Martie, the Unconquered

talking in the shabby sitting room of the old house; or mornings when she fed the chickens in the soft fog under the willow trees of the y

th an odd sense of shock. She would glance down at her thin hand, in its black cuff, and fall into deep musing, her face grave and weary. Or she would call Teddy from his play, and hold his warm little body close, staring at him with a look that alway

Monroe had the stamp of absolute respectability. Even Pa was changed toward her; or was it that

t desired. Lydia was still tremblingly filial in her attitude toward Pa, but Martie at once assumed the maternal. She scolded him, listened to him, and dictated to him, and

of property, and told her how cheaply they had been sold forty years ago. The whole post-office block had gone for seven hundred dollars, the

e go to jail

a'am, h

t Y

tobacco stains. "Yes, sir, I rounded up some of the boys, the Twentyonesters, we called ourselves, and

ave been a

grandmother's spirit! And I suppose th

e in Monroe now and the squared noses of Ford cars were at home everywhere. Mallon's Hardware Emporium, the Five-and-Ten-Cent Store, still with its pillars of twisted handkerchiefs, Mason and White's-how familiar they were! And the old Bank, with i

death. "You know Cliff's wife died only two months before his father did. That was a

s, had been the first she found. Curiously changed, yet wonderfully familiar, the sisters had clung together, hardly knowing how to begin their friendship again after six long years. There were bi

year-old daughter was not very well. Martie questioned him eagerly of his two children. Both

ar, to see you in black!" and Marti

ickly, "but we knew you'd be tired, and then it's homecom

and Billy, a freckled, ordinary-looking boy, who gave his aunt a beautiful

ly, you'r

t, you're

ally. You look still like a little g

t a week with him. I had the choice of

I suppose he hasn't bee

arrison, 'Dutch's' cousin, that used t

n's sake,

Paul King, and-it was about money-and Rus

en. Len had borrowed the firm's motor car, and they all got in. Martie, used to Wallace's careless magnificence, was accus

e! What do you mean by the 'firm?'" asked Martie. "My goodness-goodness-goodness,

ly and tremulously. Martie perceived that in some mysterious way Lydia was ill at ease. Lydia did

e back of it; they wanted to put a man in! There was the greatest excitement; we all went down to the Town Hall and listene

d and eleven!" Len said, not movin

lly, craning her neck suddenly. "You can't see it, but no matter;

," Martie said, smilin

sty leaves. A raw gateway had been cut, out by the old barn, into Clipper Lane, and a driveway filled in. Tired, confused, train-sick, Martie got down into the old yard, and the old atmosphere enveloped her like a garment. The fuchsia bus

egetable soup and bread and butter. An unearthly quiet held the house. Pa'

ity of a bowl of flowers, but had decided flowers might remind poor Mart of funerals. Martie remembered the counterpane on the bed and the limp madras curtains at the windows.

children had gone into the yard, 'Lizabeth and Billy charged not to let their little cousin get

a sort of weary concern. She stood, puzzling vaguely over the damp washcloth that was wrappe

g these up; we may not

the glaring spring hour of four o'clock; not lunch time, nor dinner time, nor bed

own handkerchief. "We know-we know how hard it i

rs cried

yard, and Pa, after paternally reassuring her as to her welcome and pompously reiterating that her old father's home was hers for the rest of her life,

She went upstairs to make her bed, and she and Lydia talked again, from doorway to doorway. When they were finally d

shine was just pushing back the fog, and the low hills all about the to

the old plain dress, serviceable and comfortable, the old delighted affection. Miss Fanny

joining the Library, so that Teddy c

; everywhere Martie was welcomed. In the shops and on th

the effect her poverty must have on them. Now she began to see that Rose mattered as little here as she had mattered when Martie was struggling in East Tw

dded. They creaked into the barnlike shabbiness of the edifice; the little red light twinkled silently before the altar. Clara Baxter was

t. Gertie Hanson lived in Fruitvale; she was married to a widower. She had threatened to fight the will, but people said that she got quite a lot of money; the Hanso

th something!" Martie commented, pi

you think so!" L

ke and noise. To-day she had masses of rather dark, mushy boiled rice, stewed neck of lamb, apples, and hot biscuits. Martie, fresh from New York's campaign of dietetic education, reflected that it was

re was small room for maternal vapours in Sally's bus

rother. Put on both sugar bowls, darling; Brother likes the brown. Martie, dearest, I am ashamed of this mus

h the bare little hallways upstairs, and peeped into shabby bedr

le discoloured wrapper; she clung to her rag doll. Martie, with deathly weakness sweeping over her, smiled, and spoke to her. The baby eyed

tie had placed poor Wallace's picture on her bureau that morning, and had talked about him, calmly and dry-eyed; so why should she feel so much more for her baby? Teddy had been a lit

ormal meal is dinner, Sa

and butter and milk, and gingerbread and cookies. It's the same the year round! I like it,

told me yet w

to say. Why, Joe's finishing his course at Cooper's College in San

tie exclaimed. "But-but

Sally announced proudly. "Uncl

g has it bee

opted him. He ado

said with her old air of delicate

a rather odd look at this, but

rtette going?" asked M

barrels of apples and things, do

t, and we live very cheaply!" Sally said

they were alone, she to

children. He says it's their business in life. Women are taking jobs, foregoing marriage, and the nation is being robbed of citizens. He believes that the hardest kind of work is the raising of children, and the women who do it for the State ought to be paid by the State. He does it for me, and I feel as if he was a relation. It's meant everything to Joe an

financing

when Joe was ill, and one of the babies-Billy, it was-was coming, he came in to see me now and then, but he never

icent of Joe!" Martie

remembers little Joe Hawkes delivering papers, and working in the express office. But now that the hospital, up toward the Archer place, is really going to

generously, "as that Joe has wor

away from us!" Sally agreed fervently. "But if he really gets that position, wi

die, Sally," Ma

ver they are-to the property MY money comes from. He gave me them a year ago, when he was sixty. I certainly drea

what Pa should have

r us, Mart." Sally said dutif

home?" Martie q

er home than MY ch

ere's no child alive who has a sweeter atmosphere than this-always with mother,

e flushed w

ou make me

h, because I've only the one, and no husband whose claims might inte

their friends at the house, a

uch a part of the world as the boys do. Put

nor I, nor Lyd, ever showed the least inter

d Len-but h

ith an awakening face. "But we would have th

ve to learn to read and write," c

erest. She told Lydia later that Martie really seemed b

marry, to have children in a strange city, to be honorably widowed and to return to her father's home, and rear her child in seclusion an

that failed-was anxious for me to go on with the Curley boarding-house,"

s on Martie's wide, flat bed, stopped aghast. "But wh

d to lease the property for three years; George Curley wanted to be rid of the responsibility. And to really mak

artie, you would

energy and self-confidence were running in her veins. Already she realized that it had been a mistake to accept her father's hospitality in the first panic of being dependent. However graceful and dignified her position was to the outsider's eye, i

business together. A large tract of grassy brown meadow, south of the town, had been in his possession for thirty years; it was

of drifting and experimenting, the brilliant idea of developing the old south tract into building sites had occurred to Len, and presently his father was also persuaded that here was a splendid opportunity. A little office on Main Street was rented, and its window embellished with the words "Own a Home in the Monroe

n, the four or five unfenced little wooden houses that were erected and occupied added to the general eff

e of the small houses was taking whipping clothes from a line. The streets were deep in mud; Martie smiled as she read the

said encouragingly. "And of course ther

crossing, and were walking about. "We've put in a hundred more trees this year, and I think we'll start another house pretty soon." And when they go

rtie said amiably. She

ked like a Trojan, she said. And Pa had been won

ey for this place, if he had had it levelled the time the whole town was,"

s worth, as it sta

don't know anything about it;

in to see Miss Fanny, and put her elbows on t

" she burst out. "Seven years ago I used to come in here to you, and rage because I was so helpless!

to a shelf behind her, and handed Martie a familiar old volume: "Choo

t NOW!" she

hy don't you come in here with me? Now that we've got the Carnegie

htfully, looked backward p

l," sh