n she went out and came back
in three days with five sheets of foolscap on which she had written an
article beginning: "When Memory draws aside the curtains of her magic
chamber, revealing the pictures meditation paints, and we see through
the windows of our dreams the sweet vale of yesterday, lying outside and
beyond; when stern Ambition, with relentless hand, turns us away from
all this to ride in the sombre chariot of Duty--then it is that
entrancing Pleasure beckons us back to sit by Memory's fire and sip our
tea with Maiden meditation." What it was all about no one ever found
out; but the Young Prince at the local desk who read it clear through
said that sometimes he thought that it was a report of a fire and at
other times it seemed like a dress-goods catalogue. It would have made
four columns. As he put the roll back in the drawer the Young Prince
rose and paced grandly out. At the front door he stopped and said:
"You'll never make anything out of her--she's a handholder! When a girl
begins to get corns on her hands, I notice she has mush on the brain!"

[Illustration: Sometimes he thought it was a report of a fire and at
other times it seemed like a dress-goods catalogue]

But Maybelle returned, and we went all over the same ground again. We
explained that what we wanted was short items--two or three lines
each--little references to home doings; something telling who has
company, who is sick, who is putting shingles on the barn or an "L" on
the house. And she said "Oh, yes!" so passionately that it seemed as
though she would bark or put her front feet on the table. One felt like
taking her jaws in his hands and pulling her ears.

The next time she came in she said that if we would just try her--give
her something to do--she was sure she could show us how well she could
do it. On a venture, and partly to get rid of her, we sent her to the
district convention of the Epworth League to write up the opening
meeting. About noon of the next day she brought in three sermons, and
said that she didn't get the list of officers nor the names of the choir
because they were all people who lived here and everyone knew them. Then
we explained in short, simple sentences that the sermons were of no
value, and that the names were what we desired. She dropped her eyes and
said meekly "Oh!" and told us how sorry she was. Also she said that if
it wasn't for a meeting of the T. T. T. girls that afternoon she would
go back and get th