Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 283, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1916 — A SITUATION [ARTICLE]

A SITUATION

By SUSAN E. CLAGETT.

“There is nothing new under the sun,” Sarah Carroll, who was spending the summer with her friend, Mildred Carlton, said with something like asperity. “I know. Don’t I write for my dally bread and the sweets that should go with it? I cudgel my brain for plots, for inspirations and evolve — a situation. A situation is not a story, yet it seems to me that situations are the only things In life.” The other leaned a little forward, looking toward the gate. “I think,” she said slowly, “there is the beginning of a story that will not require Imagination to carry it to a conclusion." Sarah turned her head curiously. The gate was open. Standing just without, but in full view, was a little child, a black kitten closely clasped in her arms. She had been watching the two on the porch and, when she thought herself unobserved, stretched out a hand and softly touched.a cluster of half-blown roses that had pushed themselves through the palings. For some minutes the two watched her in silence,'lind then Mildred called to her: “Won’t you come here and talk to us, little girl?” The child, startled, came to the foot of the steps. “I didn’t hurt them,” she said under her breath. “I was just petting them and talking to them and wishing mother could see them.” “Where Is ‘mother’?” Sarah asked. The child’s eyes filled with tears. “She’s sick down there,” nodding her head in an uncertain direction, “and daddy’s sick, too.” “Poor little piece of forlornlty, tell me all’about It, and then we will go and see ‘mother’ and you shall have all the roses you can carry.”

~—“It Under a huge beech tree on the edge of the bank above Rock creek, stood a covered wagon, something after the order of the old-time prairie schooner, but not so large. Still, it was large enough for the family of three that made it their home. A cot, under a slight shelter in the densest tree shadow, held a man whose face showed suffering. Sarah and Mildred were having a picnic to cover an act of friendliness, for they had discovered upon their first visit that the child’s parents were above charity, although their stress was great. The woman was far from well, and anxiety about her husband sapped her strength. They had lived in one of the large cities, where he held a good position until an attack of pneumonia left him too weak and to resume it. They took their savings, bought food and outfit and started for somewhere. “Just somewhere,” the woman told Mildred, “where we could have God’s sunshine and pure air. He Improved at once, but a week ago he slipped and' broke his leg. Since then life would be gray Indeed if it were not for Doctor Winthrop." “Doctor Winthrop!” Sarah exclaimed sharply. “Is he here?” She turned to Mildred, who had bent rather hastily over the creek and was i washing her hands. “You did not tell me he was here.” | Sarah said nothing further until that evening when they were alone upon the porch. Then she said: I “When did he come?” “You mean Doctor Winthrop?” Mildred’s voice held a note unusual to its softness. “He has been in practice here for a year past.” “Ihave often wondered what became of him,” Sarah said. “He disappeared suddenly, as suddenly as if he had been swallowed up in some catastrophe. I don’t know why I should give a thought to him, for he passed entirely from my life after our last quarrel.” “Why did you quarrel?” Mildred leaned forward but did not look at her friend. The other shrugged her shoulders. “Incompatibility. Jealousy. Fortunately w r e discovered it in time.” A sudden, sobbing cry caught and held their attention. Another, then the sound of a man’s voice. Together they ran to the gate, into the road. A short distance away a car was standing. Near it a man with a child in his arms. He was speaking quietly, but with authority.“ 7? He put the child on her feet as the two girls stopped beside him. “What is it,” Sarah asked, drawing Nannie toward her. “Can we help?” “If you will be so good.” He spoke to Mildred. “Mrs. McCallum has had a rather severe heart attack, and I have brought her to you. I was sure you would take her in. She needs care. I will take John to my rooms.” A week later the two girls were In their usual lounging place. They had been silent for some time wheel Sarah at last aroused herself from her thoughts, yawned and said, with a trace of amusement in her voice: . “I did get a story, Mildred, but not the one you thought. There were a good many ends to be gathered together, yet they merely led to a sittfation. One of the ends was held by a little child. Another led from a broken engagement to a self-contained man whose sole thought, save in one instance, is absorbed in his prosesSion." “And that instance?” Mildred asked, with a show of interest Sarah smiled. “My dear, I saw him kiss you last night.” (Copyright »1«. **>• McClure Newspa-