A Girl of the Limberlost.
{Continued from page 6, Col. 4.]
“Humph! First time 1 ever knew
you to be stumped by £20, Elnora.” |
said Sinten, patting ber band.
“It’s the first time you ewer knew me
to want money,” answered Elnora.
“This is different from anything that
ever happened to me. Oh, how can
get it, Uncle Wesley?”
“Drive te town with me in the morn- |
ing and I}. draw it from the bank for
you. 1 owe you every cent of it.”
“You know you don't owe me .a pen-
ny, and 1 weuldn't touch one from you
unless I really could earn it. For any-
thing that’s ;past 1 owe you and Aunt
Margaret for.all the home life and love
I've ever knewn. [| know how you
work. and I'll mot take your money.”
“Just a loan. Elnora; just a lean for
a little while until you can earn It.
You can be proud with all the rest of
the world. but there's no secrets be-
tween us. Is there. Elnora?”
“No.” said Elnora. “there are pspe.
You and Aunt Margaret have given me
; and smiled. ‘it was a queer sort of wu
little smile and would have reaches
the depths with any normal mether.
“] see you've heen bawling said
Mrs. Comstock “1 thought ven'd get
! your ill in « hurry. That's why !
| wouldn't go to any expense, I we
| keep out of the se we have {o
sut the corners close. It's likely this
| Brushwood soad tax will eat up all
| we've saved in years. Where the land
tax is to come from ! don't know. It
gets bigger every year.
| going to dredge the .swamp ditch
| again they'll just have to take the
; land to pay fort. 1 can't, that's all.”
' Elnora again -=miled that pitiful
| smile.
“Lo you think { didn't know that I
| was funny aod weuld be laughed at?
she asked.
“Fuuny!” cried Mrs. Comstock hotly.
“Yes, funny—a regular caricature.”
' answered Elnora. “But there's al
ways two sides. The professor said
! in the algebra ciass that be never had
:
:
{
i
| a better solution and explanation than
: mine of the proposition be gave me,
| which scored one fer me in spite of
my clothes.”
“Weil { wouldn't brag on myself.”
“rat was pour taste,” sdmitted El
mora: “hut, you sce, it is a case of
whistling to keep up my courage.
| houestiy could see that { would have
all the love there has been in my life.
“That is the one reason above all others
why you shall not give we charity. §
won't touch your money, but I'll win
some way. First I'm going home and
try mother. It's just possible I could
find secondhand heoks, and perhaps
all the tuition need not be paid at once.
Maybe they would acoept it quarterly.
But, oh, Uncle Wesley. you and Aunt
Margaret keep on loving me. [I'm so
lonely. and no one else cares.” .
Wesley Sinton's jaws met with a
click. He swallowed hard on bitter
words and changed the thing he would
have said three times before it became
articulate.
“Elnora,” he said at last, “if it hadn't
been for ome thing I'd have tried to
take legal steps to make you ours when
you were three years old. Maggie said?
then it wasn't any use, but I've always
held on. You see, | was the first man
there, honey. and there are things, yon
see, that you can't ever make anybody
else understand. She loved him, El
nora. She just made an idol of him.
There was that oozy green hole. with
the thick scum broke and two or three
big bubbles slowly rising that were the
breath of his body. There she was in
spasms of agony and beside her the
great heavy log she'd tried to throw!
bim. I can’t ever forgive her for turn-
ing against you and spoiling your child-
hood as she has, but I couldn't forgive
anybody else for abusing her. Maggie
has got no mercy on her, but Maggie
didn’t see what I did, and I’ve never
tried to make it very clear to her. You
be a patient girl and wait a little long- '
er. After all, she's your mother, and
you're all she's got but a memory, and
it might do ber good to let her know |
that she was fooled in that.”
“It would kill ber!” cried the girl’
swiftly. “Uncle Wesley, it would kill
her! What do you mean?"
“Nothing,” said Wesley Sinton sooth-
ingly. “Nothing. honey. That was
just one of them fool things a man
says when he is trying his best to be
wise. You see she loved him mightily,
and they'd been married only a year,
and what she was loving was what she
thought he was. She hadn't really got
acquainted with the man yet. If it
bad been even one more year she could
have borne it and you'd have got jus-
tice. Having been a teacher, she was
better educated and smarter than the
rest of us, and so she was more sensi-
tive like. She can't understand she.
was loving a dream. So I say it might
do her good if somebody that knew
could tell her, but I swear to gracious
I never could. I've heard her out at
the edge of that quagmire calling in
them wild spells of hers off and on for
the last sixteen years and imploring
the swamp to give him back to her.
and I've got out of bed when I was
preiiy tirec and come down to see she
didn’t go in herself or harm you. \VWhat
she feels is too deep for me. I've got
to respectin’ her grief, and I can't get
over it. Go home and tell your ma,
boney, and ask her nice and kind to
help you If she won't, then you got
to swallow that little lump of pride in
your neck and come to Aunt Maggie,
like you been a-coming all your life.”
“I'll ask mother, but I can’t take
your money, Uncle Wesley. indeed I
can’t. I'll wait a year and earn some
and enter next year.”
“There's one thing you don’t consid-
er, Elnora,” said the man earnestly.
“And that’s what you are to Maggie.
She's a little like your ma. She hasn't
up to it, and she's struggling on
but when we buried our second
the light went out of Mag-
and it's not come back. The
SHH
$E3%
:
:
k
;
:
f
i
2
5
y about refusing her any-
she wants to do for you.
necle Wesley. you are a ,” said
Elnora—*just a dear! If 1 can't pos-
that money any Way else
come and borrow It
I'll pay it back if I
5
*
d
A
is
g
ih
2
ferns
swamp and sell them from
door In the city. I'll even
plant them, so that they will be sure
to come up in the spring. 1 have been
sort of panic stricken all day and
couldn't think. I can gather nuts and
sell them. Freckles sold moths and
butterflies, and I've a lot collected.
Of course 1 am going back tomorrow.
I can find a way to get the books.
Don't worry about me. 1 am all
right.”
“j haven't a cent, and can't get one!”
looked just as well as the rest of
them if 1 had been dressed as they
were. We can’t afford that, so | have
"to find something else to brace me.
| It was pretty bad, mother.”
“Well, I'm glad you got enough of
| it"
“Oh, but I haven't!” hurried on El-
nora. “1 just got a start. The hard-
est is over. Tomorrow they won't be
surprised. They will know what to
expect. 1 am sorry to hear about the
| dredge. Is it really going through?”
“Yes, | got my notification roday.
. The tax will be something enormcus,
I don’t know as I can spare you, even
1 if you are willing to be a laughing
! stock for the town.”
| “I have had two startling pieces of
| news today.” said Binora. “I did not
| know I would need any money. I
thought the city furnished the books,
and there is an out of town tuition
also. 1 need $10 in the morning. Will
you please let me bave it?”
“Ten dollars!” cried Mrs. Comstock.
“Ten dollars! Why don't you say a
hundred and be done with it? I could
get one as easy as the other. I knew
what you would run into! But you are
so bulldog stubborn and set in your
way 1 thought I would just let yon
try the world a little and see how you
Hked it!”
Elnora pushed back her chair and
looked at her mother.
“Do you mean to say.” she demand.
ed, “that you knew, when you let me
go into a city classroom and reveal
the fact before all of thom, that 1 ex-
pected to have my books handed out
to me? Do you mean to say that you
knew I had to pay for them?"
pay. Of course, I knew you would
come home biubbering! But you
1 haven't a cent,
Have your way if
38
get
it and do it some honest way.
pigs and cattle were fed, the turnips
hoed and a heap of bean vines was
stacked by the back door.
[Continued next week. ]
“You look very tired, young man;
are you overworked 1”
“I'm studying for a minister, sir.”
“Well, why in the world don't you
Jet him study for himself?”
if they are
I their ballots after they get them
i Liketi That One.
| “How do you like the new church?”
| asked Mrs. Gottglotte as she hung one |
| of her ropes of pearls over the gold-
| plated electric light bracket.
| “It is very beautiful,” replied Mrs.
| Gldcastle, “Mut it seemed to me that
the acousti s were rather bad.”
“Oh, didn’t you Mike them? Me and
Fosiah thought they were rather nice,
especially the one at the left of the
organ.”
Another insurgent.
“A proverb,” obserwed the teacher,
“may be defined as amy truism that
{by long usage has become common
| property.” |
“Yes, sir,” said the sbaggy haired |
pupfl. “but some proverbs are only,
half true.” !
“Cau you think of ome™
“Yes sir: ‘Brag is a goed dog, but
Haoldfast is better.”
When Women Vote.
“rThinge will be changed when the
! women vote.”
“Yes, I suppose they will. Probably
they will issist on having rugs on the
floors of all the polling places.”
“1 wasn't thinking of that. They will
, probably want to add postseripts to
marked.”
Unanswerable.
Elderly Chaperon—I cannot permit
you to go with this delegation. Do you
| suppose men are going to pay any at-
| tention to the arguments of a lot of
| foolish young girls?
Youthful Advocate—A whole heap
| more attention, if you please, than
they'll pay to a lot of wise old aunties,
Probably Se.
| “What do you suppose is the real
| story of Danae's being killed by Jupi-
ter with a shower of gold?”
| “Oh, I suppose some husband in
those days suddenly showed his wife
erough real! money to get a decent
sprit © outfit and the shock brought on
| haart failure.”
Economical Dodge.
| Mrs. Dooley—Oi'm takin’ me twelve
childhern back to Oireland an’ do be
gettin’ their twelve tickets for the price
of eleven.
Mrs. Murphy—Faith, an’ a large fam-
ily is a great savin’ to a person!——
Judge.
Their Strong Suit,
“Do you think the English suf
| fragettes have any chance to win?”
| “I think they have a fighting
chance.”
Hood's Sars«parilla.
'Lumbago
STIFF NECK AND SCIATICA
Are all forms of rheumatism, which de:
pends on an acid condition of the blood
Foes ners ad i an cing he
| muscles nd joints, cating inflammation,
| stiffness pain. For any form take
i Hood's which corrects the
| acid condition of the blood and effects per-
A] was verg much troubled with theum
atism, Reading of the cures by Hood's
Sarsaparilla | gave it a trial. Soon my
was gone." Mrs rman Co Schaffer 401
High St., Easton, Pa. There is no real
sul ute for
HOOD'S SARSAPARILLA
Get it today, In usual liquid f
a ol Jiquid fori, %
Dockash Stoves always please. You re- |
duce your coal bills one-third with a
Dockash
57-25tf
St. Mary’s Beer.
ness, irritability, mental depression, and
cold hands feet are only some of the
symptoms of coastipation. Dr. Pierce's
Feel Like Giving Up?
MANY BELLEFONTE PEOPLE ON THE
VERGE OF COLLAPSE.
A bad back makes you miserable all the
time—
Lame every morning; sore all day.
J eR I ut.
aha with headache, dizzy spells,
wonder people discouraged i
Whe ar at ay the aire NcTse it |
all.
pSive the weakened kidney needful
Use a tested and remedy.
one endorsed like Doan's K v Pills. |
None so well recommended by Belle |
For sale by all dealers. Price 50 cents.
Foster-Milburn Co., Buffalo, New York,
sole agents for the United States.
Remember the name—Doan’s—and take
no other. 5742 HM
Hardware.
.DOCKASH....
Sh
Quality Counts.
OLEWINE'S
Hardware Store,
glass is a sparkli-
exquisite taste
any brewer’s
sibly create. Our
ment is equipped
latest mechani-
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Our sanitary
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our product. We
at the brewery
each courses in Home
Education’
erate.
First semester
of February; Summer
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The sunshine cf lager beer satisfaction rac.-
ates from every bottle of ELK COUNTY
BREWING COMPANY'S EXPORT.
Every
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and is as pure as
skill can pos-
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methods of ste: -
before they arc
scientific process
the beer after it
matically bottlc
lasting purity cf
bottle our becr
in AMBRE bot-
tiles, as exposure to light injures flavor.
ElK County Brewing Company
ST. MARYS, PENNSYLVANIA
The : Pennsylvania : State : College
EDWIN ERLE SPARKS, Ph.D, L.L. D., PRESIDENT.
Established and maintained by the joint action of the United States Goverment and the
FIVE GREAT cuts ngumcring, Liberal in
Art and Physical
TUITION FREE to both sexes; incidental charges mod-
semester
middle of ; second
Ee ie 1
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vv
the first
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