Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 January 1912 — NOT THE WORST DISASTER [ARTICLE]

NOT THE WORST DISASTER

. - —.. ■- Miss Thornton Could Overlook the Soiling of Her Silk Dress on This Occasion. Miss Thornton, dressed with tasteful precision, chose her seat in the street car with the air of orie who is habitually careful of her apparel. She looked with an instant’s satisfaction upon the starchy cleanliness of the very littie girl beside her, and then turning to the window thought no more, of rerßeatmate unfit, after a long ride, she became conscious of a moist feeling on her Knee. “Why, what is this? - she asked, with considerable vexation, for it was certainly annoying to discover several large spots on the folds of her cherished silken frock The child, who had been dozing, woke with a start and gazed with astonishment at the limp handkerchief she was holding, and had been holding during her little nap, over Miss Thornton’s dress. "O. it’s all gone!” she exclaimed, with a stifled sob bf disappointment. “Wba is all gone?” demanded Miss Thornton, dabbing her handkerchief ruefully and a little angrily at the discolored silk “What were you carrying that made such a muss?” “It was a big and dandy ice cream peach. It was awfpl good, I know, but I didn’t eat even one tiny bite of it at the settlement party, ’cause I wanted to take it home to mother, for she never even seen* one like it, and now it’e—it’s nothing, and nobody’ll ever eat it” . . .. The little girl’s tone of hopeless regret suddenly made the ryin of a handsome"silk gown seem paltry compared with the tremendous loss of an ice cream peach. Miss Thornton took the small, damp band in hers and said, in her gentlest voice: “I am quite sure, dear, that we can find another ice cream peach for your mother, or something else—just as big and dandy.”— Youth’s Companion.