Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 221, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1917 — Cinderella Without the Ball [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Cinderella Without the Ball

By George Haskell

(Copyright. ISI7. by W. G. Chapman.) •» “Oh. come on Em! It’s going to be a dandy party!” The girl looking over the fence wad urging another who paused a moment in the business jif hanging clothes on The line to answer: “i can’t Grace—but Dora is going.” “Yes, Dora’s always 'going,* and you’re staying—staying home, and doing the work.” ~ “Oh, well, I’m trying to get a dress made. When it’s done, I’ll be ‘going.’ ” Emily laughed cheerfully, gave a towel a vigorous snap, and hung it on the line. She was thin and rather colorless, but her hair scintillated in the shifting sunlight and had copper and gold glints. The fence of the back yard in the village street was not too high for those who passed to look over, but, Emily was not ashamed of her homely work, they were not able to hire it done, her mother had never been used to hard labor of any kind, and as for her younger sister, Dora, it was quite out of the question to think of her doing the family wash. Dora was eight vears younger than Emily, very pretty, very self-willed, and very selfish. The last two traits were probably owing to the spoiling she had received from both mother and sister. Two children Emily and Dora had died, and Dora was the apple of her mother’s eye. She had lived in luxury, and when the crash had come, followed soon by the death of her husband, she had taken the little that brought in a very slender income, and had settled down to live upon it with no idea of trying to increase it with any labor of her ow’n. She was of the helpless, unthinking kind who will sometime, somewhere, have to experience a heavy jolt to a weaken them to the purpose of their being here on this terrestrial globe. “ When” Emily w’as seventeen she had taken up the burden of attempting to better conditions, and make the little income go farther by doing the heavy

work that a woman had been paid to do. Next she saved dressmaking bills by making her own clothes, and eventually those of her mother and sister. , It is always the people who are willing who are allowed to carry the burdens of those who are not. There has been known, however, to be such a thing as “the last straw.” But Emily gave no indications of the last straw till a cheery voice hailed her over the fence some minutes after her girl friend had passed on. A pair of merry eyes belonging to a tanned, honest face, not especially handsome, but invitingly reliable, smiled at her under the raised hat. Emily embarrassed and rather miserable at the thought of her appearance in the old, faded working garb, could only stammer out: “Oh! Mr. Hale!” “You’ll be there tonight at the Stoner party, won’t you?” he asked. “No. I think not. But my sister’s going.” “Why don’t you go?” he persisted, Emily thought she even a tinge of disappointment in the ‘ tone. She pushed a wet sheet along on the line to better see his face, and said: “Well I—l can’t explain just now, but I can’t go.” She felt that any plea of ill health would be slightly incongruous with her vigorous handling of the week’s wash. She could not tell him the real reason, ancFTHth an expression of regret Hale passed c|n. The wet towel hung limply in hepnand, and the wind catching an dhfastened sheet, it slid to the ground unnoticed by the girl.> Youth, the desire for companionship, the call of the heart were all having their say. Their demand was Insistent." .They did not even ask why they should be denied. : v Emily had met Hale only two or three times, but she had been strongly attracted to him. When her mother

called from the doorway; and she saw the sheet on the ground she had suddenly a glimmering realization that he meant more to her than she had sup- - posed. —-—. —“—■ — In the cool sitting room Emily dropped down on a chair. “I wonder if that blue voile would look well enough for me to’ wear tonight,” she said. Her sister Dora looked up from the novel she was reading, comfortably stretched out on a couch. “Oh Em, that old thing!” she exclaimed in a distressed tone. “Emily! yo« would disgrace the family in that dress!” chimed in the mother from her corner by the window where some stockings were receiving some desultory darning. This aspect of the case had not before occurred to Emily, but she at once saw the force of the argument. “I thought I might freshen it up a bit,” she answered apologetically. “But if you think it looks so shabby, why I’ll just let it go.” “You must get at your clothes dear, and fix up something to wear, so that you’ll be ready for the next party.” Emily made no answer. She knew that the time for getting at her own wardrobe was not likely to come very soon with all the sewing for her mother and sister that was already laid out for her. She arose a trifle wearily, and went into the kitchen to prepare the meal. Dora came home from the party flushed and excited with the “dandy time” she had had. Howard Hale had danced with her more than with any other girl; and both women saw quite plainly that something like a romance had begun under their own roof. To the elder sister the knowledge came with a chilling, benumbing weight. She tried to set it aside, and be glad of the other’s happiness, but her own heart cried out in revolt. She saw before her a battle to be fought to gate the victory of renunciation.

After Hale’s first call at which etiquette required the presence of the family, Emily invariably left the field clear for her sister, who had intimated that she wished this. Emily was finding the battle with herself an unusually hard one. The more deeply she found she loved this man, the more strongly came the temptation to revolt; but her mother was so pleased, and her sister so happy how could she reveal her feelings. Besides Hale evidently loved her sister, andhad not even thought of her, so she hid all evidences of the struggle under a quiet exterior. One evening Hale came when Doni was out, as she had not expected him. Emily met him with the information. After a few minutes talk hq said: “Will you answer me frankly, truthfully one thing?” In surprise she agreed to his request. “Why do you z always fly from me as though I were a pestilence?” he asked. “Why—why, you come to see my sister —” /‘No. I don’t.” he broke in. “I come to see you I Don’t you think I know you are worth all the Doras in creation. You’re courageous, unselfish little woman !” At this Emily quite broke down, sobbing out something rather unintelligible. But holding her close against his heart, he seemed to understand.

“I Know You Are Worth All the Doras in Creation."