ft :V : : ■ v.'..'* <■■'»;. . ■ \ 'v is' .. . iasa Q #f5 ,' ,- ■} Mmk ■ v Of /!;iV, '''.(sx'-v j- • ■ J (tiJL Santa Claos on "The Limited"' ■By F-RA.yVK U. S Wi.E T. I Copying lit, IW.v b' Amerlc-i n I'iess Auntt clutlon.J THK Chicago Limited was pulling out ol ihe Grand Central sta tion ia New York as I »r. Henry Van Valkenbi'iji sulunit;cii hi ticket to the nateuian He dashc.l (trough, pushing that indignant «>Hi <T;il to oue hi'le. mado a leap for ill tailing of the lust ear of the train r i a friendly braketnan dragged him 'vu board," Dr. Van Va ikenbern ►..Ued a little ruefully u> he thanked €be man and rubbed tln• itching sur f<io« of Ills hand. Then he puiled him T-lf together, picked up the books arid fiewspapers he had dropped and which $• ."■> bystanders had enthusiastically burled after him and sought his haven In the sleeping ear. "O-oli! Were you hurt?" said a voice behind him. "I was so 'fraid you were going to fall." Dr. Van Val kcnberg, who was a (all man of sixty, turned and looked down from Ills great height.. At his feet sto o d a baby. At least She seemed a baby to him, al though she was very dignified arid wholly self L « M Km "webe YOU Hi 1ITV" possessed and fully four yftiw old. Sin* was looking at him with dark brown eyes and l is so delicious in her almost maternal r.ilk iiudo that he smiled lrrepressibly. "Why, no, thank yon," he said. "I Kin not hurt. Didn't yon see the kind man helji me onto the ear?" "I'm very glad," she said, with dig filty. "I was 'fraid he hurt yon." Shi turned as she spoke and toddled Into the section opposite his, where a plain tout kindly faced elderly woman sat. "Won't you come over and visit me?" lie aslced. "I arn very lonely, and I fcave 110 one to take care of me." She slid off the seat at once, with great alacrity. "I'd like to." she said, "but I must efk Nana. I must always ask Nana BOW," she added, with dutiful crupha fits, " 'fore I do anyfltig." She laid her hand on the gloved Tin - gers of the nurse as she spoke, and the woman opened her eyes, shot a quick glance at the man and nodded. She fcad not l»»en asleep. Dr. Van Valken lierg rose and lifted his visitor to the •Seat beside him. where her short legs etuck out In uncompromising rigid It v. "I can take care of you." she said t>rlghtly. "I taked car* of mamma a gre at deal. ;\nd I gave her her tned' Cln\" "Very well," he sntd, with the smile women loved; "If yon really are going to take care of me I must know your name. You see," he explained. "I might need you In the night to get. me ft glass of water or something. think how disappointing It would !>• If I should cull you by the wrong name and some other little girl came!" "You say funny things," she said Contentedly. "But there isn't any oilier little girl In the car. I looked soon an I came In, 'cos I wanted one to pla> With. I like little girls. I like little boys, too," she added, with innocent cxpanslveness. "Then we'll play I'm a little boy. You'd never believe It, but I used to lie. You haven't told me your name." "Hope," she said promptly. "Do you think It is a nice name?" She made (he inquiry with anxious Interest. "I think Hope is the nicest name i little girl could have except one," hi Bald. "The nicest little girl I evei knew was named Katharine. She grew to he a nice l>lg girl, too, and has little girls of her own now. no doubt." lie added, half to himself. "Were you a little boy when she wa r little girl?" asked Ills visitor. "Oh, no; I was a big man, just as 1 am now. Her father was my friend, and she lived in a white house with an old garden where there were all kinds of flowers. She used to play there when she was a tiny baby, and I would carry her around and hold '><-r high UJ>I so she could pull tie- apples and penrs off the trees. When she grew larger I gave her a borefc and taught her t i ride. Site seemed Ilk" my very own little ;:irl, but by and V «.'• si' sxjnwti&vwt* pi' : - 112 -• " V :J% '■ 1 ccpymiatrr. owphwooq JOS ' she grew up and became a young lady ! and—well, she went away from me. ! and I never had another little girl." "J>kl she goto heaven?" asked the ; little Rlrl softly. "Oh, dear, no!" answered the doctor, i with brisk cheerfulness. "Then why didn't she keep on being | your little girl always?" j The doctor hesitated a moment. He | was making the discovery that after | many years old wounds can reopen ! and throb. Xo one had ever been brave enough to broach to him the sub ject of this single love affair which he was now discussing. "Well, you sec," he explained, "other boys ilked her too. And when she be came a young lady other men liked her. So finally—one of them took her, away from me." He uttered the last words wearily, anil the sensitive atom at his side seemed to understand why. Her little hand slipped Into iiis. "Why didn't you ask her to please stay with you?" she persisted pity ingly. "I did," lie told her. "But, you see, she liked the other man better." "Oh-h-h!" The word came out long drawn and breathless. "1 don't see how she possibly could." There were such sorrow for the vic tim and scorn for the offender in the tone thai, combined with the none too subtle compliment, it was too much for Dr. Van Valkenberg's self control. He threw back his gray head and burst into an almost boyish shout of laughter, which effectually clear ed the atmos phere of senti mental memories. "Where are you going to hung up your stockings to night?" he asked. "1 can't hang them up," she an swered soberly. "Santa Claus doesn't travel on trains, Nana says." "Nana la al ways right," said the doctor oracu- fsli larly, "and of miwtsoiAK.nA.m courße mUBt WOOLLY LAMIib. . „„ . „ do exactly as she ; says. But I lieurd that Santa Claus was | going to get on the train tonight at j Buffalo, and 1 believe that if he found | a pair of small black stockings hanging ; from that section he'd fill them." Her eyes sparkled, j "Then I'll nsk Nana," she said. "And i if she says I may hang them I will, j But one," she added conscientiously, i "has a teeny, weeny hole in the toe. | Do you think he would mind that?" He reassured her on this point, and i turned to the nurse. "I beg yonr pardon," he said. "I've taken a great fancy to your little charge, and I want your help to carry out a plan of mine. 1 have suggested to Hope that she hang up her stock ings tonight. I have every reason to J believe that Santa Clans will get on I this train at Buffalo. In fact," he add i ed, "I mean to telegraph him." The nurse hesitated a moment. He ! drew ills card case from his pocket and | handed her one of the bits of paste j board it contained. "I have no evil designs," lie added j cheerfully. "If you are a New Yorker. : you may possibly know who I am." The woman's face lit up as she read • the name. She turned toward liitn ini | puleively, with a very pleasant smile. "Indeed I do, doctor," she said. ' "Who does not? Dr. Abbey sent for | you last week," she added, "for n j consultation over the last ease I had this child's not iter. But you were out of town. We were all so disappointed." "Patient died';" asked the physician. ■ with professional brevity "Yes. doctor." He rose from Ids seat. "N jy tb:* Ir.r. ui." red . CAMhRON COUNTY I'RKSS, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1909, tlals," lie said cordially, "I want you and Hope to dine with me. You will, won't you?' Later, in the feverish excitement of ngs, going to bed and peep 1n g through the cur tains to catch Santa Cluus. a part of Hope's extraordinary repose of man ner deserted her, but she fell asleep at last, with great reluc tance. When the cur tains round her berth had ceased trembling a most unusual procession wend ed its silent way toward Dr. Van hanging up her stookin r CA V ► 7ms i) -I'l.h HE YOUR OWN Vaikenberg's LITTLE GIRL. section. iu some occult manner the news had gone from one end to the other of the "limited" that a little girl in section 0, ear Florodora, had hung up her stock ings for Santa Claus. The hearts of fathers, mothers and doting uncles re sponded at once. Dressing cases were unlocked, great valises were opened, mysterious bundles were unwrapped, and from all these sources came gifts of surprising titness. A succession of long drawn, ecstatic breaths nud happy gurgles awoke the passengers on the car Florodora at an unseemly hour Christmas morning, find a small white tlgure, clad informally in a single garment, danced up and down the aisle, dragging carts and woolly lambs behind It. Occasionally there wa* the srjueak of a talking doll, and always there were the patter of small feet and soft cooing of a child's laughter. Dawn was Just approach lng, and the lamps, sttll burning, flared pale in the gray light. But in the length of that car there was 110 soul so base as to long for silence and the pillow. Crabbed old faces looked out between the curtains and smiled. Eyes long unused to tears felt a sudden, strange moisture. Throughout the day the snow still fell, and the outside world seemed far away and dreamlike to Dr. Van Val kenberg. The real things were this tratn, cutting its way through the snow, and this little child, growing deeper Into his heart with each mo ment that passed. The situation was unique, hut easy enough to understand, he told himself. He had merely gone back twenty-five years to that other child whom he had petted In Infancy and loved and lost in womanhood. ID had been very lonely—how lonely he had only recently begun to realize—and he was becoming an old man whose life lay behind him. He crossed the aisle suddenly and sat down beside the nurse, leaving Hope slnglDg her doll to sleep in his section. "Will you tell ine all you know about Iho child V" he asked. "She ap peals to 1110 very strongly, probably be cause she's so much like some one 1 used to know." The nurse closed her book and look ed at him curiously. She had heard much of him. but nothing would ex plain this interest In a strange child, lie himself could not have explained it. He knew only that he felt It pow erfully and coinpelllngly. "Her name Is Hope Arniitage.'' sin satd. "Her mother, who has just died, was a widow, Mrs. Katharine Arm! tage. They were poor, and Mrfc. Ar- . seemed to lane no relatives. She had saved a little, enough to pay most of her expenses at the hospital. We all loved the woman. She was very unusual anil patient and i-harm ing. All the nurses who bad auj thin-* to do with her cried when she died. We fell thit she might have been • ived if she had route In time, but <lu' was worked 0111. Sin- bad 1 •. ' he:!!■ . 7 •••• !• it"'- :• I : -- V . • ••- ' Z "T" 7T4SET :-v ■:.T- ;.M ,«U*' J' -NR^ ■ ■ -»-■> v* •, ; 3*mbms* ;•. i.-.» I 112/ \ h : mW ! husband's death three years sigo, am! she kept at It day and night. She wn bo sweet, so brave, yet so desperately miserable over leaving her little girl alone in the world." Dr. Van Valkenberg sat silent. It 1 was true. then. This was Katharine's child. He had not known of the death of Armitnge nor of the subsequent poverty of his widow, but he had known Katharine's baby, he now told himself, the moment he saw her. "Well," the nurse resumed, "after she died we raised a small fund to buy some clothes for Hope and take her to Chicago to her new home. Mrs. Armltage has a cousin there who has agreed to take her in. None of the relatives came to the funeral. There are not many of them, and the Chica go people haven't much money, I fancy." Dr. Van Valkenbei'g was hurdl.v sur prised. Life was full of extraordinary situations, and his profession had brought htm face to face with many of them. Nevertheless a deep solern nlty tilled him, and a Strang*- pea<-e settled over him. "I want her," he said briefly. "Her mother and father were old friends of mine, and this thing looks like fate Will they give her to me—these Chi cago people—do you think?" Tears tilled the woman's eyes. "Indeed they will," she said, "and gladly. There was"—sb< hesitated— i "there was even some talk of sending | her to an institution before they finally i decided to take her. Dear little Hope! ! How happy she will be with you!" He left her and went back to the seat where Hope sat crooning to the doll. Sitting down, he gathered them both up in his arms, and a thrill shot through him as he looked at the yellow curls resting against his breast. Her child her little, helpless baby—now his child to love and care for! He was not a religious man. Nevertheless a prayer rose spontaneously In his ; heart. "Hope," he said gently, "once long ; ago I asked a little girl to come and live with me, and she would not come. , Now I want to ask you to come and stay with me always and be my own little girl anil let me take care of you and make you happy. Will you come?" The radiance of .June sunshine broke out upon her face and shone in the brown eyes upturned to his. How well he knew that look! Mope did not turn toward Nana, and that significant omis sion touched him deeply. She seemed to f«el that here was a question she •alone must decide. She drew a long . breath as she looked up at him. j "Really, truly?" she asked. Then, ! as he nodded without speaking, she i saw something in his face that was | new to her. It was nothing to fright j en a little girl, for it was very sweet | and tender, but for one second she j thought her new friend was going to 1 cry. She put both arms around his neck and replied softly, with the ex quisite maternal cadences her voice had taken on in her first words to him when shp entered the car: "I'll b«» your own little girl, and I'll take care of you too. You know, you said I could." Dr. Van Vulkcuberg turned to the nurse. "I shall go With you to ber cousin's from the train," he anuouueed. "I'm ready to give them all the proofs they need that I'm a suitable guardian for the child, but," he added, with a touch of the boyishness that had never left him, "I want this matter settled now." The long train pounded Its way Into i the station at Chicago, and Dr. Van i Valkenberg summoned a porter. ! "Take en re of these things," he said. Indicating both sets of posses slons wll h a sweep of his arm. *i shall have my hi)uds I'll! I will) rriv little <luur T ii"! - ." He jjal lioivii her Into li i « ii rin s as he spoke, nnrt she uestleil •« »rii I m--.i his I iron <1 client with n « hlld's unconscious sut Is fact lon In the strength and firmness of his i 1 Tri rk > r \ *) i , clasp. siu. m.-u.i i. a...usm -Meirvflirlsl HIS BHOAP C IIKST. ... " , , inns. sounded on every Kverylicdy was nb norVed and eTetted. ret there were few who did not find finie to turn a last look on n singularly attraefive little clillil held above the crowd in the arms of a tall man. She was laugh ing triumphantly ns li bore her throntrh the throne and ''is heart was lii I.i eye as iie smll'V at her. for any kind of a 5um P ov lunLem $9 mm gtcw, »g mm gr Family # wj Triple refimil from Pt nnfjyivania Crude m Oil —the best in the world. u Does away with all "muss" and trouble. ■ m Will not char wick or "frost" chimney. 1 ■ Burns round and full with a clear, white 1 112 light—clean and dry without readjustment of . I No more tank waiton oil. Get "'Family Fs« I vorltr'' out of the original barrel from our I refineries, i | Your dealer knows, i I Ask him. ft Waverly Oil Works Co. j K Independent Refiners fl A Pittsburg, Pa. M Also makers of Wavorly Special Auto Oil aod Waverly GaaoUuee. w That Lame Back Means Kidney Disease And to Relieve the Lame and Aching Back, You Must First Relieve the Kidneys There is no question about that i " """" |& 112 " TTC back is caused by a diseased con- /Jj® It is only common senße, any way —that you must cure a condition >^*** n ay by removing the cause of the con- x 1 12) ditlon. And lame and aching back | are not by any means the only y\ ~ I symptoms of derangement of tfte /« "If kidneys and bladder. There are a multitude of well-known and un mistakable indications of a more or «Sw'^Hh3* less dangerous condition. Some of ~ these are, for Instance: Extreme I and unnatural lassitude and wearl- iPBL^HMBBWri JL" ■ ness, nervous irritability, heart ir- j ;W lessness and inability to secure g|pl^CTa^Sn>^'^**7n/]'i 1 ment in the urine, inflammation of gj directly and promptly—and their E. C. DeWitt & Co., Chicago, 111., beneficial results are at once felt, want every man and woman who They regulate, purify, and effec- have the least suspicion that they tually heal and restore the kid- are afflicted with kidney and blad neys, bladder and liver, to perfect i der diseases to at once write them, and healthy condition—even in and a trial box of these Pills will be some of the mosf. advanced cases, j sent free by return .mail postpaid, gold by all Druggists. H. S. LLOYD The First Requisite m ' u letter writing iH that the paper m.i \\ n T used be above criticism. *"j. jf Jr) mt ' Your stationary Bhould reflect tfi JArfaik ll your taste, character and refine ' IB ment, and convey your personal m «nm T e Eaton, Crane Pike Writing I LS> I Papers are always the first choice ? U.' of discriminating people. They W yy are by far the flneet social corres /// iyS pondence papers made. They '/ J?' are tirst in quality, and ibsolutely correct in style. Thsir artistic it>d painty boxing adds much to |their[general attractiveness. C iiiiH i i .hi let in show you oar line of the justly popular RATON, I!RANK A PIKE p*peir*. S H, S. LLOYD, Masonic Block. | i r i , ■' " " ■■ ■■ . ... .. ■ fOIR STYLE SHOW IS ON Alfred Benjamin & Co's New York Stylt'M Correct Clothes for Men and Young Men for the Fall Season of 1909 -10 > ~sloto22 s^^' iMn :"' s S2 to $6 lull i'me of Furnishings, Hals, Caps and [ DOUGLAS SHOES. | B«n)Jffl!lLC!2LtlU Id SEIlfeR fe Cd i | 'jj j i IHD'OHII'M, E'.tk. II i*r.sißCTr ; a U i Gf^tJOII H& *& Ml ;J a I w?'" 7 * Fwwy' IKV' ; >.U/1 | ' ZiL Jil. farjjy Jg CTTEEO C-outh&Colds, WhoopingCa^i This remedy can always be deper.ard upon and is pleasant to take. It contains r.o opium or other harmful drug and may be given as confi dently to a baby a* to en adult Price 25 cents, large size SO cents.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers