A Spinner in the Sun

s Firs

t breakfast, "I got my

ellow who sat opposite him. He did not care about t

it?" he as

you were out. I was accused of being a 'play do

fted brows. "I wouldn't have thought her ankles

y were all right at last accounts. It's Araminta-t

rest shade of tenderne

id it

his. With true missionary spirit and in the belief that cleanliness is closely related to godliness, Miss Mehitable dete

ly in the year for such unholy doings. Having finished her own premises, and still having strength in her elbow, and the housecleaning microbe be

pedimenta are the Reverend Austin Thorpe and the step-ladder, the Reverend

t's so clean a fly would fall down in it, and the ministering angel goes back to her own spotless residence after bedding. I bel

unity to fall off the top of the ladder, lighting on her ankle, a

set and the excitement allayed, terms are made in private with the 'play doctor.

d the question. "Could

alf," said Ra

h a gleam of interest. "You must ha

s and fifty cents, marked down from five for this day only. Special remnant

aid his father, fondly. "Do

t I'd put some of it into unincumbered real estate

s, illuminated the shadows, stirred the silences to music. A sunbeam danced on the stair, where, according to Do

es stretched all over the country and she has the clinical history of the neighbourhood at her tongue's end. What's more, she distributes it, continually, painstakingly, untiringly. Ever

ood nurse?"

of her own concocting if she gets a chance, and proudly claim credit for the cure. If the patient dies, everybody blames me. I

talk to her?"

uptured my vocal cords more than once? I might just as well put m

my case," said Ralph. H

go up there and see if the cast isn't off and the fractu

said Ralph, thoughtfully, "t

fraid of man or devil. If I had horns and a barbed tail and breathed smoke, I couldn't scare her. The p

r to worry Arami

exter, conclusively, "you'd better put a few things in

ph. "I'm here to rout

nta's crib and scare th

fix

ter, "you are considerably more i

ll. Miss Evelina admitted him, and Ralph drew her into the dusty parlour. "Can you

hink

thing to do with the case from this moment. Araminta is in your care and m

Evelina, "but Mehitabl

said Ralph, scornfully.

ed Miss Evelina, "

ces, and went up more quietly. He stepped lightly along the hal

done for you. I've stood on ladders all my life and never so much as slipped. I believe you did it a purpose, though what you thought you'd get for doin' it puzzles me some. P'raps you thought you'd get out of the housecleanin' bu

y-" began the g

t ladder a purpose. Four dollars and a half and all the trouble besides! I hope you'll think of that while

f," cried Araminta, with tears in her voice,

Dexter entered the room, h

calmness, "will you kindly come downst

n Ralph's voice a quality which literally compelled obedience. He drew her into the

ought to know, if you know anything at all, that nobody ever fell off a step-ladder on purpose. She's hurt, and she

you?" she demanded sarcastically, "to

case, and nobody else is going to manage it. I have already arra

pted Miss Hitty, violently. Her

room again before I say Araminta is cured, I will charge you just

ght look at an intimate friend gone suddenly daft. She had heard of people who lost

the door, keeping

ddressed to her, and it costs you just exactly one hundred dollars." He opened the other door and pointed suggestively down the

in the hall he paused and his face grew grave agai

nter, for her face wa

Ralph, tenderly,

y, Araminta raised her head to lo

e young man, sitting do

tor Dexter and I

ing such a baby," sobbed Aram

king her hot hand in his. "You're hurt, and you've been bothe

here, regarding her with a sort of questioning tenderness

unt, and she's not to set foot in this room again until you get

oubled. "I can't take care of myself,"

lady who lives here is g

because she was bad and she ha

he bad?" a

"Aunt Hitty didn't know, or else she wouldn't tell

ed that it was Doctor

In shame and terror,

for being bad," Ralph was saying, "but your

Araminta's flushed face and her hot hands. "Doesn't that feel good

ys washed my own face before. I saw a cat once," s

ady cat," observed

raminta, "looked to be very

dmitted Ralph. "Do

. I never had

"You poor, defrauded child! What ki

sly, "a little grey cat with blue eyes, bu

erything else, all rolled into one. I can't promise positively, because I'm not posted on the cat supply around here,

inta, her eyes s

" nodde

y more than four dollars and a half if you brough

bill over a dollar and a quarter, I always

he was a man! Perhaps, if he knew how wicked her mother had been, he would not

y mother-she-" here Araminta turned her crimson face away. She swallo

ng cheerfully through the empty house. "I'll tell you something,

branded. His mother, too, had been an outcast, beyond Aunt Hitty's pale. There was comfo

e's been kept in a cage all her life. She doesn't know anything except what the dragon has taught her. She looks at life with the dragon's sidewise

ave Doctor Ralph sit there and wash her face, talking to her meanwhile, even though he was a man

her of them knew any better. Oh, Lord," prayed Araminta, with renewed v