Harriet and the Piper

which she and her husband paid the staggering rent of forty dollars a month had proved to be in a region toward which the expected tide of fash

mother's apartment, she was free to direct Hansen to drive her to the Jersey tube, and to spend a hot, uncomfortable hour in a stream of homegoing commuters, on the way

glass door covered by a wire netting door, and a rusty mail box; there was a square entrance hall with a side window and an angled stairway; there was a kitchen back of the hall, and a square parlour with a green-tiled mantel to the left; a square dining room back of the parlour, with a window at the back and another at the side. Th

e domain, combining thus, as their mother said, "the advantages of the country with all the conveniences of the city." What the conveniences of the c

ight unite. So that the old prim charm of pickets and protected gardens, and protected babies playing in them, had long ago vanished from country homes, and although the lawns here were all w

summer afternoon the front door was open, and Harriet stepped into the odorous gloom of the hall, and let the screen door bang lightly beh

a pretty girl with blue eyes and brown hair, a shabby but fresh little shirtwai

her mouth, and then ga

Aunt Harriet! Oh

ild's wild embrace into the arms of Linda herself, a tall, broadly built, pleasant-faced woman with n

Fred--here's Harriet! Well, my dear, isn't it for

h a bib on; and Pip, a serious ten-year-old, with black hair and faded blue overalls, and strong little brown hands scrupulously scrubbed to the wrist-bones, where dirt and grime commenced again unabated. Josephine, the oldest child, conti

it up for you, or whether it's still hot," said Lin

Julia, half launc

nst the reheating plan. It seemed to her the middle of the afternoon, with the blazing, merciless

inking it!" Julia said, drawing the beverage fro

rriet attacked codfish cakes and boiled potatoes and stewed tomatoes with pieces of pulpy bread in them, with what appeti

alesman's "beat." Here in the little suburban town his opinion gained some little weight from the fact that he had been ten years with a New York evening paper. Fred held vaguely with labour parties, with socialists and single-taxers; his sister-in-law had a somewhat caustic feeling that if Fred had eve

friends, by name, and asked all sorts of questions about them. Josephine, after a half-hearted offer to help with the dishes, departed for a rehearsal of "Robin Hood," which was to be given by the women of the church as their annua

the shaking of the crumpled tablecloth, the setting of the breakfast table, the hot glare of electric light in the cluttered and odorou

r died, and Professor Field's daughters had assumed the management of his little home. Linda might have been anything, thought her sister, as the older w

s, confidential two-year-old, with a warm soft hand, and a flushed little friendly face under tumbling curls. Harriet had bathed her, dressed her, fed her, and taken her

nd she looked at Julia lovingly, as the small, sturdy girl

e children gone upstairs to bed in hot darkness, and she and Harriet had taken the seats on the

at the river lights, her book forgotten in her lap. At the head of the table Richard Carter would be sitting, in his cool and immaculate white, and at the foot, sparkling and beautiful, with her fresh bare arms and her fi

ho smoked his old pipe while he painstakingly fingered Mendelssohn's "

d Harriet. "And at ten you'll see him starting to get Josephine. The

at the office?

ad a nephew, just out of Yale, it seems, and you can imagine how poor old Fred felt when they put him in. However,

it?" Harriet as

er plain, fine, unselfish face only vaguely visible to Harriet in the starlight. "And we were about six months clearing up the final expenses. But now, with only ourselves and the children, it makes me feel positivel

Harriet said, sympathetically, "when

else will have the same idea--you know that old place we've been watching for years? Well, Mr. Adams told David Davenport that

a plot perhaps one hundred feet wide, a street flanked by new wooden houses and young trees. Linda and Fre

a, enthusiastically. "Not all at once. But it ha

thoughts h

's D

ret of his feeling for the beautiful Harriet. "David is a dear," his sister-in-law said, "the most comfortable person to have about! And he is doing remarkably well. He is going to make some woman very happy, Harriet. He and Fred both have th

roach in her sister's tone. But immediately afterward she added, in a l

lectric silence. When she spoke again it was with awe

din! He's i

drily. "He's been in New

hy didn't y

epped up and held out his hand--I hadn't even see

shud

in a whisper. And she added f

Harriet sa

moment of silenc

t? What did he say-

was as surprised as I was." She stopped abruptly, musing on some unpalatable thought. "You wouldn't know him, Linda. He is a perfect frea

Davenport commented, in he

," Harriet said, "he lectures about them and he has been extremely successful! He wears pongee coats

eir making fools of themselves will make it not worth

to-night," Harriet said. To this Lind

, she added, vigorously, "Why, he hadn't a PENNY! He was al

lars for his drawing-room talks--his 'interpretive musings', he called them.

nt and indignation. "That REALLY--" she began, and stopped, s

ater that she began the inevitable confidences. "We talked--Roy and I--" she said, briefly. "He doesn't belong

nt to--he doesn't still feel--he won't worry you, then?" she as

er game than I am

n a whisper. "It--it is all right,

ll that time came up again, as fresh as if it were yesterday--except that I HAVE climbed

terly. Linda, with a great ache in her heart, circled her arms, mother-f