Purple Springs

ssed in the way she held her head, and the firm beat of her low-heeled shoes on the sidewalk-she must get away where she would not see him

going away-and she remembered, with a fresh pang-that when she had spoken of this, he had

inctively, Pearl defended him in her mind against a clamorous sense of injustice which told her that she had not had a square deal! The pity of it all was what choke

ful, with the smile on her face and the lily in her hand, reduced form A to a common denominator of tears, and made the whole room look like a Chautauqua salute, Pearl had stoutly declared that if Elaine had played basketball or

thing had gone from her little world, leaving it motionless, weary and old! A row of icicles hung from the roof of the corner store, irregular and stained

ied, in an apparently listless and melancholy dream. A red and white cow came out of the lane and attempted to cross the slippery sidewalk, sprawling helplessly for a moment, and then with a great eff

o forbidden corners and tearing away the covers that people put on their sorrows, calling all the world to come and see! Pearl shuddered

in her face-and Pearl knew that the one thing she could not stand was a word of sympathy. That would be fatal. So she hurried on.

l had not met Mrs. Crocks at the corner, just before she took the street to the station, this would have been a different story. But who kno

. Every community has its unlicensed and unauthorized gossips, who think they know what their neighbors are thinking and d

e any such amateur and unsatisfactory way of arriving at conclusions. She did not need to-there was a way of finding out! To the elevator she went, and looked at the books under cover of looking up a wheat ticket which her husband had cashed and found that Bill Cavers had marketed seventeen hun

her less scientific contemporaries. The really high spots in her life had been when she was able to cover her competitors

ce of mind-proprietor of the big red stable which spread itself over half a block, he had unconsciously defined himself, as

SITORY" PRO

company, who ate their meals in quietude of heart, asking no questions, imputing no motives, knowing nothing of human intrigue, and above all, never, never insisting that he tell them what he thought abou

that Mr. Bertie Peters found himself called from the hay-mow above the stable, to his proprietors' guest chamber, and all the comforts of a home, including nightly portions of raisin pie-and best of all, an interested and appreciative audien

uietly to the stable and taken out his team without as much as causing a dog to bark, removing his sleigh bells to further cover his movements, and stealing out of town like an absconding bank-teller, to make a call, returning the same way, still under cover of night, and flattering himself that he had fooled her this time, she w

y their better clothes, their enlarged house, their happier faces, and more particularly Pearl's success in her school work in the city, all of which had appeared in the local

on the street that day,

ut of the doctor's office just now-anybody sick? You're not looking as pert as usual yourself-you haven't been powdering' your face, I hope! No one sick, eh? Just a friendly call then, was it? See here, Pearl-when I was young, girls did not do the chasin', we let the men do that, and I'm here to tell you it's the best way. And look here, there's enough girls after Doctor Clay without you-there was a man from the city telling Bertie at the stable that he seen our doctor in a box at the Opera with the Senator's daughter two weeks ago, and that she is

were glistening for excitement. Here was a scoop-if Pearl would

e always said that doctor thinks more of you than he does of an

lf now-composed, on h

ake his own announcement," she said,

nt. Did Pearl Watson mean to tell her in as many words, to mind her own bus

is business with a little chit like you-but dear, me, he is one terrible flirt, he cannot pass a pretty face. Of course now he will settle down no doubt, every one thinks he will anyway, and marry Miss Keith of Hampton-the Keith's have plenty of money, though I don't believe that counts as much with the doctor as family, and of course they have the blue blood too, and her father being t

I have not been able to talk to you. You see I do not

d after her with a look of uncertainty on

are look me in the eye and take a rise like that out of me, but she did it without a flick

self, reminding her that a slight had b

shed for me not so long ago, and that girl came for the clothes and brought them back again! And now listen to her! You put your foot in it,

; and besides-she suddenly thought of this-she must not decide on anything until she saw Mr. Donald, her old teacher, and got his advice. It would not be courteous to do anything until she saw him, and tomorrow was the day he wanted her to go to the school to speak to the children. Why, of course, she could not go--and so Pearl reasoned in that well-known human way of b

tity, the "X" in this human equation, had given her so little to work on, that it seemed as though she must mark it

really know her own mind. The change-whatever it was-had taken place in the interval of his phoning, and her visit, and Mrs. Crocks had said that a committee had gone to see him and offer him the nomination! What difference would that make? The subtle suggestion of the senator's daughter c

nd nobody-her mother a washerwoman and her father a section hand-now stood out in letters of flame! Pearl had not been angry at the time-and she remembered that her only reason for taking out the miserable little shrimp and washing her face in the snow was that she knew the

id that Pearl was surely a lucky girl, when the worst thing that could be said to her was that her two parents had been engaged in useful and honorable work-and he had made this the topic for a lesson that afternoon in showing how all work is necessary

llow-workers, and he was going to have a new grace, giving the thanks to where it belonged. He said God was not the kind of a Creator who wanted all the glory

all the pupils. Pearl remembered that to her it had seemed very grand

come to us through the labors of others. Strengthen the ties of broth

she said it, did not in any way interfere with the sweet satisfaction she had

t serve human needs, enduring hardships and hunger and cold and bitter discouragements, always with heroism and patience. The farm on which they now lived, had been abandoned, deserted, given up for a bad job, and her people had redeemed it, and were making it one of the best in the country! Every farm in the community was made more

m, and she found that many people think of work as a disagreeable thing, which if patiently endured for a while may be evaded ever afterwards, and indeed her mother had often

rented out, did not work. Miss Keith, his daughter, d

s not that of dishonor, dishonesty, immorality or intemperance-none of these-but that they had worked at poorly paid, hard jobs, thereby

place, with enough of everything to go around. There is enough land-enough coal-enough oil. Enough pleasure and beauty, enough music and fun and good times! What had happened was that some had taken more than their share, and that was why others had to

pton Hills shoved one big blue shoulder into the sky-line. "People do not mean to be hard and

tang of cold or bitterness, for in Pearl's heart there had come a new sense of power-an exaltation of spirit that almost choked her with happiness. Her eyes flashed-her hands tingled-

her, with something of the vision which came to Elisha's servant at Dothan whe

nt away, He left His Spirit. It can't go wrong and stay wrong. The only thing that i

were so many things to be done. She roused the fat pony from his pleasant dr