Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 63, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 March 1919 — AN AIR ROMANCE [ARTICLE]

AN AIR ROMANCE

By CAROL GAY.

The little brown cottage had four occupants, a stout and comely matron whom the neighbors called Mother M and her three daughters, Esther, Elspeth and Jean. They were, one and all, tall and most divinely fair. Theirs was the straight, virile beauty in the wilds, clear-eyed and goddesslike. And they were one and all deliciously youthful. In fact Esther was twenty-ope, Elspeth twenty, and Jean seventeen, thick braids still down her back. Esther was the tallest and the most beftutiful. Elspeth was slim and always clad in black, in memory of a lover, warkilled. with tender gray eyes, overflowing always with love and "kindliness; wide, smiling red lips; poor girl, she had taught those lips to smile again, with steady, patient resolution, and a coronet of glossy chestnut braids. And Jean I Jean, her starry eyes forever aglow, was the brightest ray of Mother M ’s halo. Each Sunday eve as Esther departed after her week-end visit, stiff and starched, with a full valise, Jean would gaze at her with wistfulness and whisper: “Oh, you are so fortunate, Essie.It was on Monday. Jean would never forget that epoch-making date! It was stormy and Esther had concluded not to set forth until Tuesday. Old Widow W—— was ill of lumbago, with not a soul to care for her. “Prepare a basket, and we will go to her at once. No help indeed! *Twas Widow W ——? made my wedding gown. I’ll pay her in full for all her kindliness," declared the kindly Mother M , as she tied on her bonnet.

And Jean, eager for the trip, obeyed with alacrity. The widow made comfortable, and her mother securely installed 1 n the humble abode. Jean resumed her ulster and catching up her empty basket sped toward home. Not a hundred feet from the widow’s cottage, Jean, peering through the tliick fdg t discerned an unfamiliar object bn the ground. She Brew nearer. An enormous eagle? No, an airplane! Jean observed it fascinated-, ly. It was poised on one wing. The rest was shattered. Then Jean stepped back in wide-eyed horror. A still, straight form beneath! The man was not dead, no! "But "he was badly injured,” said Doctor B as he bent over the boyish white face on the. pillow,. “Lucky that the girl happened along and called you, mother, else the lad might have died.” Jean, encouraged by his manner, asked in a small, frightened voice, if the patient could be moved to her own home; explaining that there was scarce room for the widow and her attendant, much less foe the aviator and Jean, in the small cottage. “We will'see, we will see. Perhaps when he is better,” smiled the doc--tor. and that ended it. Jean ran home to tell her sisters the news, while Mother M —— hovered capably between the two patients. Saturday. The aviator had been ill for nearly a month. Esther arrived today for her weekly visit and John R —-for that was the young'num’s Tiame, was to be moved to the M—— dwelling, there to convalesce. At last he was sitting there in the shabby old armchair, smiling up at her with his funny, quirky grin. “A penny for your thoughts, little maid,” he said at last. Jean laughed suddenly, and patted his hand. “They vfere of you and Esther, dear eagleman.” But bls mind was far away as he gazed out of the little window. Esther came and with her a strange spirit of shattered peace that puzzled and disturbed her youngest sister. Poor little maiden, running to the sweet shelter of the crowding mists, fighting back the sobs ai'Sfie spoke to fife eerie white shadows that followed her ever and anon: “But I love him, I love him! Why? I found him here In the valley. You brought him to me. Do not take him away! I love him!” That day and the day after Esther was constantly at his side, smiling, talking, attending him, her blue eyes kindled at last. And Jean, miserable litfle Jean, lay sobbing in the cheerless loft. But it Is given to him who hath. So Jt was restored to her who had found and cherished. Jean, bidding farewell to her sister Monday morning at the turn of the stone-bordered path, said listlessly : “Sister, how soon will ygu and the eagleman be married?” Esther stared and laughed. “You mean John? Why, the boy is only twenty-one. You silly Wit tie sister! Why do you flush and start so, Jean?” x Jean paused solemnly. “Because Love and Adventure have swooped upon me from the West., Good-by, Essie.” - ” ' f ' Then she ran into the house. John was sitting disconsolately by the window. He brightened as he hgard her soft footstep, and turning sawc> her eager face. “Jean, darling!” How naturally it came from his lips. But she looked surprised. He laughed, boyishly, happily. ; ' /'. ' x - “Didn’t you know? j’yl think the eagle has found his matk , What doe® she say, Jeannie?” Jean bqrled her. Jn his blankets. ---I -.'st. “His mate says—‘yes,’” she whispered. ■ * (Copyright, ISIS, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) j ’■ / '