Mary Ware in Texas

galow half hidden in vines, and set among heuisach and mesquite trees, or maybe in the shelter of one giant pecan. As they had whirled around

a big living-room, the centre of a cheery hospitality, where girls fluttered in and out at all hours of the day. Bright, fun-loving, interesting girls like Gay Melville and Roberta. Her wistful little face grew very sweet and eager at

's willing shoulders. Although it doubled the car-fare, Mary took Norman with her for company. Armed with a map of the city and a list of houses, clipped from the morning paper, they started gaily out on their quest.

amp to care for a second look at the tall, peaked hats of the men or the rebosa-draped heads of the women. But the narrow streets of the Mexican quarter with their chili and tamale stands interested them. It was some kind of

nails, imparted some of it to Mary as he trudged along beside her. Everything was mak

"Dressed Fleas, 35 cents," to exclaim, scornfully, "Who'd be fool enough to want one of those things, dead or alive!" With a skip or two to

pical foliage and the little boats tied up here and there to the landings. I wish we could find the kind of a place we want somewhere along the river. Maybe we could manage to get a b

I'll tell you something else I wish we could manage to do,-that's to get a house out near Brackenridge park. T

Mary, "instead of loitering along this way. We

ckett and Bowie put up such a desperate fight against Santa Anna. This is just as interesting a plac

sometimes provokingly literal. "This is only the little chapel, and the real fight too

tter. "But the chapel was part of it, and it stands for the whole th

t anxious, but just for a minute. You can come here

ic admiration he had for the heroes of frontier times, but she was surprised to see how deeply he was impressed by the venerable building. He took off his hat as they entered and walked around as revere

in American history. One hundred and seventy-nine indomitable American frontier rifleme

all that?" demanded

ians that came here about seventy years ago. The fiercest fighting you ever heard of-thirty-two In

ce any more attractive to me to know that its streets once ran red with blood. I'd rather think of them as they will be in the Sp

atism so badly that he had to get out of Lone Rock, but as long as we did have to leave home, I'm jolly glad it brought us to San Antonio. Think of the times we'l

I'm thinking of the friends we'll have; the real, satisfying kind, that do things, and go places, and think, and keep

reakfast at the Country Club. Then followed close on each other's heels, a dilapidated prairie schooner, three boys on a burro, a huckster's wagon, and a carriage with liveried coachman and prancing, thoroughbred horses. The clang of a long line of electric cars whizzing past, th

paper clippings. "Mrs. Barnaby said for us to go to Laurel Heights first," she r

w, never been occupied, all modern conveniences, one b

me of a street as she came across one which sounded particularly pleasing and story-bookish,

vertisement, it was almost the bungalow of Mary's dreams. The vines were lacking and t

" exclaimed Norman, as they mounted the steps

ary. "Everybody down here calls a porch a

open fire-place in the living-room, the built-in china closet. Norman's only complaint was that the house was nowhere near the river. That was a drawback in Mary's eye

one we came to when there are so many to choose from. I'll just run in nex

to the people of that neighborhood was entirely out of the reach of the Ware pocket-book. "You won't find anything cheap

icturesque bungalows in the mission style, little white-winged cottages over-run with tangles of Maréchal Niel roses, their fragrant buds swinging from the very eaves.

erent real estate offices recommended by Mr. Barnaby, and h

piled up with household goods. It is this way every fall, they say. No matter how many homes they build there are always more families clamoring to occupy them than can

he ones we have seen have been too big or too expensive, or el

A long procession of careless tenants had passed through, each leaving some contribution to the evidences of their slack housekeeping. Nearly every family had had its share of disease and death, and Mary hurried away with a wry face and the single exclamation, "germs!" Mrs. Barnaby had spoken

hed. The morning freshness of the atmosphere had given place to such enervating heat that she had been carrying her coat on her arm for several hours. The sky was ov

into the aisle, laughing and out of breath, Mary heard a lady exclaim, "We certainly were lucky to catch this car. If we

setting flags and awnings to flapping, and blinding pedestrians with whirling clouds of dust. The

came, she found that she could even run the distance, for the few big drops of rain that splashed in her face were the fore-runner of a downpour, and they had no umbrella. Just as they reac

made her report to the assembled family. "The proverbial turn in

swered, desperately. "Do you realize that we could keep house for

ter try to get a few rooms somewhere, just for light housekeeping. It's a last resort, I know,

homes there had been no lack of space, but they all saw the wisdom of Mrs. War

re you were born, and your fathers and grandfathers before you, as the Lloyds do at The Locusts. It must be so delightful to feel that you've got an attic full of heirlooms and that everything about the place is connected with s

ed blithely off, however, never minding the weather. This rain made the little home she was seeking seem all the more desirable. Whenever a window showed her a cozy interior with the light of an open fire shining cheerily over it, she tho

sharp note of anxiety into her voice when she made her inquiries. Once, finding herself in the neighborhood of a house which she had refused the day before because it did not quite measure up to the standards she had set, she went to

ed her. Invariably one of the first question

rheumatism. That is why we are particular

matism could make him objectionable in the slightest degree as a tenant. The morning was nearly gone before she found the reason. She was shown into

middle-aged woman and a delicate-looking girl. The woman looked up with a n

s," said the woman, "but it's first come

tone. When the child left the room the woman rose and shut the door be

r money, till all this talk was stirred up in the papers about lung trouble being a great white plague, and catching, and all that. Now you can't get in anywhere at a price that poor folks can pay. I've come to the end of my rope. The landlady at the boarding-house where we've been stopping, told me this morning that she couldn't keep us another day, because the boarder

a little, almost intimidated by the fiercenes

rooms open for inspection, she asked the question that Mary

looking for work. I do plain sewing, and if you know o

hrewdly at Maudie, who

s her a little pale and peaked, sitting over it so long. I ain

rts of names for lung trouble nowadays, malaria and a weak heart and such things. The couple I had in here last said it was just indigestion and short

d worn carpet proclaimed too plainly that its renovation since the last lodg

ith the hope of finding a more desirable tenant. "I couldn't consider

ome of the flats or the sunny suites she discovered on pleasant streets, her search would have been soon over. But it was the same old circle she kept coming back to. When the rooms were large enough and within their means, either they were unsanitary or the owners o

But one o'clock found her in a part of the town where nothing of the kind was in sight. She bought an apple and some crackers at a gro

and kindly faces. The very shop windows looked friendly and inviting. Now, plodding along in the wet, to the tired, homesick girl it seemed only

gleam through the rain, throwing long, quivering reflections in the puddles

ad been at it, and he is getting so sensitive lately. It would hurt him dreadfully t

rls of her age would have done, and giving vent to her over-taxed nerves and discouragement in a tearful report of the day's adventures, she walked slowly from the elevator to her room, trying to think of some careless way in which to announce her failure. She p

murmur told that her mother was reading aloud. Opening the door just a crack so that her face was not visible, she called, gaily, "I'm b

be," came the anxious an

a moment or two she was in her soft, warm kimona and Turkish slippers, standing on the threshold of the bathroom, intending to plunge her face into a basin of hot water. It was the best thing

all door made her dab her handkerchief hastily acros

hook me up this one more time-I've been waiting for James with this shawl over my shoulders for nearly half an hour.

added, kindly, "Why, you poor child, what's

arnaby's capacious embrace with a plump hand patting her soothingly on the back, the story of her discouragement seemed to sob itself out of its own accord. The performance left

k that all this time I supposed that you were enormo

so sweet and sympathetic I couldn't help telling you. But don't take it to heart, please. We Wares never stay discouraged l

e morning to Bauer. It's only thirty miles from here and it's up in the hills, high and dry, and there's the Metz cottage I'm sure you can get, all freshly scrubbed and ready to move into. Mrs. Metz is the cleanest little

We've counted so much on living here in San Antonio

ke it all back. Changing plans so suddenly is somewhat of a shock to one's system, isn't it! After all, I'm like a drowning man catching a

and had rapidly deepened into a mutual liking. So strongly had Mrs. Barnaby been attracted to the young fellow who bore his crippled condition so lightly that he made others forget it, t

Barnaby, and that the story of the day's unsuccessful search would not sound half so serious if that chee

trust her capable hands to take them safely into it. So it was with a sigh of relief that she opened the door betw