Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 61, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1910 — A CLAM FRITTER. [ARTICLE]

A CLAM FRITTER.

*•<»'■* U«fc m* Tmet Mar Be Omiy Vatlaelr Dr*w«ia«M. “What's become of Sally French ly?” asked Aunt Marcia. “She’s such a dear girl I*4 hoped to see more of her before I leave.” “I’m afraid you mayn’t, aunty,” confessed Louise, uncomfortably. “You Bee —well—things aren’t exactly an they were between us. There’s no quarrel, but the other day, when I was telling her something particularly confidential and Important—you needn’t laugh! It was Important to me, If It isn’t a very big secret—Sally was so unresponsive she hardly seem-d even interested, and I couldn’t help showing I was disappointed in her; and then helt feelings were hurt, and sh® hasn’t been here since.” “Dear, dear, that’s a pity!” said Marcia. “But she may have been tired, or dull, or headachey, or you mayn’t have put things clearly. I can’t believe she’s really unsympathetic. Perhaps it’s only another case of clam fritter.” ~— — “Another case of what?” said Louise. “Haven’t I ever tatfd you that story? I thought It was almost a byword in the family. It happened long ago. Just before I became engaged. Some silly, disparaging remark I’d mad® about Tom, the way girls will, Just for fear people would guess I was fond of him, had been repeated and distorted, and he stopped coming to th« house. I felt dreadfully, and went to my dearest friend, Laura Martin, and told her my troubles. ! was, shy, and a long while really getting into my story, but I told It at last. My emotion gradually overcame me as I went on, and I finished by declaring that my heart would break If matters weren’t put right, and demanding wildly, ’O, Laura, tell me what to do!’

“‘Have a clam fritter,’ said Laura, briskly.” “Aunt Marcia! But I don’t understand. Was It slang?" “It was not, nor heartlessness, either; but you may Imagine my feelings. I flung out of the door in a tempest of wrjith and tears, and this cruel world looked very black indeed. It wasn’t rosy again till the next day, when I found that my dear, loyal Laura had already given Tom a hint before I went to her; and that returning late from the beach party where she had done so, she had been up all the rest of the night with a small brother, who had a raging tooth. ‘‘She was nodding with sleep when I began my tale, and wa3 quite asleep and dreaming reminiscent dreams before I was well into it. My conculding appeal woke her suddenly, and she spoke before she was fully awake. That was all; except, that is, that I was hath too near-sighted and too much excited to notice that she was napping." Louise laughed, a little reluctantly. “I can’t claim my confidences were anything as important as a love affair,” she owned, “and Sally certainly didn’t Insult my feelings with a dara fritter. But then, I wasn’t near-sight-ed and she wasn’t asleep." Aunt Marcia smiled her wise and whimsical smile. “Are you so very nice, Louise?” sha asked. “Most of us, even the truest and warmest-hearted, are caught napping once in a while in our tact, our* sympathy, or our understanding. Very few of us always see another person’s, excuse as clearly as we see our own grievance. I’m Inclined to think, if you talk it over with Sally, you’ll find, after all, that somebody was nodding, and somebody didn’t see."— Youth’s Companion.'