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Copyright, 1907, by David OC.
Cook Publishing Company.
Vor, VI.. No. 41 1 RuBLAsHED
» VI, . AL. i We
DAVID C.
. COOK PUBLISHING CO., Excin,
ILLINOIS, AND 86 Wasnincton St., CHIcaco.
October 12, 1907.
By Mary EF.
ZALIA WHITCOMB was out of
* 3. sorts. Her mother felt there.was a
storm brewing, but she said nothing.
- At last Azalia said impatiently:
“T wish father had never seen those old
kettles! Ee does seem to choose the queer-
» est things to be agent for
: Azalia’s mother turned from. the stove,
’ with a pained look. It was hard to under-
Stand this black-eyed daughter who had just
- come back from her first year at college—
“so different from the one that went away.
: And yet, she was Azalia.
“ Your. father makes well off the kittles,”
_ she said.
_ A frown gathered on ‘Azalia’s face. The’
- mother said “ kittles’” and Azalia’s frown
tightened.
Oh, dear! How hard it. was to come
back from school and find everything: so
different! If only her father and mother
could talk differently! .This'is what Azalia
was thinking, but the mother knew noth-
ing of it, and she added, in a little brighter
» tone:
“T don’t believe’ you've looked at the
kittles, “Azalia. They are just ‘as pretty
“as they can be-—blue outside and white in-
side, and such a nice tin steamer fits, each
‘one; and if one wants, they can take the
steamer right out and only use the kittle.
There’s quite a list of. folks waiting for
Jem now. ‘They take, your father says,
>. like hot eakes, they’re so kind o’ bright and
‘pert looking.” Then she added, looking
closely at her daughter, “It would not be
such a very hard jaunt to just drive ’round
and deliver ’em, and you could stop over
Sat Aunt. Ilarrictt’s ‘going, and somewhere
‘else coming back. Your father knows lots
0’ folks.” “4,
» Azalia turned sharply.
“Mother! <As if I'd go ’round with that
> old- yellow- scovered wagon with * Ant Ex-
terminator’ staring from it, delivering ket-
. tles! Why doesn’t. father have that old
sign taken off. the wagonif he is sell-
ing kettles? That’s what I'd like to
“know !”
“But he is going to sell ant extermina-
tor again when he gets through with the
~ kittles. * He did real well with it last year,
“but you know it is preserving time now,
-.and kittles is what folks want.”
~ “Well, they can want them, for all of
me, I am sure!” said Azalia, ~ “ F;
"
Father
ought not to expect a girl to do such work.
Of course Drew could do it if he were
“well.”
- -“Yes, Drew is tuckered out, and you
seem to have stood schooling so smart. But
Drew is: like your father. Ile looks as
- peaked as can be, but he will pick up after
a little, I guess.”
A little later Azalia passed from the
room and ran lightly upstairs, but her
“mother stood looking quietly out over the
landscape. She was in search of something.
... Was it-her lost little girl who had left her
“only a few short months ago? And. Drew—
“put well—and the mother drew a Jong sigh,
and turning back to-her work. ssid, ina
Bamtord.
up, “ They’re just dear,
that’s what they are.
A party of young folks had planned a
camping expedition, and Drew, with a por-
tion of the party, had gone on in advance
‘on wheels to set up the tents. <Azalia
was busy packing all that day, and some-
times her thoughts were of her mother and
her home, but for the most part she was
with the girls upon the green mountain, “Oh,
how delicious it will be to get away from
here!” But Azalia hastily drew herself up
when. she had got this far in ber thoughts.
loving» children,
full,
not mine.
have’ been doing
school.”
And yet Azalia was a
‘it’s father’s and mother’s problem,
Ile got them on his hands—I
problems» enough at
“dear, loving
child,’ just as her mother was thinking
of her—that is, at heart.
The next morning a gay company of
young people called at the door, and Azalia
was ready for, them. She ran hastily to
her father’s room to say good-by.
“tow thin your face is to-day!” she said
caressingly.
“Yes, the fever took about all I had,”
said the father. “ But I will be picking up
after awhile.” And then came an anxious
Jook that Azalia had seen come to her
father’s face before, since coming home. Her
father put up one weak hand. wistfully,
and stroked the girl’s face. Tow proud he
was of this bright young daughter with
abounding health! Yet—the father stopped
here. Was. he, too, looking for something
that he missed—someething that had been
theirs in the days gone by.
“ Good-by,” Azalia called at the door,
haying kissed her mother hurriedly; “ “we
shall only be gone about ten days.”
Ilad she not been just longing and longing
for this home? But even as. she chided
herself, she felt no comfort, little thinking
it was the kettles that broke the harmony.
“Tf only father would get some other
kind: of- work to do! “Wellf? Azalia was
tone, as though to, chirk herself
looking’ comfortably at. the. trunk already
“on,” CRIED MKS. WILLTCOMB, “ HOW YOU DID SCARE ME!
sor
”
After Azalia’s Separture the mother went
to the upper window and watched the gay
riders out of sight. After Azalia’s “tam”
had disappeared, she leaned her tired head
against the window, casing, and tears rolled
slowly down her cheeks. “ She-is gone, just
as Drew did, never fixing a thing about the
kittles,” she murmured. ‘It don’t seem as
though I could go myself, and drive the
wagon and leave pa two whole days alone;
and I’m so tired!” A few, moments she
stood looking patiently out upon the scene,
and then went downstairs, and as she went
she again said, ‘‘ They’re just dear, loving
children, that’s what they are.”
It was a merry camping party of young
folks, and the days passed rapidly. They
tramped up the mountain, and down the
mountain. They were up with the sunrise,
and watched eagerly the sunsets. Every-
thing that dear Mrs. Dickinson and Mrs.
Grimes—the two who had the party in
charge—cooked was ‘simply superb!” Ap-
petites grew with the days, and songs were
to be heard far into the night.
One evening while sitting in the quiet
around the campfire, Richard Daly came in,
late. lis supper was waiting for him.
“T cannot help it, Mrs. Dickinson, but I
knew you would keep something hot for me,
I had to turn Good Samaritan. I found a
woman in a covered wagon in quite a
plight. Ier horse had stumbled, and some-
how ,one shaft of the wagon was cracked.
I fixed her out as well as I could... My!
but I felt sorry for ber! She’s somebody’s
mother, that’s sure. She was delivering
tinware and kettles. I told her about you
folks up here at camp, and asked her to
come on with me for. the night, but she
said she had her stopping place: arranged
for,
Richard Was a schoo] comrade who had
joined the party,’ and not knowing her
mother, he had no reason to rightly inter-
pret the hot flush that swept Azalia’s face
as he recounted what had delayed him.
But he noticed she gave one swift look to
her brother Drew, and quietly left the cir-
cle. <A little later Drew left also.
Out among the pifions they talked quiet-
y.
“Drew, there is no doubt but that it’s
mother. Hedid not say *‘ Ant Extermina-
tor’ was on the wagon, but it is, I know as
well as that I stand here. Oh, Drew! Why
did we ever leave her at all, with all that on
her hands? And you: know how. dazed
mother gets when trouble comes sometimes,
and her hearing is not so very good, either.”.
Drew did his best to place the matter in ~
a better light. ‘But she’s well acquainted
’round: here, ’Zalia, and if: she’s not, old
Whitey is. She’s probably all right now.”
But it’s a shame!” said Azalia.
ought, this minute, to be with{ her. ~
her father ought to get somebody to deliver
those kettles, but she told. me -afterwards
that there was not profit enough.in- them
for that.” Drew was:‘staring at the*stars.
It was not much sleep’ either’ of *the
two had that night, and at the very first
gray of the morning, two wheels were
speeding down the road, and a note’ left
on the ¢amp table told the ones in charge
that they would not be back to breakfast.
“Tf it’s mother, she will be up early on
the road, you can k ure of that—up be-
fore we were,” Azalia’s tone was firm now,
She was more like the, Azalia Whitcomb
who used to ride along with her father in
the early days; as though glad to be of
use, :
The two kept on their way. But the
road stretched out and out, and not a sign
of the yellow-covered wagon had been seen.
They were standing on a height overlooking
the country roads. A distant railroad
passed a hamlet.. It was not a regular stop
—only a. flag station. - Far.away between =~.
them and the railroad track, Azalia spied a-
wagon.
“There, Drew! There she: is!” Azalia
cried, drawing her breath quickly. :
<-They were upon their wheels instantly,
and, Striking into.a: road that: “wound down
