HIS GIRL BACK EAST By H. M. EGBERT Copyright by W. OG. Chapman.) £¢ KEELING better, ain't you pard Jim Syrett nodded curtly. He was appreciative of the boys’ kindness In coming up to his shack to see a sick man, but some times he felt too ill to show his feel ings. At such times he always sald he wus better, Although the boys tried to make him belleve that he would soon be about again, Jim cherished no iilusions on that score. “BIL” he said, turning suddenly to his friend, “I want you to promise me something, Come and sit with me when I'm going to cash in." “You ain't going to cash In in fifty years,” sald Bill, unconvinced of his own statement, nevertheless. “When you see the white flag flying from. in front of my door, you'll know what it means,” sald Jim. It was ten days later when Bill. in the valley, saw the summons. He hur- ried up the mountainside. Jim Syrett was lying beside the flag: he had not had strength to return to his bed. “I'm all In," he sald, as Bill carried him within, “Nonsense,” sald Bill. The other was steadlly growing weaker. Toward night he opened his eyes. “BIL,” he said, “there's a girl back East—" “I'll. write her, Jim: just to ease your mind,” said his friend. Jim shook his head and smiled faintly. “It's better not to,” he said. “Nellle and I were engaged once. I guess she's got a better man, though. I always was a waster. But 1 never had a chance. Harvard, parents died when I was a kid, and a capital of two million dollars, you know, Bill nodded, because he had nothing to say. “She said she'd walt for me. But 1 was no good. You know what I was before this sickness started.” “Never mind,” sald Bill. “You'll be better soon.” “T'll be better off soon” replied the other. “But I wish I'd had a chance I wish I'd been poor and decent. 1 wish I'd been brought up with Polly. I don't so much regret never being able to marry her. I want a good woman's sympathy. I'd like to be h, God, I'd like to be her son.” He groaned In anguish and remorse. Presently his eyes closed. For a while Bill thought that he was sleeping : presently a strange sound from the bed aroused him. It had grown dark, and Bill was dozing unconsciously. He lit a lamp hastily and saw that his nd lay dead. On his face there Polly Raymond loo ed up from: her \etters at the breskfast table with ery of distress, “What Is it, dear?" asked her hus band, coming round the table to her. “Jim's dead, Tom. Poor old Jim look at this letter fro™ this man. It's roughly written. and the spelling *n't up to much, but It shows some body did care for Jim. doesn't it?" “You cared for him one Polly.” letting her ery In his arms “Not really, dear, 1 thought 1 did But I know now that it was only pity for him I wanted to mother him Tom. The poor boy wasn't bad. he just never had a chance, with all his money. Poor old Jim, dying out there all alone!" Polly and her hushand had been back from thelr honeymoon two weeks, and, as everybody knows. the first honeymoon 1g only the prelnde to the real one, which lasts all life long. The moment that she met Tom the knew that her former love for Jim Syrett had been the valnest of vain things Yet she had never ceased to re. proach herself for what she ealled her fickleness. She had known of the hoy's wild attachment teward herself and that if anyone could have kept him straight it was she. And then “Tom, dear.” she sald. rubbing her cheek against his own, “1 remember something now which 1 had totally forgotten. 1 had the strangest and most dreadful dream the other night. And It must have been just at the time when Jim lay dying. It comes back to me now so vividly. “I seemed to be lying somewhere In space. There was nothing around me, and. although 1 was fully con- sclous of my own existence, 1 seemed to have no body. , And then it came to me that this was thst place, or con- dition, where dismembered souls eol- lect, awaiting thelr summons either to heaven or to—to some of many other possible destinations, Tom, “Then, as I stood there, 1 seemed to realize that Jim was with me. He was very much astonished at finding me there, “Why, Polly,’ he sald. ‘don't you know that you are not to pass over for nearly a year more? “1 was so terrified 1 did not know what to do or how to answer him. “Yes, Polly,’ ha sald, ‘your time on earth will be up a year from next weck. Unless’ vague and indistinet thatl coull un- 1 again, he was telling me how he died. “'l wanted you ever since I knew you, Polly, dear,’ he sald. ‘And I am through all eternity,’ answered, more than that, you will be glad. Re | member, a year from next week.'” Tom Raymond frowned impatiently. “Oh course, It may have been some | sort of inner perception that Jim was | dying,” he answered. “I have no | doubt such things are possible. But In dreams they become blurred and | distorted, and one must never rely | on such nonsense, Lose you in a year's time, indeed! I'd like to see myself!” He kissed away the tears that were falling freely, But after he had gone Polly remained for a long time think. ing of the boy who had died in such | a lonely fashion upon the mountains. II, The house was strangely silent, Upstalrs there wae no sound at all; | downstairs only that of the man who tramped slowly backward and for ward in his library. i Mercifully he had forgotten his! wife's prediction. He was conscious only of that agony of soul that comes when one's dearest is wrestling with death, The doctor came Into the room, and Tom Raymond spun around and faced him, “Tell me the truth!” he cried. “Is there any hope?" “Yes, sald the doctor, frankly “There is hope. But It Is a very faint | one. You must be prepared for the worst, Mr. Raymond, and I cannot delude you with any false anticipa. | tions. Your wife 1s dangerously ill She is at present sleeping. It all de pends on the first rest” “And the chila?™ “A splendid girly She is doing fine ly. 1 have seldom seen a child sc healthy at birth.” Tom Raymond groaned At that moment he felt utterly indifferent tc | his child. If only Polly lived! She must live, for his sake. The doctor took pity on the hag gard man, “I don't think there is any’ reason | why you should not sit by her bed side, If you go up very softly,™ he eald, i Raymond ascended the stairs and | entered his wife's room on tiptoe. The | nurse rose from the bedside and laid ! her figger on her lips. laymond crept to the chalr which she had va cated and sat down. Polly was sleeping, but It was more correct to say that she was uncon scfous. She was barely allve, and ber breast hardly stirred under her tight breathing. Her face was ashen her lips as pale as her cheeks. Sometimes her husband was afrald that she had ceased to breathe. The hours went by. I 1 at at her M rioht High pa Suddenly the nurse started stepped to the sick woman's Her trained ear had detected the 1it tie sound of awakening. Next mo ment Polly was consclous, and her eyes were fixed on Tom's. “I am going to get well, Tom, dear.” And Tom could read that In the tinge of color tht had come back to her cheeks, The nurse, obedient to the sick woman's unvoiced wish, stepped tc! the cradle and bremght out the baby “Isn't she a dear, Tom!” murmured Polly, “And she has the dearest little Show him her shoulder nurse.” here was a faint stain, extending from the base of the neck an inch or two In the direction of the right shoul der, Reason for Ancient Faith in Mistletoe Idolatry had not advanced far among the Celts, and thelr images of gods were rudely earved logs or simple weapons of one sort or another. Thelr chief ceremonial object wns the mistle foe, that white berried creeper which has captured the Imagination of prim itive peoples all over the world. i Sir James G. Frazer, In that most | fascinating book In all the literature of comparative religions, “The Golden Bough,” has tried to give the reason for the pecullar veneration attached to this plant. He maintains it Is be | cause the mistletoe has not roots In the polluted earth but seems to grow magleally between heaven and earth. By that sorry clutching at conclu sions which Is all that primitive man has of logic, this plant, dangling down from the sky, is therefore thought to be endowed with magic properties, Wherever the Drulds discovered it growing on an oak tree, they would approach with great awe and cere monial pomp and cat it down with a | golden sickle, They would be careful to eateh it before it fell to the earth, and then | they would use It to make a potion for the fertilizing of barren women and cattle, and for the cure of ep ilepsy, ulcers, polsoning and almost every other human sallment.—From “This Belleving World," by Lewis! Browne, i Epidemic Ward—TI'm sort of worried about my | boy. Neff-What has he? Ward—The car —Life, REPORTER, CENTRE HALL. PA. he Private “Branch Exchan ge spells the highest development o the telephone user's equipment Or STANDARD DESIGN only in its simplest forms, it varies from a small board with a handful of telephones to a great complicated switchboard large enough to serve a city of fifty thousand people. Its reach must bé univercal—across the office and across the country. Its flexibility must react to the peculiar and « nging requirements of the establishment employing it. h muct respond to every note of service struck by the ten or ten thousand who use “i Specialized equitment. his it ic 2 sie of the fare: Specialized equipment, plus, it is ar mple cf the increas . 1 # ing accomplishment of the tele speed and facili- tate, to make the hard job easy. THE BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY OF PENNSYLVANIA
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