THAT UMBRELLA.

Otago Witness, Issue 3030, 10 April 1912, Page 77

THAT UMBRELLA.

(Paper contributed to D.L.F. Club.) By Ellie Raee IL Lizzie said sue didn’t want the umbrella—eh© didn’t need it. She was going to be away all day, and by night the weather would have cleared up again. But she said her mother must be sure to take it when she went to the cemetery, because it looked as though it would pour with rain any moment. Lizzie's mother promised to do so. t-o, after Lizzie had gone, and the house was put to rights, she picked up the umbrella and started off. She took some June pinks with her. She made two bouquets of them, and put one at the head and the other at the foot of her husband’s grave. Then she sat down on a seat and rested a while. And before she knew it, it was raining. It was raining quite hard, so she opened the umbrella and started for the street. Before long she was almost running. The sky looked as if a storm were coming on. It rained so hard that the umbrella became wet through and through. When she reached the main street Lizzie’s mother waited under a tree for a tramcar to come along. When the right one appeared in sight she hurriedly mode for it. She was going to close the umbrella, but found that she could not do so. The conductor was inside the car collecting the fares, and he kept saying, “ Hurry up, please.” Lizzie’s mother worked away at the umbrella, but it simply wouldn’t close. Then she got up on the platform with it open. The conductor said he would try to close it. Lizzie’s mother was afraid he would break it, be jerked at it so. She said he had better give it back to her. He did. She went into the car and sat down. She put the open umbrella on the floor of the car in front of her. Then a man in the car said that he. would try to close it. So he picked it up and tried, but he couldn’t close it either. He said it was the queerest umbrella he had ever seen. Then he said he meant it didn’t look queer, but it acted queer. The car was filling up with people. Tire open umbrella took up much room in the car. The conductor said, “ There’s room up the other end.” but the ■umbrella was in the way. and Lizzie’s mother was afraid somebody would crush the ribs of it. It was a costly umbrella: she could never afford to buy another one like it. So she thought she would take it up and hold it over her head, even though she were in the car. She didn’t care how it looked. She took it up in her hand ; then she hoped she could get it where she wanted it all right. But it caught in a woman's veil on one side and a man’s ear on the other. And the woman jumped up ami cried, “Oh, my veil!’. And the man said. “Ouch, my ear!” Lizzie’s mother fidgeted. She wished it hadn’t rained, or she wished ehe had left the umbrella at homo; but

then her new ■ blouse would have been spoiled. Still, it was so mortifying to have to hold an umbrella open in a crowded' tramcar. Lizzie's mother was sorry, too, for the man's ear: it looked so very red. She told him of an ointment that would be good for it, and gave him the address of the woman who made it. He said if he had time he would go and get some. When Lizzie's mother finally got it out of the woman's veil and the man's ear, she almost poked it into another man's eye People in the car said they never saw 9uch an umbrella. Indeed, everyone was interested in it. Then a kind-hearted man took it and stood up and held it over his head, just as if it were raining in the car. Almost everyone laughed. Lizzie's mother did, too. It looked so funny. When the oar got to the place where tie man wanted to get off he handed the umbrella to the man next him. Two or three times the umbrella changed in this way. More people got on the car than got off, and it was quite full. When the time came for Lizzie's mother to get off the car, there was such a rush of people outside trying to squeeze in and get Lizzie's mother's seat that it was impossible for her to get through with an open umbrella. The conductor was cm the top, taking the fares; but he hurried down to see what the commotion was about. The car was now full up inside with standing people, all waiting for Lizzie's mother to get off. She was a prisoner at the far end, bravely supportingi her umbrella. Everyone wondered how she was going to get off. The conductor callsd out that all the passengers that were sta.nding on the car and on the platform outside must get off. So they did. And when they were all standing out on the stieet in the pouring rain Lizzie's mother walked right through with the open umbrella and got off. And somebody said, " Why didn't the motormom let her out through the front door?" And everybody said, "Why didn't he?" She i thanked "everybody for getting out in The ! rain, and she said if any of them got ill they were to let her know, and she would come and nurse them. She told them where she lived. No sooner had she started off than the umbrella shut, right down on her head. She snapped it open again, and walked on. She had to walk some distance after ehe left the car. Down came the I umbrella again: she snapped it open again. i Bang! it came down again She said she I really had never seen such tin umbrella. It just wouWt stay open. It was perversity j itself. She had to walk all the way home in i the rain with the closed umbrella, and she ! vowed that she would never take it with her ' again.