Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 283, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1918 — The Patriotism of Susan [ARTICLE]

The Patriotism of Susan

By JANE OSBORN

(Copyright, 1318, by McClure Newspaper z Syndicate.) Ever since fifteen years before, when the Yagers had the quaint old Dutch porch of their house on High street, in Tilton, turned into a full-fledged “front piazza,” Horace Slocum had entertained a passion for Susan—hopeless, but none the less absorbing. For Horace was at that time simply a carpenter by the day for the builder who built that piazza, and though he had no mean idea of his own calling and had no very definite notion of the social superiority of the Yagers over the Slocums, still it was obviously impossible. Nothing could come of it “Old Man Yager” had made what for that town was a fortune in the leading dry goods store, and Susan was his only heir. Moreover, she possessed radiant red hair, a defiant tip-tilted nose, a fair, posecolored skin only the more dazzling for the contrast' of a few freckles —and thus embodied Horace SlocumM ideal of all that was femininely lovely.. a , During those days that he sawed and nailed the boards of the Yager piazza the twenty-year-old Susan had worn a heliotrope gingham dress as she puttered about the garden, and as Slocum caught glimpses of her through the- windows; and since then there had been an associational thrill about that particular hue that had remained still vibrant, showing that the thlrty-elght-year-old “boss carpenter” was as bewitched by Susan as ever. But it was more hopeless. She was regarded as one of the “best fixed”.spinsters in town. She belonged to the Country club and had a center-aisle pew in the church attended only by the old aristocracy of Tilton. History moved slowly in Tilton during most of those 15 years, and though Horace fed on despair, he had little cause for jealousy, for there really were no eligible bachelors in Tilton" nor any reason -why they should come —that is, until Tilton awoke one day and found itself a war Industries center. Then for the first time since there had been a winter barracks in old Tilton in the days of the Revolution the male population -far outnumbered that of the women. Only the males in this case were workmen, mechanics, foremen, directors and promoters of a half dozen war-develop-ing industries. One morning in the first weeks of this new regime Horace was feeling particularly down at heart. The house where he had boarded gloomily for these 15 years had been bought up at a good price as an extension to one of the plants, and he faced the proposition of being homeless within a week. It was the morning he was putting a side porch on Widow Smith’s house next to Susan’s—for by this time front porches had gone out and side porches were in demand in Tilton.

“Too bad about Miss Susan,” the widow remarked. She had brought her pea shelling to the side window, for she was nothing loath to converse with the comely carpenter, who stopped sawing as if suddenly paralyzed and gazed back blankly at the widow. “What’s wrong?” he managed to ask. “Oh, she would manage her own affairs —did her banking all in an out-of-town bank, wouldn’t have a lawyer, and now —” the widow Smith here spoke frith slow emphasis as she folded her hands over the dish of peas and looked hard at Horace. “Now she’s keeping boarders.” “Keeping boarders I” Horace gasped. “Yes, and you can believe me, that when any one as proud as Susan Yager would keep boarders, she’s pretty well reduced. But she would have her own way and now—now she’s reaping the results." The fact really was that Susan had a houseful of boarders; and as every one said—and all the neighbors were gossiping about it —she couldn’t have “become reduced” at a better time, for there were hundreds of out-of-town war workers only too eager to snap at a chance to become part of that household. Horace had so long been accustomed to a mood of calm despair that the palpitation he experienced on actually seeking admission for himself In Susan’s boarding house was Immensely disturbing. Perhaps he would not have been so reckless, but now for the first time the element of jealousy entered. There were some 50 or 60 apparently eligible bachelors in TH&IU and of these Susan had undertaken to accommodate under her spacious roof six. Horace was the seventh. Apparently Susan was a great manager, for soon the excellence of the fare of her board became proverbial through Tilton. She retained her old Southern cook, got a couple of young girls in to wash dishes, and wait on table and still managed to make a go o f it—or apparently she did, for people soon observed that a coat of paint S|as being applied and other signs of full purse were in evidence. Then Khe drew Horace aside one evening after the other boarders were leaving the dining room and asked him whether he would undertake the job of putting on a side porch like that of Mrs. Smith’s, and, though Horace had an opportunity of taking some contract work for one of the new industries at a really stupendous figure, he assured her that he could begin at once. It was the first time he had worked aa the Yagers’ house since that time

'l 15 years before, when he had first Ideal. And her figure was still as bewitching, though possibly a little plumper, her skin as fair—were there a few more freckles?—and to make the ecstasy complete she again wore a frock of heliotrope muslin. ' Still people pitied poor Susan Yager. To be sure, she apparently was making money, ‘having all those improvements, but that was probably only another evidence of her extreme lack of business sense. That is the way Mrs. Smith looked at the matter, as she assured Horace she had every reason to believe Susan was frightfully involved in debt. It was one night after that man Migglesworth, vice president of one of the big industries, showing (as Horace thought) too marked a devotion to Susan that Horace got Ms courage up. After all, he assured himself, his presumption now was not what it would have been once, for the Susan Yager heiress was a different person to woo than Susan Yager bankrupt, Susan Yager, boarding house keeper. Strangely enough, all his awkward bashfulness vanished, when he found himself alone with Susan in her little sitting room, and the tip-tilt of her nose didn’t seem half so proud and forbidding. He stood close beside her and realized that she was really not a trfil, haughty person at all; her glorious auburn hair scarcely reached his heart'' He began quite deliberately, and told had loved her 15 years, and was asking her to marry him now, because he .wanted to make her independent, pay her bills and sharp his years’ savings with her. And Susan promptly told Horace that she didn’t think she could ever find a husband who would suit her better, let him steal one short delirious kiss, and sent him off to bed. Somehow Horace had expected she would say that she appreciated his generosity about taking the debjs. He concluded that she was still proud, as Yagers always were, and this is why she had not done so. But the next day she met him with a radiant smile that turned into contagious laughter. “I couldn’t tell you last night,” she said, “because after all it is comparatively unimportant. But, you see, I haven’t any debts. I’ve managed- my own affairs and —well, I’ve tripled the estate father left mg. But I wanted to do something patriot--ic, and when I asked Mr. Migglesworth what I could do he said the most pressing need was more boarding houses — said the plants would have to close if there weren’t more accommodations. I thought every one would know I did it just for patriotism.” “And —and still you are willing to marry me?” “Yes, Horace.” “And there is nothing I can do for you?” this in a crestfallen accent. “You can give up doing house jobs,” she said, “take some war contract and give the proceeds to the Red Cross. * And of course Horace did.