Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 125, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1918 — THE LITTLE OLD LADY OF PANSY SQUARE [ARTICLE]

THE LITTLE OLD LADY OF PANSY SQUARE

Timidly she entered the Red Cross Bureau and stood just within the doorway. Her poor, dimmed old eyes spoke so eloquently: “I’m friendly, ladies, but a little afraid.’’ Several of us rose, but Mrs. Crawford reached her first and asked her to come In and sit down. “Oh, thank you so much," quavered the old lady as she sat down. “You see, my boy—my grandson—has gone and”—with Spartan fortitude she restrained the tears that glistened In her eyes—"gone with his regiment Now I’m all alone in my little cottage tn Pansy Square. And, oh, ladies, do any of you know the dreary loneliness when there is no one who comes home at night?” We almost hugged the dear old lady, so forlorn, yet so brave. We drew up our chairs closer, and she told us her story. -The tittle old lady owned a vine embowered cottage in Pansy Square. There she kept house for her grandson, who worked in a downtown office. When America took up cudgels for democracy the lad. in patriotic fervor, was among the first to enlist “Ah, how 1 loved him and needed him I” whispered the old lady brokenly. “But my dear country needed him more. So 1 told him to go. ’But what will yon do, granny?* he asked. I told him I had enough, an<| so he went Brave, brave heart I My husband was a soldier, and I have his pension. But it is small. After paying the taxes on my cottage there was little left, and now it is gone. I’m old, but* I'm willing. All I ask is a chance to earn my bread till—till he returns.” Through the Home Service workers of her community the little old lady of Pansy Square has been provided with simple tasks, such as making preserves and delicious cakes and a labor of love for her and an unfailing source of revenue. Some day, please, God. her soldier btxj will come back to the little old lady of Pansy Square, and he will find her as he left her—happy, comfortable aad self reliant