16 How Amy Was Saved By Florence B Hallowel "There! read that," cried Amy | Fitzhugh, as she burst into the room where her sister Gertrude sat sewing, and threw a letter into iter lap. "If that doesn't turn your hair white j.othing but old age will do it." Gertrude looked meditatively at the open letter lying upon the sheet she was hemming. It was addressed to her sister and was written in a large, slanting hand on the thickest of parchment note-paper, which ex haled an odor of heliotrope. The writer was Mrs. De Councey Harris tow, the president of the Humane so ciety, and she informed Miss Fitz hugli that all arrangements having been completed for the art loan ex hibition, for the benefit of society, she ventured to ask from them the loan of two or three family heirlooms, feeling that they must have many treasured relics of by-gone genera tions which could not fail to be of in terest to the general public. She promised that everything intrusted to her care should be carefully guarded and returned intact at the close of the exhibition. "I don't see that there is anything to be done except to tell her frankly that we have nothing to lend," said Gertrude calmly. "Yes; and have her look complete ly overwhelmed with surprise; beg my pardon, and say she is so sorry, and that she wouldn't have asked me for the world, if she dreamed for a single moment that we could not com ply with the request. Oh. 1 know her! 1 know her only too well. "If I could only beg, borrow, or— , Gertrude! !" Amy sprang up suddenly from the old lounge on which she had thrown herself. "1 have it! That box belonging to our revered great aunt! In that —' "Oh, Amy, you wouldn't, you couldn't open that." "Yes; I would and I could—under these desperate circumstances. Where would be the harm? Aunt Reliance is in California and would never be any the wiser, and there is no end of old china in that box. I'll get the hatchet and open it now. Glorious thought!" Gertrude looked grave. Her old great-aunt, 'Reliance, was so exacting, and so imperious, that all her rela tives stood in awe of her. The previ ous fall, ongoing to California to spend the winter, she had sent a large box to Miss Jane, with the request that it should be stored until her re turn. Incidentally, she mentioned in the accompanying letter that the box contained the superb antique vase which had been left to her by a ma ternal uncle, and the white and yel low flowered teapot which had be longed to her grandmother Fitzhugh. Amy, who had once paid a visit to Miss Reliance, recollected both heir looms perfectly, and had described them minutely to Gertrude. "Suppose the tilings should be broken?" said Gertrude. "We won't suppose anything so un likely," rejoined Amy, who was in high spirits, now that she had solved her perplexing problem. Amy received a most effusive letter from Mrs. Barristow, in which she as serted that she could never be suffi ciently grateful for the privilege of ex hibiting heirlooms so beautiful and so rare, and would hold herself respon sible for their safety. The Art Loan Exhibition—thanks to the tireless energy of the efficient president of the Humane society— was a pronounced success. People were pleased at the idea of exhibiting their family relics, and of having an opportunity to air their pride of birth; and those who did not contrib ute came to criticise, admire and gos sip. Amy and Gertrude arrived a little late, and after a ramble around the room stationed themselves near the table on which the fat teapot and the top-heavy vase had a conspicuous place. Upon each was a card bearing the words: "Loaned by Miss Fitz hugh." And Amy felt a momentary pride as she called Gertrude's atten tion to them. While they were standing there, Mrs. Barristow came rushing up to them, her face radiant. "Here you are, mounting guard over your beloved treasures, I see," she cried, in her most cordial voice. "How can I ever thank you sufficiently, my dears, for lending them? That teapot is just too sweet for anything, and the vase is a perfect love! They have been so much admired! I assure you. my dears, nothing in the whole ex hibition has attract—" "Look out! Look out there!" cried a loud voice, and a man came rushing toward them, waving his arms fran tically. Amy looked around, then up—just in time to see a large oil portrait, which hung above the table by which they were standing, plunge forward. The next, instant there was an aw ful crash, the sound of which rang iu her ears for many a day, and the portrait lay in the middle of the table, among those hallowed relics of the past. For a few moments she was too much dazed to realize exactly what had happened; then she became con scious that people v.ere uttering ex clamations oi dismay and regret, and (Copyright.) she felt Gertrude's hand on her arm. "The teapot is in 50 pieces," Ger trude whispered, "and the vase is ut terly demolished. Come away." They made their escape from the hall, somehow, and hurried home. Amy did not utter a word until they reached their own doorstep. Then she burst out. suddenly into something very like a groan. "My pride! my wretched pride!" she said. "Gertrude, I am well pun ished." The morning's mail brought a grace ful little scented note from Mrs. De Courcey Barristow, saying that her mortification and sorrow over the ac cident which had occurred was so great that she did not feel equal just yet to a personal interview with her dear Miss Fitzhugh. Amy looked gloomily out of the window. "The vase and the teapot were the only things broken, except a hideous jug and a decorated cup and saucer," Gertrude continued. "It seems like <? The Next Instant There Was an Awful Crash. the irony of fate. Amy, you'll have to write to Aunt Reliance." "What am I to write her? How can I excuse my folly?" At last an idea dawned upon Amy, after a fortnight of anxious thought. She wrote to Aunt Reliance, asking if she would sell the vase and teapot. The answer came two weeks later, while they were all at breakfast. Gertrude hastened to read the im portant document aloud. Aunt Reli ance, while expressing appreciation of Amy's very natural desire to possess the teapot and vase, positively refused to sell them; she would, she said, as soon think of selling her grandfather's bones, and wondered that Amy could have thought her so lacking in respect for her ancestors. She announced, in conclusion, that having found the cli mate of California beneficial to her health, she had decided to remain there permanently, and would soon send for the box they had so kindly stored for her. What Amy suffered mentally dur ing the next six weeks io best left to the imagination. She lost her appetite, grew pale and thin, and was so despondent and irri table, that Gertrude became anxious about her. "This vase-teapot trouble must come to an end," Gertrude said, one morning, as she sat sewing in the sit ting room, and glanced up to see Amy gazing idly from the window. "If you don't write to Aunt Reliance, 1 will. I She must know it anyhow, when we I send the box, and what is the use of ! waiting?" "There's the carrier now," said j Amy, listlessly, and walked slowly our. ] into the hall, closing the door after her. Five minutes passed, and she had not returned. Gertrude, growing anx ious, put down her sewing, and went out into the hall, lialf-expecting to see her sister in a swoon on the floor. But Amy was standing by the hat rack, her eyes shining and a flush on her cheeks. "Saved! Saved by a miracle!" she cried, as she waved a letter above her head. "Read this, Gertrude, and —" "Tell me," interrupted Gertrude, im patiently. "Well, our blessed great-aunt wants her box sent at once, and says she makes me a present of the vase and teapot as a return for my trouble in sending it, and she hopes that my ad miration for these precious heirlooms is sufficiently great to cause me to preserve them with sacred care and hand them down to future genera tions." "It seems to good to be true!" cried Gertrude, sinking down upon one of the hall chairs. 'Doesn't it! And now listen to me —never, never as long as you live say family heirlooms to me again. This Fitzhugh has had enough of them, and then —girl like—Amy burst lnu | tears. CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1907 NOT ALL A DESERT WORLD LEARNING TRUTH ABOUT THE SAHARA. Water More Plentiful Than the Na tives Will Admit —Explorer Found Many Lakes in One Part of the Country. Prophesying that the Sahara sand ocean will in time, be completely changed .into a fruitful territory, the journal of the Berlin Geological so ciety, according to., another German contemporary, goes 011 to say: The Sahara rivers all hide a rich subterranean stratum of water, and form the natural passage of the Sudan, on which, with very little trouble, vegetation can bo largely developed. In the south of Temassinim and in the Igharghars there are groves of tamarinds, gum trees, etc., two miles in length, scarcely separated by grassy and clover-covered plains. The rivers, which in spring are full of water, are from three to ten miles wide. When the water retreats the beds of the rivers are changed into rich meadows. The date seed planted by travelers at El Biod have grown without the least care into fine trees, and the same is true for the seeds planted near the cisterns of Tebabbalet, in spite of the inconsiderate manner in which the Tuarges get in the harvest. Trees are not so rare in the Sahara as is supposed. Natives will deceive travelers about the scarcity of water, when the truth is the wells are hid den, and the Tuarges, who serve as guides to caravans, always choose the most difficult and desolate routes, in order to keep the caravans in a state of dependency. Caravans become more frequent; travelers succeed each other: but the secret of the Sahara is well kept and its reputation of barrenness is well preserved. For example, Oscar Lens crossed the Sahara and reached Tim buctoo without seeing anything but desert land, and yet he mentions that behind a chain of hills which he passed there was a place called by the natives "The Head of the Waters." Dr. Barth, who was for four months in Tuargey camps and was the guest and friend of Shiek el Babey, was told innumerable facts about the tradi tions and manners of the land, but its geography was hidden from him. When he explored the region of an arm of the Niger he found a lake near ly 100 miles long, and when he extend ed his excursions he found not only one but 20 lakes, all very large, and stretched far to the north into the very heart of the Sahara. it is asked, if there be no water, and therefore 110 vegetation, where does the charcoal come from which is sold by the Tuarges? Where do they find nourishment for the numerous camels, sheep, horses, asses and goats they possess? Those Educated Jokes. The gentle dissipations in which college men are supposed to indulge furnish many a would-be joker with a theme. "Drunk" jokes became so numerous that only recently the edict went forth from the Harvard Lampoon sanctum that they must be veritable masterpieces of humor to receive any consideration from a bored editorial staff. Poker, too, comes to the toiling candidate's aid, and inspired this classic epitaph on a pictured tomb stone: * Here Men tho Body of Mary Me Ford. :* : She raised tive and was called by : the Lord. Smoking is. not only a favorite pastime but a favorite theme. "My gracious, little boy," says the good old lady to the puffing mucker, "do you smoke cigars?" "No use hint in', lady," replies the clever one, "de butt's promised." This view of wom an's smoking is taken: Helen —Do you think a lady would smoke a cigarette? Mae —Not if it's the only one a gen tleman has. —K. B. Townsend in the Bohemian. Always Man of Determination. Herr Dernberg of the German colo nial office in the early days of his career served an apprenticeship with a New York banking house and at that time made many acquaintances in Wall street. It is said of him that he was one of only two or three out of an office force of 50 who reported for duty the day of the great blizzard ID years ago. This was suggestive of the determination which helped him much in his later life on advancing him to his present position, to which he was named by the German emperor for the purpose of reducing to order the chaos which had existed in the administra tion of the German colonies. Not in His Line. "Who discovered steam?" asked the man who is always looking for in formation "Don't know," answered the man who is abnormally chilly, "but I am willing to bet it was not the janitor in our apartment house."—Washing ton Star. At the Dinner Table. Guest —Why does Huber never say anything? Neighbor—Because his wife always declares that two people. should not speak at once. A La Card. Miss De Style—How did that "club" sandwich 1 made taste? Miss Gunbusta (sarcastically)—Liki the "detice." 'SURPRISE FOR ALL CONCERNED. I Convivial Russian Party Broke Up ir» Some Disorder. As all the world knows, queer things happen in the land of the czar. There are a grand duke and a grand duchess j in St. Petersburg who do not refer in private conversation to an incident in which they both figured. A theatrical company arrived in the Russian cap ital from Berlin. The leading lady was pretty and the tenor was an Adonis. The grand duke and the grand duchess enjoyed the first per formance very much indeed. The next j afternoon the grand duke had an en gagement and went alone to a first class cafe in the city, where he was joined by the leading lady he had seen the night before. The cafe is so arranged that it has a number of small rooms facing a central hall, at the top of which a band discourses sweet music. The grand duke found the actress beautiful, but lacking in wit. He was having a stupid time and envied the occupants of the next room, who were shrieking with merriment. "I know what we'll do," his high ness finally said to his companion. "Let's go into the next room. A party of four ought to be congenial." "Isut they may object," the actress suggested. "Oh, no, they won't. I am the grand 1 duke." The couple walked into the next j room. Tableau. To the horror of the grand duke, there was the grand duchess sitting at a table with the tenor of the company !to which the actress belonged. The I tenor looked at the actress with as | much amazement as the grand duke j and grand duchess did at each other. I Shouting at the grand duke that he had insulted his wife (for this was the re lation he had with the woman) he rushed at him, and for a few minutes there was a great mixup in the little room. The attendants hurried to the scene and separated the combatants. ' The tenor drove away with his wife and the grand duke took the grand duchess to their palace. The next day the theatrical com pany lacked two of its principals. The tenor and his wife had been given passports early in the morning and ; escorted to' the train by the police. "Never Let It Occur Again." A young Chicago matron was much I annoyed one morning at the nonmate . rialization of her milkman in time to furnish the cream for breakfast. When he finally did appear about ten j o'clock, she took it upon herself to deliver the deserved lecture, for hud j not the young husband shown dis pleasure at drinking coffee sana | cream and did not that fact alono brand the milkman too great a tulprit i to be reproved merely by a maid? The young wife is quite deaf, and ; with conflicting sounds of traffic in the street, and her baby daughter's j crying within, she could not hear the | defense of the sinful purveyor of pure I milk, but she thought he looked peni tent, even sad, and so ended her stern tirade with a magnanimous: "Well, see that you never let it oc cur again." After he had left she said to thfe |cook: "What did he say, Mary?" "He said his horse dropped dead, mum," answered Mary. And she had wisely admonished him "never to let it occur again." Tidbits for Their Sunday Dinner. "Every little while," said the man ager of a dogs' boarding house,"the owners of these animals prefer a re- I quest that seems utterly absurd. The I strangest of All was made by a woman ' who came to secure accommodation 1 for two of her pets. " 'What do you feed your boarders ■ on Sunday?' she asked. " 'The regulation fare,' I told her. " 'Oh,' she said, 'that won't *lo for my dogs. They have been used to something extra for Sunday dinner, and if there was a change in their • fare for the worse, now that they have gone to boarding, 1 am sure that they would suffer. Kindly see that they have a good Sunday dinner. I am willing to pay extra for it, if neces -1 sary.' "In consideration of that extra re muneration clause I promised to pro vide some fancy dishes for the two dogs on the Sabbath day. lam quite • sure the dainties won't agree with the little beasts, but the contract calls , for tidbits, and tidbits I'll provide ii it kills them." An Enterprising Editor. "The editor is a philosopher, and so enterprising!" I "He is?" "You bet! Why, while his office was being consumed by tire, he ciaught the hot lead from the melting type, molded it into buckshot, and went gunning for delinquent sub scribers!" Watery. "Looks like rain to-day," said the milkman, as he poured the customary quart from the can to the pitcher. "It always does," replied the house wife, compressing her lips with cold significance. Stilling an oath, he took up his liquid burden and departed heavily. A Tardy Commendation. ' Nero fiddled while Rome burned!" e: 'aimed the student. /ell," replied Mr. Growcher, "that's 1 r than the custom many violin -1 have of practicing at a tiuu \>.. 1 everything is nice and quiet otherwise." HOME a - radford EDITOR Mr. William A. Radford will answer questions and give advice FREE OF COST on all subjects pertaining to the subject of building for the readers of this paper. On account of his wide expe rience as Editor, Author and Manufac turer. he is, without doubt, the highest authority on all these subjects. Address all inquiries to William A. Radford, No. 194 Fifth Ave., Chifa*?o, 111., and only unclose two-cent stamp for reply. All the essentials of a home are em bodied in this little cottage. "Be it ever so humble, there is no place like home" applies with especial force to a neat little cottage that is built for comfort and surrounded by well-kept grounds. A cottage house well kept looks a great deal better and it gen erally contains a great deal more com fort than a larger house that is in a measure neglected. In building a small house it is cus tomary with some builders to slight the work in certain directions, because it is only a cheap affair, anyhow, but this is a mistake. It does not pay, for instance, to use outside doors that are less than one and three-quarter inches in thickness. You can put on cheaper ones and dress them up so they look all right for awhile, but after a time the panels split, and the doors warp until it is an aggravation to open or shut one. Then repairs are neces sary and you put more expense on the job than would be necessary to do it right in the first place. If you are building a house to sell, sometimes you can skin it in places and get out from under, hut it is a poor way to do business. If you want to drink from a sieve you must drink quick. Sometimes a house built for sale don't sell right away. If it is ■ 4 -■.: i- - .'■■•' x '■ - well built it may be rented to advan tage until a purchaser comes along, but you must not rent a poorly built house unless you are looking for trouble. The cheapest way to build a house is to put up a box like this and put a straight roof over it. It makes all straight work, stock sizes of every thing work in without waste, and cheap labor may be used to advantage in putting it together. Everything for the house may be purchased, ready togo together, at the building supply dealers'. Years ago it was considered neces sary to put up some fancy design in order to have it look right when fin ished, but this was a mistake. Noth ing looks better than a plain house if the proportions are right. Of course you must have a relief of some kind. In this case you get it in the veranda, | M/TCHE/S ZTCCM i In f-ajr/4-O' -fl 90»A+ O* I |m j rto&vw I CCD *OOM I I |u I — u —I I po-mc Floor Plan which reaches clear across the front. It is not, a large veranda and not ex pensive, but it makes a finish for the front of the little house and it pro vides a very comfortable open-air sit ting-room in summer and it is a pro tection from snow and other storms in winter. The money that this veranda costs is money well spent. No matter how cheap the house, you don't want the front door to look bare and unpro tected, and you can't protect it in any other way quite so well as by build ing a solid looking, comfortable ver anda. In size, the plan is 20 by 'lO feet, and in this space the architect has planned and laid out live rooms, all large enough to hold the necessary furniture. To save expense in ii r»t cost the house Is get on cedar posts instead of having a cellar. This is done because there are men who could afford to build a cottage house cost ing $1,200 or $1,400 when it would b® impossible for them to raise the money for a house costing $2,000. It is better to build in this way and put a cellar under the house afterward, than to keep on paying rent year after year with the expectation of building just as you want to in three or four years' time, because the three or four years slip away quickly, and you are in no better position to build then than you are now. A little determination goes a lons way in making a start for a home. Of course, a little money is necessary, but the amount paid out for rent each month would soon pay for a $1,200 cottage and leave the owner in posi tion togo ahead on something larger if he needs it. Sometimes people get so attached to a little home that is comfortable and convenient that they are in no hurry to leave it. My advice has always been to make a start and make it modest enough so you are not embarrassed to make your payments, and I believe it is a great deal better togo a good deal too slow than togo a little bit too fast. I like to see good houses, and when a person can afford it I like to see them living in an expensive house, but 1 don't like to see young fellows start in with a property a good deal larger and more expensive than they need when they haven't the means to pay for it, because I know it means many months and years of hard work and a good many nights of worry, all of which may be avoided by making the proper start. A little house may be buried in vines partially hidden by shade trees and beautified by a yard full of flowers until the house is for gotten and the cozy home only is re membered. AROUSED FEARS OF FARMER. Thought He Was a Member of the Standard Oil Company. They told mo of a farmer two miles away from the Connecticut farmhouse where I was stopping who had a cider mill and was making a few barrels of the sweet, and one day I took a walk over to the place. The farmer had made only two barrels of cider and was through grinding. I asked him about the apple crop, the prico of cider, and so on, but found him disinclined to talk. In fact, it was plain that he distrusted me. I told him how I used to walk five miles to a cider mill in my boyhood days, and did my best to thaw him out. but the most that 1 could get out of him was that he intended to sell one barrel and keep the other for himself. He was evidently much relieved when I took my departure, and I could not make him out at all. Two days later 1 ran across him in the village, just as he was unloading one of the bar rels at a grocery. He tried to dodge me, but I hailed him, and he came forward and said: "I couldn't get but three dollars for it." "But that's a fair price, isn't it?" "It's tolerably fair, and I hope you are not going to freeze me out." "1 don't exactly understand you," 1 said. "Why, hain't you from the Standard Oil company?" "Of course not." "And you hain't run cider up to five dollars a barrel and threatened to freeze out any one that sold it for less?" "My friend, you are away off." "Honest Injun?" "I have nothing whatever to do with the corporation you name." "Gee-whizz! but 1 took you for the boss of it himself, and I've been shak ing in my boots ever since you showed your nose in the mill!"—N. Y. Times. Just as Good. Waiter —One of the gentlemen is asking for some Spanish wine. Proprietor—Well, give him a bottle of our sweet wine and charge him two marks extra. That will be quite Spanish enough for him, I expect. Fiiegenue I Halter.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers