-C
“THE TINDER BOX"
(Continued from first page(
It would be much more spectacular for
all the good looking women In town to
go when we nre Invited to Mrs. Hen­
derson's tea for the big bugs Hud daz­
zle 'em so that It would at least put
Glendale on the map." said Nell, with
spirit. “ H e made me so mad that I” —
“ Mr. H aley thinks that we should be
very careful not to feel malice or envy
toward Bolivar, but to rejoice at its
good fortune In getting both roads and
the shops even If It does mean a loss
to us. What Is material wealth In this
world anyway when we can depend so
on” — Raffle's expression was so beau­
tifu lly silly and like the dominie’s that
It was all that I could do not to give
vent to an unworthy shout Nell saw
It as I did. and I felt her smother a
giggle.
But before Aunt Augusta could get
her breath to put the crux o f the mat­
ter straight before her feminine tribu­
nal Aunt Martha heat her to It as she
placidly rocked back and forth knit­
ting lace for a petticoat for Henrietta.
“ O f course Glendale doesn’t really
care about the railroad. In fact, we
would much rather not have our se­
clusion broken In upon, especially as
they might choose tho route they have
prospected.” with a glance at Raffle,
“ but It Is more to show our friendliness
to Boltvar than to the actual com­
mission and our desire to rejoice with
them In their good fortune. It would
be very menu spirited o f us to Ignore
them and not assist them In entertain­
ing their guests, especially as some of
them must l>e Invited.
We’ve never
been In such an attitude a« that to
Bolivar!”
“ Exactly. Martha," answered Aunt
Augusta, with relief. “ T h e thought of
proud old Glendale putting herself In
an attitude o f municipal sulks toward
common Bolivar seemed an unbearable
disgrace to me. Didn’ t we Invite them
up for a great fish fry on the river
when they opened that odious soap
factory and ask them to let us help
take care o f some o f their delegates
when they bad the Methodist confer­
ence? They sent one o f the tw o bish­
ops to you. you remember, Martha, aud
I am sure your eutertalumeut o f him
was so lavish that be went homo ill.
No man said us nay in the exercising
our right o f religious hospitality. Why
should they in our civic? W e must not
allow tho town to put us hi such an at­
titude—must not! It was for this that
I called this meeting nt Evelina's, as
she was the ono to propose this public
spirited and creditable plan.”
“ But what shall we do If they don’t
want to have It?” asked Mamie.
" I have asked when did the men o f
Glendale begin to dictate to the wom­
en ns to whom they should offer their
hospitality?" answered Aunt Augusta
as she arose to her fe e t ” A re we free
women, and have we or have w e not
command o f our own storerooms and
our own servants and our own time
and strength?”
And as I looked up at the tall, fierce,
white haired old dnme o f high degree,
daughter o f the women o f the colonies
and the women o f the wilderness days,
I got exactly the same sensation I had
when 1 saw the Goddess o f Liberty
loom up out o f the mist as I sailed
into the harbor o f my own land from
a foreign one. And what 1 was feel­
ing I knew every woman present was
feeling In a greater or less degree, ex­
cept perhaps Rallle. for her face was
a pu zzle o f sore am aiement and a
pleading desire fo r further sleep.
“ H ave we or have we not?" Aunt
Augusta again demanded, and Just
then a most wonderful thing hap­
pened!
Jane stood I
Oh, Jane, you were a miracle to me,
but I must go on writing about it all
calmly for the sake o f the five!
I made a mad rush from my rocker
to throw myself Into her arms, but
Bhe stopped me with one glance o f her
cold, official eye that quelled me and
stood attention before Aunt Augusta.
"Madam President.” she said in her
grandest parliamentary voice, "it was
by accident that I interrupted the pro­
ceedings o f what I take to be an offi­
cial meeting. Have I your permission
to withdraw?
1 am Miss Rbelby’s
guest. Miss Mathers, and I can easily
await her greetings uutll the adjourn­
ment o f this body.”
Oh, Jane, and my anus Just hungry
for you!
“ Madam,” answered Aunt Augusta
in her grandest manner and a voice
so filled with cordiality that I hardly
k n e * I t ” tt Is the pleasure o f the
chair to Interrupt proceedings and to
welcome you. Evelina. Introduce us
all!"
It was all Just glorious! I never saw
anybody get a more lovely ovation
than Jane did from my friends, for
they had all heard about her. read with
awe clippings I showed them about
her speeches and—were about ready
for her.
Rallle kissed her on both cheeks. Ma­
mie laid the baby In her arms with a
devout expression, and Nell clung to
her with the rapture o f the newly pros­
elyted In her fnce. Aunt Martha made
her welcome In her denrest manner
our fellow townsmen, the answer o f
enthusiastic acquiescence was ready
for her.
“ O f course, ns none of you have any
official municipal status, the Invitation
will have to be given Informally, In a
Roolnl wav. to the commission through
Miss Shelby’s friend. Mr. Richard
Hull,” said Jane, when Aunt Augusta
had called on her to give us her opin­
ion o f the sltuutlou In general uud the
mode o f procedure. ’’ W e find It best
In all women questions o f the present
to do things In a perfectly legul and
parliamentary way.”
“ Must we tell them about It or not?"
asked Mamie, in a wavering voice,
looking up devoutly at Jane, who had
held youug Ned against the stiff white
linen shirt o f her traveling dress just
as comfortably as if be were her own
seventh.
“ Did they consult you before decid­
ing to refuse your suggestion?” asked
Jane, calmly and thoughtfully.
“ They did not." trumpeted Aunt Au­
gusta.
“Then wouldn’t It be the most reg­
ular way to proceed to get an accept­
ance o f the invitation from the com­
mission and then extend them one to
be present?” pronounced Jane coolly,
seemingly totally unconscious that she
was exploding a bombshell.
" I t would, and we will consider It so
settled,” answered Aunt Augusta dom-
lnatlngly.
This quick and revolutionary deci­
sion gave me a shock. I could see that
a woman doesn’t like to feel'thnt there
is a stick o f dynamite l>etween her and
a man when she puts her head down
under his chin or her cheek to his. but
advanced women must suffer th a t
Still I'm glad that the Crag Is on our
side o f the fence. I felt sorry for Ma­
mie and Caroline, and Rallle looked a
tragedy.
.
In fa c t a shade o f depression wns
about to steal over tbe spirits o f the
meeting when Aunt Augusta luckily
called for the discussion o f plans for
tbe rally.
Feeding other human beings Is tbe
natural. Instituted, physiological, patho­
logical, metaphysical and spiritual out­
let for a woman’s nature, aud that is
why she Is so happy when she gets out
her fam ily recipe book for a called re­
hearsal for the functioning o f her hos­
pitality. The revolutlou went home
happy and excited over the mnrtlallng
o f their fleshpots.
I ’m glad Jane Is asleep across the
ball tonight. I f I bad had to shoulder
all this outbreak myself I would have
compromised by Instituting a campaign
o f wheedling the like o f which this
town never suffered, nnd then when
this glorious rally wns finally pulled
o ff tbe cajoled masculine population
would haveVnlrly swelled with pride
over having done It.
O f course by every known test o f
conduct and economics their attitude
In tbe matter Is entirely right. Men
• work to all given points In straight,
clear c u t logical lines only to find
women at the point o f results waiting
for them with unforeseen culminations
which would have been Impossible to
| them.
I And I am also glnd the Crag Is part­
ly responsible for starting or at least
unconsciously aiding this scheme In
high finance o f mine, and he Is also In
reality the silent sponsor for this un-
hatebed revolution. I am deeply con­
tented to go to sleep with that com­
forting thought tucked under my pil­
low.
done to Glendale in Ihese Hvo weeks
has stunned llie old town into a trance
of delight and amazement. Rhe has
recreated ns, breathed the breath of
modernity Into us and started the ma­
chine up the grade o f civilization at a
pace that makes* me hold my breath
for fear o f something Jolting us.
She and Aunt Augusta have organiz­
ed an Equality league, aud that wheel
came very near dying loose and being
i he finish o f Uncle Peter.
He came to see me the morning o f
rhe first meeting, and. when I saw him
coming up tbe front walk. 1 got an as­
tral vision o f the chips on his shoulder
enlarged to twice their natural size and
called to Jasper to mix the Juleps very
long and extra deep. But deep nn they
were, to the very top of the longest
glasses, he couldu’t drown his wrath
In his.
“ Women, women." he exploded from
over the very mint sprig Itself, “ all
fools, all fools from the beginning o f
time; made that way on purpose—on
purpose—hey? World needs some sort
o f creature with no better sense than
to want to spend their lives fooling
with babies and the bread o f life. Hu­
man young and religion are the only
things In the world men can’t attend
to for themselves and that’s what they
need women for.
Women with no
brains, but all heart—all heart—hey?”
“ Why should Just a little brain hurt
their heart action. Uncle Peter?" I
asked mildly. There Is nothing In the
world that I ever met that I enjoy any
more than one o f Uncle Peter’s rages,
and I always try to be meekly Inflam­
matory.
"T h ey’re never satisfied with using
them to run church societies and chil­
dren’s internal organs, but they want
to use 'em on men and civilization In
general. Where’d you get that Yankee
schoolmnrm, hey? Why don't she get
a husband and a baby and settle down?
Ten babies, twenty babies if necessary,
hey?”
"Tou ure entirely mistaken ns to the
plans that Jane and Aunt Augusta
have for the league they are forming
this morning. Uncle Peter." 1 began to
say with delight as to what was likely
to ensue. “ I f you would only listen to
Jane while she"—
*
"D on’t want to hear a word she has
to say! All ’as the crackling o f thorns
under a pot’—all the talk o f fools.”
"But surely you are not afraid to
listen to her. Uncle Peter," I dared to
say and then stood away.
“ Afraid? Afraid? Never was afraid
o f anybody in my life, Augusta not ex­
cepted!” he exclaimed as he rose in bis
wrath. “ The men o f this town w ill
show the uprising hussies what we
think o f 'em and put 'em back to the
heels o f men, where they belong—be­
long, hey?”
And before 1 could remonstrate with
him he was marching down the street
like a whole regiment out on a charge
that was to be one o f extermination or
complete surrender.
The Crag told me that evening that
the mayor's office o f Glendale bad
Jan* Stood In Our Midst!
reeked o f brimstone for hours, and the
next Sunday Aunt Augusta sat In their
ami Caroline Inarmed on her with the
pew at church, mllltantly alone, while
return o f a lot o f the fire and spirit
he occupied a seat In the farthest lim­
of the youth that, buikgtng on the doted
its o f the amen corner with equal mili­
out affectlous o f I-ee Greenfield, had
tancy.
starved In her.
Jane didn’t throw any rocks at any­
And It was characteristic o f Jane and
body’s opinions or break the windows
her methods that It took much less
o f anybody's prejudices. She had the
time than It takes me to write It. for
most lovely heart to heart talks with
her to get all the greetings over with,
the women separately, collectively and
explain that she bad sent me a letter
In both small and large bunches. I
telling me that she was coming that
had them In to tea In the combina­
had gone astray, get everytiody named
CHAPTER XIII.
tions that she wanted them, and l
and ticketed In her mind nnd get us
An Attained Tomorrow.
must say that she was the loveliest
all back to business.
’ V E changed my mind about a wo­ thing with them that cooKT be Im­
Aunt Augusta explained the situation
man's being like u whirlwind.
agined.
to her with so much feeling and elo­
The womeu o f now nre the at­
(T o be continued)
quence that she swept us all off our
tained tomorrow that the world
feet, nnd when she wns ready to put
since the beglnulng has t>een trying to
Great are those 25c dinners at the
the question again to us as to our will­
catch up with. Jane Is that, and then Ramsey Hotel dining room, Tillamook,
ingness to embark on otjr defiance o f
the day niter«. toou and what she has
Ore.
I
Pi