The Tinder-Box

Jane is that, and then the day after, too, and what she has done to Glendale in these two weeks has stunned the old town into a trance of delight and amazement. She has recre

ty League, and that wheel came very near flyi

ion of the chips on his shoulder enlarged to twice their natural size, and called to Jasper to mix the juleps very l

World needs some sort of creature with no better sense than to want to spend their lives fooling with babies and the bread of life. Human young and religio

d mildly. There is nothing in the world that I ever met that I enjoy any more

they want to use 'em on men and civilization in general. Where'd you get that Yankee school-marm-hey?

he League they are forming this morning, Uncle Peter." I began to say with delig

say! All 'as the crackling of thorns

listen to her, Uncle Peter," I d

imed, as he rose in his wrath. "The men of this town will show the uprising hussies wha

down the street like a whole regiment out on a charge th

for hours, and the next Sunday Aunt Augusta sat in their pew at church, militantly alone,

that of an old log, that has been drifting comfortably down the stream of life with the tide that bore its comrades

gly self, starchily clad in the most beautifully tailored white linen, and they all went mad about her. The Pup and the Kit clutched at her skirts until anybody else would have been a mass of wrinkles, and the left breast of her linen blouse did always bear a slight impress of little Ned's head. The congeniality of Jane and that baby was a revelation to me and his colic ceased after the

doing anything but plan out the details of a big spread, the like of which they had been doing for hospitable generations, for the rai

at they are needed and wanted intensely in the movement. They must be asked to take their place, shoulder to shoulder, with us in this fight for better conditions for the world and mankind in general. True to our theory we must offer them our comradely affection and openly and honestly express our need of them in our lives and in our activities. I was talking to Mrs. Carruthers and Nell and Mrs. Hall and Caroline, as well as your Cousin Martha, about

e has been living it," I answered with a good-natured laugh, though I would have liked to have that

men to get sore over th

get closely in touch with each other. I have had very little opportunity to talk with him, but I have felt his sympathy in several

ane's eyes was softened to the verge of dreaminess and my inmost soul

d at me like a whipped child, and I haven't looked at him at all I have used Jane as a wide-spread

ected from Polk and his kind. Jane is one of the hunted that has turned and has come back to meet the pursuer w

y result will be instruction and uplift for Nell, as a more illumined thing I never had said to me on the subject of the relation of men and women than the one he uttered to m

solar plexus as the vision of Jane's last night interview in the moonlight with the Crag, and Nell'

y let us breathe slowly as we ascend to still greater elevations with their consequent rarefied air," he added, with the most heavenly thoughtfulness in his fine face. "Did it ever occur to

going to J

ailed coat, shocks of taggy hair and a collar bi

mention him in my presence. I've got a consciousness of him way off in a corner of me somewhere and I'm just brooding over it. Everybody in town has been in this house

rophe, how wonderful it will be if love really does come to them, when her grief is healed by time. He will rear her interesting child

of-of such a thing yet?" I asked with pitif

such a solution of the situation," she answered as she settled herself back against one of the posts of

an ever that the attitude of emotional equality that we determined upon in the spring is the true solution of most of the complicated man-and-woman problems. I am anxious to see it tried out in five other different communities that we will select. I would not seem to be indelicate, dear, but I do not see any signs of your having been especially drawn emotionally towards any of your friends, though your attitude of sisterly comradeship and frankness with them is more beauti

t "must" looked in Richard's telegram, which has be

er heart and heal both it and her by their love. Richard is one of that

concocted out of bats of cotton for her, I laid my face against my own made of the sof

rd of honor to myself that I wouldn't try any of my modern emotional experiments on him the first night I slept in this house alone, with only him over there to keep me from dying with primitive woma

ld, and if God sees it, as it clings damp around the hem of His garment, and smiles with

olivar to attend the rally given by them in honor of the C. & G. Railroad Commission on Tuesday next. It is to come out to-day in the weekly papers of Glendale, Bolivar, Hillsboro, and Providence, and I hope there will not be so many cas

the rally as an offering of hospitality from the League, and I hope if Uncle Pe

letter of acceptance from the Board when I had written the invitation to them through him, as coming from the perfectly ladylike feminine population of Glendale, and I didn't like to get them into a woman-whirlwind with

e telegram with chara

two on the fence, and a half roast pig will convert the other.

CH

de. But I'm glad she did. However, I did advise her to take a copy of it along with the reels and the lunch-basket

Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like Polk in his white flannels, and he and Jane

of Polk's when it comes to the fishing days. He takes her so often that she thinks she owns him and a

y controlled voice that both of them had heard before, and whic

swered with an uncertainty of voice

ud. "I want to go fishing with you, Polk, my own self, and

beseeched and comm

driving wheel a hair's breadth. "Uncle Peter says that she is er going to turn the devil loose in Glendale, so they won't be no more whisky and no more babies borned and men will get they noses rubbed

like to witness an encounter between Jane an

l, almost hunted kind of way, and she is so thin that it makes my heart ache. She is being fairly crushed with the beautiful depending weight of her mother

onesome, homesick freshman by the waters of Lake Waban, with Jane's awkward young arm around me, and I stood aside to let Henrietta co

ied answer as Henrietta dug her toes int

possessed. "I want you to go upstairs and get my pocketbook. Be careful, for there is over a hundred dollars in the roll of bills-Evelina will give you the key to the desk-and go down to the drug store where they keep nice little clocks and buy me the best one they have. Then please you wind it up yourself and watch it all day to s

enrietta ask in the capable voice of a secretary to a millionaire. Her thin little fac

ldn't it?" answered Jane, with slight uncertainty in her voice

asper got for Petunia because he hit her too hard last week and swelled her eye. They

want to trespass on your time, Henrietta, dear," she added with the deference she would

in the day for me to watch the clock," answered Henrietta in stately tone

got our breath her bare little f

fanned himself with his hat. "Do you use the same meth ods

tic. Beware!" I said with a laugh as I insisted on just one squee

eless ones. Her profanity will make no difference for the present and can be easily corrected. Don't interfere with her atte

rs all by herself, Jan

k positively in th

ticks off the same number of min utes on the woman-clock from Jane's standpoint, that Jane h

m center, to darken and throw a shadow over Glendale about the time of the publication of the Glendale News, which occurs every Thursday near the hour of noon, so that

stion of much fried chicken, corn, and sweet potatoes, under the roof-trees of the town a

ar over to Hillsboro to spend the day with Tom Pollard's wife, a visit he knows she has been dying to make for two months, for she was one of Pet's bridesmaids. He made casual and dastardly mention that there wou

and so was I, but her dander was up, and I backed mine up along side it for the purpose of support. Besides I feel

hen Mamie and Sallie came clucking in. Mamie's face was pink and hi

l in a community," she said, as she dropped into a rocker and looked pensively after the retreating figure of the handsom

m responsible for having my friends of fer him, and to accompany me to the entertainment if I desire to go. I reminded him that I had not troubled him often as an escort since my marriage. He was so scared that he almost let little Ned drop out of his arm

could put it off or-

the tea-tray ready, for I saw Aunt Augusta go across the road to collect Cousin Martha and Mrs. Hargrove and th

f epilepsy that lasted for days. The whole town still dodges and swears when it sees her coming, for she drives with a combination of femi

tation, but as time was limited I finally coaxed the conversation around to the subject of the viands to be offered the lordly creatures in the w

gland, just so that I can be sure myself and assure the others with authority that there are no suc

treet, a rustle of cool night wind was stirring the tree-tops and the first star was coming timidly o

s waiting at the

Sallie's call to come and help Aunt Dilsie in the bedding of the Kitten and the Pup, Polk'

ook at her-I felt as if I couldn't. I was scared! For a second she held me in her arms and kissed me, really-the first

in from Little Harpeth, "I was right about that Hallelujah chorus being the true definition of the real woman-only they are more so.

been one of re

t of luscious wild grapes and tasseled corn, fanning the flame of loneliness in me until I couldn't have stoo

ped myself with difficulty on the opposite side of the gate from him. "The

chosen, through their stomachs to thei

my pertnes

heard him telling Polk in remarkably chastened, if not entirely chaste language, that it was 'better to le

d to glory in it. I wish I was Sallie's Puppy being trotted across A

audacious voice, with a note in it that stilled something

ugh to get so far up out of my heart as to reach the ears of the Crag as he bent his head down close over mine

right?"

ulder for a place for my head, and leaning against the old gate he began to s

chariot, fer to

w

ith naked hands for him. And I'm also going to find some way to get him with a

l the rest of his feminine collection and take them on my own hands. I'm going to make a Governor out of him, and then a United

d dollars so the Five may be as happy as I am to-night; only there aren't five other Crags. I know it will be a life-long mortification to h

stand for Cousin Jasmine to cut his hair any more. I want to do it myself, and I'm going to tell her so, and why

kind, and I believe I'll let him get through th

maybe it is my duty to the Five to extract some data from her while it is fresh, on the foam. I am afraid it is going to go

er she nor I will have to sit and be tortured b