“You fix me,” said Peaches.
Then they had such a supper as they neither one ever
had known, during which Mickey explained wheat fields
and bread, bees and honey, cows and clover, pigs and
ham, as he understood them. Peaches repeated her
lesson and her prayers and then as had become her
custom, demanded that Mickey write his last verse
on the slate, so she might learn and copy it on the
morrow. She was asleep before he finished.
Mickey walked softly, cleared the table, placed it
before the window, and taking from his pocket an envelope
Mr. Bruce had given him drew out a sheet of folded
paper on which he wrote long and laboriously, then
locking Peaches in, he slipped down to the mail-box
and posted this letter:
DEAR MISTER CARREL:
I saw in papers I sold how you put different legs
on a dog. I have a little white flowersy-girl
that hasn’t ever walked. It’s her
back. A Nurse Lady told me at the “Star
of Hope” how you came there sometimes, and the
next time you come, I guess I will let you see my little
girl; and maybe I’ll have you fix her back.
When you see her you will know that to fix her back
would be the biggest thing you ever did or ever could
do. I got a job that I can pay her way and mine,
and save two dollars a week for you. I couldn’t
pay all at once, but I could pay steady; and if you’d
lose all you have in any way, it would come in real
handy to have that much skating in steady as the clock
every week for as long as you say, and soon as I can,
I’ll make it more. I’d give all I
got, or ever can get, to cure Lily’s back, and
because you fixed the dog, I’d like you to fix
her. I do hope you will come soon, but of course
I don’t wish anybody else would get sick so
you’d have to. You can ask if I am square
of Mr. Douglas Bruce, Iriquois Building, Multiopolis,
Indiana, or of Mr. Chaffner, editor of the Herald,
whose papers I’ve sold since I was big enough.
MICHAEL O’HALLORAN.
Feminine Reasoning
With vigour renewed by a night of rest Leslie began
her second day at Atwater Cabin. She had so many
and such willing helpers that before noon she could
find nothing more to do. After lunch she felt
a desire to explore her new world. Choosing the
shady side, she followed the road toward the club
house, but one thought in her mind: she must return
in time to take the car and meet Douglas Bruce as
she had promised.
She felt elated that she had so planned her summer
as to spend it with her father, while of course it
was going to be delightful to have her lover with
her. So going she came to a most attractive lane
that led from the road between tilled fields, back
to a wood on one side, and open pasture on the other.
Faintly she heard the shouts of children, and yielding
to sudden impulse she turned and followed the grassy
path. A few more steps, then she stopped in surprise.
An automobile was standing on the bank of a brook.
On an Indian blanket under a tree sat a woman of fine
appearance holding a book, but watching with smiling
face the line of the water, which spread in a wide
pool above a rudely constructed dam, overflowing it
in a small waterfall.
