Miss Mink's Soldier and Other StoriesRice, Alice Caldwell Hegan
General
Miss Mink's Soldier and Other Stories
Rice, Alice Caldwell Hegan
Fiction; Short stories
As she moved feebly about putting the house in order, so that she could
make an early start in the morning, she discovered a letter that the
Postman had thrust under the side door earlier in the day. Across the
left hand corner was pictured an American flag, and across the right was
a red triangle in a circle. She hastily tore off the envelop and read:
Dear Miss Mink:
I am out the Hospital, getting along fine. Hope you are in the same
circumstances. I am sending you a book which I got from a Dear Young
Lady, in the Hospital. I really do not know what to call her because
I do not know her name, but I know she deserve a nice, nice name for
all good She dose to all soldiers. I think she deserve more
especially from me than to call her a Sweet Dear Lady, because that
I have the discouragement, and she make me to laugh and take heart.
I would ask your kind favor to please pass the book back to the
Young Lady, and pleas pass my thankful word to her, and if you might
be able to send me her name before that I go to France, which I
learn is very soon. Excuse all errors if you pleas will. This is
goodby from
Your soldier friend,
A. BOWINSKI.
Miss Mink read the letter through, then she sat down limply in a kitchen
chair and stared at the stove. Twice she half rose to get the pen and
ink on the shelf above the coal box, but each time she changed her mind,
folded her arms indignantly, and went back to her stern contemplation of
the stove. Presently a tear rolled down her cheek, then another, and
another until she dropped her tired old face in her tired old hands, and
gave a long silent sob that shook her slight body from head to foot.
Then she rose resolutely and sweeping the back of her hand across her
eyes, took down her writing materials. On one side of a post card she
wrote the address of Alexis Bowinski, and on the other she penned in
her cramped neat writing, one line:
"Her name is Lois Chalmers. Hotel LeRoy."
This done she unpacked her basket, put her half dozen carnations in a
tumbler of water and carried them into the dark parlor, pulled her chair
up to the kitchen table, drew the lamp closer and patiently went back to
her buttonholes.
A DARLING OF MISFORTUNE
A shabby but joyous citizen of the world at large was Mr. Phelan
Harrihan, as, with a soul wholly in tune with the finite, he half sat
and half reclined on a baggage-truck at Lebanon Junction. He wag
relieving the tedium of his waiting moments by entertaining a critical
if not fastidious audience of three.
Beside him, with head thrust under his ragged sleeve, sat a small and
unlovely bull-terrier, who, at each fresh burst of laughter, lifted a
pair of languishing eyes to the face of his master, and then manifested
his surplus affection by ardently licking the buttons on the sleeve of
the arm that encircled him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account