I've been thinking for some
Matie's feet were beginning to hurt her an artilicialsmile that was intended to time we ought go mu; mg, 07“,
--these warm days always made them ua- atone for her inhospitable thoughts.
But, somehow, the spell was broken.
Haven't
you formed the habit of seeing the least
attractive things in her? It is surprising
broke off
happy-at least I haven't-.
