Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1907 — Trescott’s Graduation. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Trescott’s Graduation.

By JAMES CHAMBERS.

Copyrighted. 1907. by a H. Sutcliffe.

Trescott clipped the advertisement from the paper and tucked It Into his pocketbook. He bad about made up his mind to go to one of the fashionable resorts for bis month’s vacation, but this appealing advertisement decided him. It was just a few lines of small type, but every sentence painted alluringly the delights of a summer on a farm and announced that Elm farm was to be rented for the month of August at an extremely reasonable rate. Trescott wrote to “E. Marsden, agent,” and the answer decided him. He could have a far better time than would be his If cooped up in some stuffy room at an expensive hotel, and the thought of a wbole house to himself for an entire month was attractive after having occupied the tiny bedroom and parlor of a bachelor apartment for eleven months. So Marsden engaged to have the farmhouse put In proper order by the first Saturday In August. It was with pleasurable anticipation thatTrescottclimbed Into the buckboard that met him at the station. The farm was a comfortable looking place, some fifteen acres in extent, and bordering a small lake. The house, a two story frame, was painted, and beds of flowers made the front yard gorgeous. Inside it was the pink of cleanliness, but the place struck a chill to his soul. The arrangement of the furniture reminded him of the cheap boarding bouse in which he had spent his first years in the city, and try as he would he could not alter the gaunt arrangement of the place. He had sent some money to the agent with the request that some simple groceries be put in, and he had no trouble in getting bis supper, but the moment the meal was

over and the dishes washed he went out of doors to smoke his pipe. He did not enter the place again until it was time to seek the chill bedroom. It was raining the next morning, and he spent a most miserable day roaming about the dreary rooms and wishing for the Sunday papers. He had a couple of books in his satchel, but he could not make himself comfortable enough to read, and. after vainly seeking to the furniture about into some semblance of comfort, he gave it up and dragged an old rocker out to the barn. Here, at least, he felt less oppressed by the dreariness of it all. He spent a fairly comfortable after: noon and was just about to rouse himself to go in and prepare supper when the sound of wheeis caught his ear, followed in a moment by the jangle of the doorbell. He raced across the yard and through the house to present himself at the door. A young girl stood on the porch, while an elderly woman sat In the covered buggy. “Good afternoon,” was her brisk greeting. “Is Mrs. Trescott at home?” There isn’t any Mrs. Trescott.” he said, with a laugh, “unless you mean my mother. She la In England just now.” <

“I am Miss Marsden,” she explained “I drove out to get acquainted ane see how you liked the place. I sup posed, of course, that there was a fam ily.” “There Isn’t any family,” he “and I don’t like the place. Of ajj the dismal places I was ever in this 1« the worst I was going In to tell yout brother so in the morning. ‘Comfort able and homelike,* ” he quoted from the advertisement "And he promised to have it all fixed up.” “There was a woman here all day Friday,” the girl said.’ “Didn’t she clean up properly Y' “She cleaned up,” he conceded, “but I can’t make the place look homelike. I shiver every time I look at it I’m going to change the name and call it Lemon farm Instead.” “I guess It’s not as bad as that,” she said, with a rippling laugh. “I thought there wonld be a woman In the family

nr ■ to make things look ‘homey,’ so I did not cqme myself. May we come in?” He stood aside in silent Invitation. He followed them Into the bouse, and bis admiration for the personality of the brisk young woman increased as she rapidly moved from room to room, giving the touch here and there that was needed to transform the apartments. “You’re a magician,” he declared as, with a final pat to the sefa pillows. She transformed the parlor and moved Into the dining room. “Now It looks like a place to be lived in." “It’s the purely feminine touch that no bachelor can acquire,” she said, with a little laugh. “If I had known that you were alone, I should have been out yesterday morning before you arrived.” “I’m glad you waited,” he said simply. “Won’t you and your mother stay to supper? I can cook If I can’t keep bouse. I will put the horse up and you can telephone your brother.” “I am ‘E. Marsden,’ ” she explained. “I have no brother. When father died I decided to keep up the business. Eva Marsden did not took very well, and, besides, people do not like to do business with a woman. So, between the simple Initial and a typewriter, I manage to get along.” “You should come to* town,’’ he advised, “and call yourself a ‘homemaker.’ It ought to be worth a lot of money.”' “That might be profitable In winter,” she agreed. “Perhaps I will try It” “But In the meantime, supper,” he insisted. "I’ll look after the librae. There are a couple of magazines you might care to look at while I am gone. I shall not be long.” He dashed out to get the horse under cover. He returned the back way and surprised the girl bustling about the kitchen. “You can help,” she conceded, with a smile, “but I Just know that you can’t make biscuit.” s 'But 1 can,” be insisted. “I’ll show you some day. Meantime I’ll make the coffee and put the things on the table.” “The table is all set,” she cried. “Y'ou must think me a very slow housekeei>or.” ' “It takes me longer than that,” he admitted, “though I suppose %at practice makes perfect, and before long I shall be able to do as well as you.” “I’ll come to tea on your last night here and let you give a graduation exhibition,” she promised, with a laugh. “Meantime you might get some fresh water.” Trescott was sorry to see them drive off, but the girl lef? behind the fragrant memory of her presence, and the place seemed homelike at last Trescott saw much of the Marsdens in the days that followed, and long before the end of his month he had come to love the light hearted girl who had faced the world so bravely when necessity demanded. The vacation drew to a close all too soon, and Trescott insisted upon bolding Eva to her promise to attend his graduation exhibition. Afterward they sat out under the trees while Mrs. Marsden drowsed contentedly upon the porch. “Have you been thinking over that homemaking proposition?” he asked. Eva looked up, with a smile. “I think I lack the courage to make a try,” she confessed. “It has been very easy here. It is best to leave well enough alone.” “Do y.ou think you would care to take on a single contract?” he suggested. “Y'ou have spoiled me for a bachelor apartment” “I might help you get started in a flat,” she agreed. “I usually take a vacation after the summer season Is over. I could help you buy your things and settle them.” “But I should want you to stay and help use them,” he explained—“to be a perpetual homemaker to one lone bachelor. What do you say, dear?” “I think,” she whispered, “that I should like that plan better than the first” ‘"Then seal the contract with a kiss,” pleaded Trescott.

“TOD CAN HELP!” SHE CONCEDED, WITH A SMILE.