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Show LAURA'S f I CARAWAY I 1 COOKIES I i ( by D. J. Wnlsli.l MRS. SHAWL paused as she was going down the steps to ask the question which had brought her to Laura Wel-don's Wel-don'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 louse?" Laura Welden. smiled into the eyes of her old acquaintance. She would lave 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. "Well, good-by, Laura. Come and see me." Laura made an appropriate answer and 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 reflection. 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 bis sickness took a lot of money. All I have got in this whole world is my louse, 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. Terhaps home meant more to her than to most women. She had always thought so. She ran over ways and means. Boarders? Roomers? Then l.er 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 feet seeking relief In action, doing do-ing to her rmmaeulate 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 nnd clover leaf designs nnd sprinkled them with caraway seeds. As they came tint from the oven she sifted sugar over them. They gnu-lied and looked most tempting. Filling a plate with the cookies she went across to Miss Field's. Miss Field lay In her porch hammock, nil II frail after a long Illness. "I've brought you a plateful of my cookies, Miss Field," Laura said. "I thought maybe they would tempt your appetite." She whisked off the napkin and presented her offering. Miss Field looked, tasted dialed again. Her fare brightened with pleasure. "Why, Mrs. Welden 1 These are wonderful," won-derful," she exclaimed. "I never tasted nnyhlng so delicious or saw anything so attractive. Oo you know." she laughed, "If I possessed nn accomplishment ac-complishment of this kind I would make my fortune?" "What do you mean?" breathed Laura. "Why, I'd bake these cakes nnd pack them In pretty boxes nnd sell them to city people for fifty cents a dozen. I " Miss Feld's Imagination bounded "I would call them Hie Laura Seed Cookies, and I'd advertise thern so highly that soon nil the world would be knocking fit my door." "Now you ore Joking," said Laura. "Rut all the same you have given me tin Men." Her lips trembled. "And If you only kne"W how I've needed nn Men." .Ihe went brok home and set to work ngnln, this time nrhmled by something some-thing more, than nelrMiorly kindness. Jler color (lew, her lingers trembled, , lit her henrt was high with hope. It Se.-med II Erent nbsili'dily, this tril'.l-to tril'.l-to n mere rnrnwny rooky to bud one to irr-n. And yet It una n door. fl,e mount lo open It wide. All (he reel of Hint day she winked fe-.erl-hlv. Sin; burned ll II pllllflll In h'T zenl. I'.'il, never mind, her thoii;;!,!4 I opt pa'o uilh her emotions. In piriitioii mine. too. 1'pon cfirli ini,i;y i-ho slumped II dnliily ".." If v e i n he;-iiinint: 'i hp I f'.inlng, iin'll n Idle hour, ulie |