The room they showed her was probably as good as any they had, which is
the best that could be said for it. She was disheartened—frightened. She
wished she had listened to those persons who had told her not to come.
Old trouper that she was, she had never seen so poor a room, and she had
never slept, in any room, alone. She was distinctly scared. She put a
chair against the door, and did not take off her clothes. Then she heard
a scampering or scratching, or something—rats, no doubt. Or somebody
breaking in.
A single light hung by a string from the ceiling. She did not turn it
out, and she did not get into bed. She got _on_ it, on her knees, and
said her prayers—several times—improving them, and inventing new ones.
It was only when daylight came that she decided to risk a little sleep.
It is easy to believe that she slept then till ten o’clock, as she wrote
Nell.
* * * * *
Lillian thinks that her father was not in Shawnee itself (the town in
that day could hardly have had a sanitarium), but that he was in
Oklahoma City, some thirty-five miles distant. She did not go to see
him; he came to see her—not more than once or twice. She has a mental
picture of him in her uncle’s dooryard, talking to her as she sat on a
horse. “Be careful, pet,” he said to her; “Don’t let that pony go too
fast.” Pet had been his old name for her.
There must have been more than that, but that tricksy memory of hers let
the rest go, and what it kept is perhaps sufficient. She had not seen
him for years, but he looked as she had expected to find him.
Apparently, his physical health was good enough; his trouble had become
mental. He did not die until the following year, when she had returned
to Ohio.
Lillian’s aunt and uncle persuaded her to stay in Shawnee and go to
school. She could help her aunt with the housekeeping, for her board,
and be company for her. Her uncle, a locomotive engineer, was away a
good deal of the time.
Lillian thought well of the idea. She rather liked Shawnee, once she got
used to it, especially the riding. Soon she got to know an Indian girl,
who rode with her and had plenty of ponies. A wonderful girl—she rode as
if she were a part of the horse. There were Indians, of course,
everywhere—“civilized Indians,” whatever we may mean by that; also,
cowboys and other romantic features. Then she found she could get a
place in a doctor’s office—work after school and on holidays—answering
the telephone and marking down appointments. For this she was to receive
two dollars and a half a week—all clear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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