Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 223, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1911 — The Great Temptation [ARTICLE]

The Great Temptation

“No," said the woman who was telling the story. 1 did not have the time to do as 'I did I took th® time. There 'was plenty' of good reasons why i should have taken it. "At least 17 insistent duties glared at me from various corners of the house. They glared at me accusingly, as one who would willingly neglect them. They glared at me indignantly, as one who lightly assumed duties with no idea of discharging them. They glared at me bitylngly, as one who had been slackly brought up and didn’t know any better. But I turned my back on them all, dressed the children and went “This is why I went. I had taken a perfectly green girl from the intelligence office and trained her steadily for two months. I had trained her so that she understood what I was saying and could do the housework more than fairly well. Any one who has trained a green girl for two months At a stretch knows that a rest cure is due the trainer, but I’ll never be able to introduce rest cures into my curriculum, so I didn’t feel abused. “And then one Thursday evening a • tall, gaunt woman with a fairly good knowledge of. English appeared and Stasia and she went up to Stasia’s room. When they reappeared Auntie wandaluski—for that was the gaunt one’s name—held Stasia’s 'papier mache suit case in her hand. Stasia, clutching her month’s pay, acquired but two hours previously, brought-up the rear. Stasia was about to' leave, at .once! ' f "No, the work was not too hard. No, she didn’t want more money. She was about to be married, and, as the girl next door expressed it, I didn’t even know she 'was keepin* company.’ "She went in the middle of. the spring cleaning. She went when a sis-ter-in-law whom I, had never met was on her way from the Pacific coast to visit me. The three intelligence offices which constituted- the first aid to the suburbs could send me no one for a week. So I went to bed discouraged and woke up sick. “It was as I drank the tea that the great temptation reared its head. Isn’t it a lovely day?* said the great temptation, enticingly ‘You ought to be out of doors on such a day. Oh, well, I. know the work isn’t done and you have no girl, but the work will keep and the world is full of girls.’ ■•••■ “At this point the duties that I have mentioned before stalked from their respective corners and tried the effect of withering the great temptation, but it was waterproof. " ‘How fresh is the smell of the lake air!’ it went on. ’How pleasant is the beach! How much good it would do the children!’ ' ” “I had put the dishes to soak right after breakfast; that was all I -had done.' . uat was all I was going to do. I ran upstairs and dressed myself and the children, locked the door and fled toward the nearest station that would furnish a train to bear me and mine to the lake shore. As I turned the corner and looked back at the house a duty glared at me from my bedroom window. ‘Going away for the day, and not a single bed made!* it shrieked after me. I made no defense. I had none to make. "The faults of the great temptation may have been legion, but it was truthful. The lake was blue, the air delightful, the atmosphere quivered and sparkled. There were very few persons abdut. The children and I sat on the beach and ate quantities of fruit that I had bought and later I read a new magazine. Once or twice I had an uneasy feeling that a hovering duty was asking me what would be the result if the sister-in-law should arrive ahead of time and, getting into the house by hook or crook, should find the beds unmade. I refused to listen —absolutely refused. "I am now coming to the part of the story that I don’t like to tell. Even to myself It sounds ‘fishy,’ but it really is true, notwithstanding. “As I approached my own door late that afternoon, literally saturated with ; ozone and the joy of living, being accompanied by two children similarly affected, my neighbor crossed the lawn. Behind her came her maid and behind her came still another maid. Briefly told, the mistress of the second girl was going to England to visit her husband s people. She would be gone four months; I could have Jeanie for., that period if I wanted her, but Jeanie would like to return to her first mistress in September. “Would I take her? I had difficulty to keep sfrom throwing my arm around her. I promptly arranged for her to come next day. “After this masterly achievement I went inside my house donned an a^°H o a w dld°you dodge°the headache?’ asked my husband at dinner, ‘I thought you were in for a regular old timer when I left this morning.* “T was,'.l answered. Then I told him the story of the great temptar Uon. 'kOr • “I don’t exactly know myaelf what tSTit'S none, that it was, In fact, highly un-