Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 April 1910 — MISS ALICIA’S HOUSE. [ARTICLE]

MISS ALICIA’S HOUSE.

The Presence of Apparently InconKrnoua Furnishing;* Is Explained. could live In-Miss Alicia’s garden!” Constance exclaimed. "But oh, that agony of a house! I kept looking at Miss Alicia herself, as exquisite as If she had stepped out of an Ivory miniature, and wondering how she could endure It. I’ve always maintained that a house revealed character far more than any photograph could do, but my theories never had such a stunning blow as at Miss Alicia’s. Think of that atrocious perforated cardboard ‘air-castle’ hanging from the door of that glorious old secretary! I could have cried!" Mrs.. Campbell smiled. She had known Constance all her life. "Are you sure that you really have seen Miss Alicia’s house?” she asked. “Really seen it!” Constance echoed. "Really seen It! Florence Campbell, what do you mean? Haven't I been using all the words I am acquainted with to try td express its effect upon me?” “Suppose,” her friend suggested, “when you go to Miss Alicia’s to tea to-morrow, you ask her about the cardboard air-castle. Perhaps you’ll find that your theory is not so far wrong, after all.” "Something is wrong,” Constance declared, emphatically, “.If it isn’t my theory or Miss Alicia’s taste, I don’t see anything left except my eyes. I’d almost rather lose confidence in my theories.” But her curiosity was aroused, and after tea —served in beautiful china which had descended to Miss Alicia from a seagoing great-uncle—Con-stance led the conversation to . the cardboard air-castle. Miss Alicia took It down, looked ruefully at its broken corners. "I’m afraid I shall have to-put it away pretty soon,” she said, "but 1 shall miss It so much. It’s been hanging there twenty years—ever slnci Ellen Jasper sent it to me.” “Who was Ellen Jasper?" Constance asked. "Do you mind telling me?” Miss Alicia looked puzzled. “Why she was just—Ellen Jasper. She didn’t get along with folks very well, but I always liked her, and I used to run In whenever I could. She lived with a brother who was feeble-minded. She died suddenly—she wasn’t sick more than two days, and then we found that she’d been suffering fer years, But she wouldn’t let anybody know for fear they’d take Charley away. She sent this to me just a week before she died.” “I see,” Constance said softly. Presently she asked, “That poppy picture—did somebody paint that for you?” Miss Alicia smiled at the glowing panel. Yes, some one had painted It—-

a little crippled girl who was so foolishly grateful because Miss Alicia sent her flowers sometimes—as if things did not grow better for the picking! And that box was carved by Joe Giants in prison—just because she had written him every week. She always knew Joe would come out all riirht and he did. ■- ’ Constance’s eyes filled with tears. “I understand now, dear Miss Alicia. The rest of us furnish out houses with things, but yours is furnished with faith and hope and lov©. M v But she did not say it aloud; it would have troubled Miss Alicia.— Youth’s Companion.