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Show worked lacking cookies Into little boxes which she had made herself out of buiT cardboard, and lined with par-atlin par-atlin paper and tied with black cord. The cover of each box held a dainty Inscription in black, "Laura Seed Cukes." Next morning the paper held a startling advertisement for ail the world to see. Next morning primed circulars were left at all the ibices where there were city boarders, at the shops downtown, at many private residences. resi-dences. The circular stated simply IhaU.Mrs. Welilen was prepared to furnish fur-nish Laura Seed Cakes at short notice. Customers began to arrive. Before night the supply was exhausted. Money jingled in the blue pitcher. She was (lushed, palpitating, happy. It was all she could do to snatch time to make more cakes. Then with a burst of triumph she realized that she would have to hire help. The first week assured her that she had found a way to earning. A month established her reputation. By the end of summer she had built up a trade that extended as far as a neighboring neigh-boring city, where her cakes were eagerly sought as an accompaniment for afternoon tea. Her success continued without being phenomenal. It was one of those things which, being started, moves with comfortable celerity. Her kitchen range the instrument of achievement. She bad hours of work, pleasant work with a competent helper. She began to order her boxes instead of making them, she added other designs star and diamond and rosette, but the clover and oak leaf always remained most popular. She kept her home, her self-respect, the admiration of her neighbors. Busy, happy, prosperous, she set a new standard in her own town for the worn an who dares. As for Miss Field, she became so interested in-terested in her friend's business that she was actually helped to complete recovery, a tiling the doctors had despaired of. In time she was able to manage all the advertising part of the enterprise herself. 1 LAURA'S I 1 CARAWAY I I COOKIES '(i , - iifiXt 1ijr'A''j'irt, 'iii''J'j 'j ' - "- i - itc; by L. J Wai.-h i MRS. SHAWL paused as she was going down I he steps to ask the question which had brought her 'to Laura Wel-den's Wel-den's and which she had been deferring defer-ring from reasons of diplomacy until this very moment. "I suppose you will not try to keep house?" Laura Welden smiled into the eyes ot her old acquaintance. She would have smiled Into the face of death itself, it-self, such was her courage. "Why, I don't know why you think 1 shouldn't keep my house, Alice," she returned. "You could get a good price for It, that's all. I know whom you could sell It to. Mrs. Appleby" A faint red mounted to Laura's pale face. "Well, Just the same I am not going to sell. I don't have to. Mr. Welden left me very comfortable." Mrs. Shawl stared. She had heard something quite different. "I'm glad If he did," she said. "Weil, good-hy, Laura. Come und see me." Laura made an appropriate answer und then turned her back on the rustling, rus-tling, gray, abundant figure. She went into her house and closed the door. As she did so a mirror caught her full rolled Ion. She gazed into her own eyes reproachfully. "If I ever told a lie In my life It was when I said Israel left .me very comfortable. He started out to, but his sickness took a lot of money. All 1 have got in this whole world is my house, my furniture and the land about it and just about $1,000 in money. I can't live on that very long, anyway." The enormity of her denial combated a sturdy pride in keeping the condition condi-tion of affairs to herself. She was sixty-two years old and not particularly particu-larly strong, that is, her body was too light for the vigorous engine that propelled pro-pelled it. And she knew human nature. na-ture. People like to be shocked even though it be a mishap to a friend. If she sold her house and moved out into rooms everybody would sympathize first and add afterwards: "Well, Laura Welden has always held her head high. She can't expect to keep it there forever." Now realizing these and many other things, Laura Welden sat down to try conclusions with a destiny so obvious that at first there seemed no sense in wrestling with it She concluded presently pres-ently that she would not sell her house. Her beloved house! She looked about it with yearning eyes. She had been twenty-eight when Israel Welden gave her his love and protection and the first home she had ever known. Perhaps home meant more to her than to most women. She had always thought so. She ran over ways and means. Boarders? Roomers? Then her house would cease to be a home in the truest sense. She had no children, no near real relatives to aid her. She had nothing but her two hands and her head. Suddenly thought and apprehension overpowered her and she sprang to her feel seeking relief in action. Going Go-ing to her immaculate kitchen she whipped up her fire, got out mixing bowl and molding board. Within ten minutes her spirits were rising in the pleasant occupation of making cookies. She cut them neatly in oak and clover leaf designs and sprinkled them with caraway seeds. As they came hot from the oven she sifted- sugar over them. They smelled and looked most tempting. Filling a plate with the cookies she went across to Miss Field's. Miss Field lay in her porch hammock, si ill frail after a long 'illness. "I've brought you a plateful ol my cookies. Miss Field," Laura said. "1 thought maybe they would tempt your appetite." She whisked off the napkin and presented her offering. Miss Field looked, tasted tasied again Her face brightened with pleasure "Why. Mrs Welden! These are wonderful.'' won-derful.'' she exclaimed. "I never tasted nuyhing so delicious ur saw anything so attractive. Do you know." she laughed, "if I possessed an accomplishment ac-complishment of this kind I would make my fortune?" "What do you mean?" breathed Laura. "Why. I'd bake these cakes and pack them in pretty boxes and sell them to city people for fifty cents a dozen. I " Miss Feld's imagination bounded "1 would call them the Laura Seed Cookies, and I'd advertise them so highly that soon all the world would be knocking at my door." "Now you are joking." said Laura. "But all the same you have given me an idea." Her lips trembled. "And if you only knew bow I've needed an idea." She went back home and set to work again, this time actuated by something some-thing more than neighborly kindness. Her color Hew. her lingers trembled, but her heart was high with hope. It seemed a great absurdity, this trusting trust-ing to a mere caraway cooky to lead one to success Anil yet it was a door She meant to open it wide. All the rest of that day she vcrked feverishly. She burned up a panful in her zeal. But. never mind, her thoughts kept pace with her emotions. Inspiration came. too. Upon each cooky she stamped a dainty "L." It was a beginning. Thai evening, until a late hour, she |