SULLIVAN REPUBLICAN. W, M. CHENEY, Publisher. VOL. VII. DROUGHT. Prom weekto week thorn came no rain, The very birds took flight. The river shrank within its bed, The borders of the world grow red With woods that flamed by nighfc No rest beneath the fearful sun. No shelter brought the moon; liean cattle on the reeded fen Searched every hole for drink, anif met Dropped dead beneath the noon. And ever as each sun went down Beyond the reeling plain, the mocking sky uprist, Like phantoms from the burning west, Dim clouds that brought no rain. Each root and leaf and living thing Fell sicklier day by day, And X, that still must live and see Thaag»ny of plant and tree. Grew weary even as they. But oh, at last, the joy, the change; With sudden sigh and start I woke about the middle night. And thought that something strange and bright Had burst upon my heart. With surging of great winds, a lull And hush upon the plain, i A hollow murmer far aloof, And then a roar upon the roof, Down came the rushing rain. —.4. Lampman, in Srribner's. A Startling Experience. BY 1.11.Y TYNEB. .Tosic McClure was always plucky. Every one said so, and what every one says is pretty apt to have some truth in it. She was plucky from the hour of ber birth, when, a poor, puny, post humous little creature, she was sent into the world to assuage the sorrow of a half heart-broken widow-mother—a delicate creature whose near friends were few and whose resources were slender. Josie grew up the delight of her mother's heart. A quick-witted little red-haired termagant, some were pleased to term her, but these were, as a rule, such of her schoolmates as had cause to fear her just wrath for misdoings of their own. Big boys who tormented their smaller brethren and girls who stooped to petty meannesses were .Tosie's special 1 detestation. But Josie's school life could not last as long as that of most girls. It came upon her all at once one day that she had a mission in the world, namely, to assist in providing for herself and her mother. I shall always believe that I first put the notion in her head ofbecoiu- ' ing a telegraph operator. She used to come up to the depot of that sleepy vil lage nearly every day on her way home from school and watch me at my work. I was station-master, train-dispatcher and : general operator all in one. "I don't think I could ever learn to send a message,"she said one day, as she ( stood watching me. "Oh, yes, you could," I answered. | "In fact, I think you'd soon become an j expert." She looked up sharply with her bright, red-hazel eyes. "What makes you think so?" "Your quick nature and good sense," I said. "I don't believe you'd ever lose your head." "No; I am pretty cool. Remember when Crittenden's horse ran away with I Grace and me? I made Grace drop out over the rear of the wagon. Neither of us was scratched. I was just as cool that | moment as I am now. Grace was scream ing murder." "If you had a position like mine," I laughed, "there wouldn't be much to 1 scare you. It's all 1 can do to keep awake—some days." "I'd rather go farther West," said j Josie. Briefly it happened to suit her. She took a few lessons of me. I gave ] her something of a start. Then she went' to the city and took a regular course of instruction. The next I knew she had : been assigned to a station five hundred miles further toward the setting sun. i Her mother and herself removed at once from our midst and Josie was lost to me, j save for a sparkling little epistle I used I to receive every week or ten days detail- ! ing her various experiences. I'm sure I don't know how I should have gotten on without her letters,l missed her so at first. It turned fright- i fully dull and sleepy at my station, but I | managed to keep awake and attend to things as they deserved. Several months passed. Winter slipped away and spring ! moved along slowly. Josie's letters came regularly to gladden my heart. "Haven't much excitement out here," | she wrote. "No Indians and only an occasional train robbery. No smash-ups, ; no collisions, nothing lively. Not many j messages. Sometimes I think I'll call 7