under the dark lashes. He went to
Dun's room, searched his bureau
He came stealing across the snow— drawer and all the pockets of the
a musher of the first degree. Very clothes banging in his closet. He up
silently and swiftly he sllpi>ed off his set his trunk and pawed among old
snowshoes at the door. The door It letters In the suitcase. Then, stealing
self was unlocked. Just as he had sup like some creature of the wilderness,
posed. In an Instant more he was tip he came back to the living room.
Lennox was not on the divan where
toeing, a dark, silent figure, through
the corridors of the house. He held he had left him. He lay Instead on
the floor near the fireplace: and he
bls rifle ready In his hands.
He peered into Lennox’s bedroom met the passion-drawn face with entire
first. The room was unoccupied. calmness. His motives were perfectly
Then the floor of the corridor creaked plain. He had Just made a desperate
beneath his step; and he knew noth effort to procure Dan's rifle that hung
ing further was to be gained by wait on two sets of deer horns over the fire
ing. If Ix-nnox suspected his pres place, and was entirely exhausted
ence, he might be waiting with aimed from it. He had succeeded lu getting
rifle as he opened the door of the liv-* down from the couch, though wracked
by agony, but had been unable to lift
ing room.
He glided faster. He halted once himself up in reach of the gun.
Cranston read his Intention In one
more—a moment at the living-room
door to see If Lennox had been dis glance. Lennox knew it, but he sim
turbed. He was lying still, however, ply didn't care. He had passed the
point where anything seemed to mat
so Cranston pushed through.
Lennox glanced up from his maga- ter.
“Tell me where it Is," Cranston or
alne to find that unmistakable thing,
the barrel of a rifle, pointed at his dered him. Again he pointed his rifle
breast. Cranston was one of those at Lennox's wasted breast.
“Tell you where what Is? My
rare marksmen who shoot with both
eyes open—and that meant that he money?”
“You know what I want—and It
kept his full visual powers to the last
isn’t money. I mean those letters that
instant before the hammer fell.
I'm
“I can't raise my arms,” Lennox Falling found on the ridge.
said simply. “One of ’em won’t work through fooling, Lennox. Dan learned
nt all—besides, against the doctor's that long ago, and It’s time you learned
it now.’’
orders.”
“Dan learned It because he was sick.
Cranston stole over toward him,
looking closely for weapons. He pulled He Isn’t sick now. Don't presume too
aside the woolen blanket that Lennox much on that.”
Cranston laughed with harsh scorn.
had drawn up over his body, and he
pushed his hand Into the cushions of “But that isn't the question. I said
the couch. A few deft pats, holding I’ve wasted all the time I'm going to.
his rifle through the fork of his arm. You are an old man and helpless; but
finger coiled Into the trigger guard, I’m not going to let that stand In the
assured him that Lennox was not way of g&'ting what I came to get.
"heeled” at all. Then he laughed and They’re hidden somewhere around this
bouse. I've watched, and he's had no
went to work.
"I thought I told you once,” Len chance to take them Into town. I'll
nox began with perfect coldness, “that give you—just five seconds to tell me
the doors of my house were no longer where they're hidden.”
“And I give you,” Lennox replied,
open to you.”
“You did say that,” was Cranston’s “one second less than that—to go to
guttural reply. “But you see I’m here h—11!”
Both of them breathed hard In the
Just the same, don't you? And what
quiet room. Cranston was trembling
are you going to do about it?”
“I probably felt that sooner or later now, shivering Just a little In his arms
you would come to steal—just as you and shoulders. “Don’t get me wrong,
and your crowd stole the supplies Lennox.” he warned.
“And don’t have any delusions In re
from the forest station last winter—
and that probably influenced me to gard to me, either,” Lennox replied.
give the orders. I didn’t want thieves "I’ve stood worse pain from this acci
around my house, and I don’t want dent than any man can give me while
them now. I don’t want coyotes, I yet live, no matter what he does. If
you want to get on me and hammer
either.”
“And I don’t want any such remarks me in the approved Cranston way, I
out of you, either,” Cranston an can't defend myself—but you won’t
swered him. “You He still and shut get a civil answer out of me. I’m used
up, and I suspect that sissy boarder to pain, and I can stand IL I'm not
of yours will come back, after he’s used to fawning to a coyote like you.
through embracing your daughter In and I can’t stand IL”
But Cranston hardly heard. An idea
the snow, and find you in one piece.
had flamed in his mind and cast a red
Otherwise not”
“If I were in one piece,” Lennox an glamor over all the scene about him.
swered him very quietly, “instead of It was Instilling a poison In his nerves
a bundle of broken bones that can't and a madness In his blood, and it was
searing him, like fire, in bls dark
brain. Nothing seemed real. He sud
denly bent forward, tense.
“That’s all right about you,” he said.
“But you’d be a little more polite if it
was Snowbird—and Dan—that would
have to pay.”
Perhaps the color faded slightly In
Lennox’s face; but his voice did not
change.
“They'll see your footprints before
they come In and be ready,” Lennox
replied evenly. “They always come In
• by the back way. And even with a
pistol. Snowbird’s a match for you.”
“Did you think that was what I
[ meant?" Cranston scorned. “I know a
way to destroy those letters, and I’ll
do It—In the four seconds that I said,
unless you tell. I’m not even sure I'm
goln' to give you a chance to tell now;
It’s too good a scheme. There won’t
be any witnesses then to yell around
In the courts. What If I choose to set
fire to this house?”
“It wouldn’t surprise me a great
deal. It’s your own trade.” Lennox
shuddered once on his place on the
floor.
“I wouldn’t have to worry about
those letters then, would I? They are
somewhere In the house, and they'd be
burned to ashes. But that Isn't all
that would be burned. You could may
be crawl out, but you couldn’t carry
the guns, and you couldn't carry the
"I Can't Raise My Arms," Lennox Said pantry full of food. You’re nearly
eighty miles up here from the nearest
Simply.
occupied house, with two pair of
lift its arms, I'd get up off this couch, snowshoes for the three of you and
unarmed as I am, and stamp on your one dinky pistol. And you can’t walk
at all. It would be a nice pickle,
lying lips.”
But Cranston only laughed and tied wouldn’t It? Wouldn't you have a fat
Lennox’s feet with a cord from the chance of gett.ng down to civiliza
tion?”
window shade.
The voice no longer hell steady. It
He went to work very systematical
ly. First he rifled Lennox’s desk In trembled with passion. This was no
the living room. Then he looked on Idle threat The brain had already
all the mantels and ransacked the seized upon the scheme with every In
cupboards and the drawers. He was tention of carrying It out. The wil
taunting and calm at first. But as the derness lay stark and bare, stripped of
moments passed, his passion grew up all delusion—not only In the snow
on him. He no longer smiled. The world outside but In the hearts of
rodent features became Intent; the these two men, Its sons.
“I have only one hope,” Lennox ro-
eyes narrowed to curious, bright slits
CHAPTER I—Continued.
—18—
plied. "I hope, unknown to ms. that
Dan has already dispatched those let
ters. The arm of the law la long,
Cranston. It's easy to forget that fact
up here. It will reach you lu the
end.”
Cranston turned through the door.
Into the kitchen. He whs gone a long
time. Lennox heard him at work;
the crinkle of paper and then a pour
ing sound around the walls. Then he
heard the sharp crack of a match. An
Instant later the first wisp of smoke
came curling, pungent with burning
oil, through the corridor.
"You crawled from your couch to
reach that gun." Cranston told him
when he came lu. "Let's see you crawl
out now.”
Lennox’s answer was a curse—the
last, dread outpouring of an unbroken
will. He didn't look again at the glit
tering eyes. He scarcely watched
Cranston's further preparations: the
oil poured on the rugs and furnishings,
the kindling placed at the base of the
curtains. Cranston was trained In this
work. He was taking no chances on
the fire being extinguished. And Len
nox began to crawl toward the door.
He managed to grasp the corner of
the blanket on the divan as he went,
and he dragged It behind him. Pain
wracked him. and smoke half-blinded
him. But he made It at last And by
the time he had crawled one hundred
feet o’ er the snow crust the whole
structure was tn flames. The red
tongues spoke with a roar.
Cranston, the fire-madness on his
face, hurried to the outbuildings.
There he repeated the work, He
touched s rostch to the hay In the
DORIS MAY
INQUISITIVE POSS I M.
T WAS Mr. Owl who gave the wood
folk the wanting by culling out on«
night, “Tn whom It may concern I”
At least the wood |»eopls knew that
waa what he meant, but anybody els«
might have thought he Just cried. “To
whoo, to whoo I”
So when nil the animals both great
nnd small had gathered around his
tree ho told them that In hl» opinion
It was to l>e a very, very bard winter.
That, of course, meant that they
must begin right away t<> Iny up
stores for the cold, snowed in days,
and everyone bestirred himself at once
to do this.
Even Mrs. Rabbit, who seldom made
much preparation for the winter days,
began to do up preserves, all the small
bunnies were sent out with thoir bas
kets to gather corn nnd bonne nnd
beet tops and all sorts of g'aal thing»,
“if we cannot get them green," said
Mrs. Babbit to her neighbor. Mrs.
I
One of the newest brides among the
“movie” stars is pretty Dorie May. The
winsome actress now presides over a
“love nest” in the film colony at Holly-
wood, Calif. Dorie Is a Seattle, Wash.,
girl. Her father was a San Francisco
newspaper man.
---------- O---------
THE RIGHT THING
at the
RIGHT TIME
By MARY MARSHALL DUFFEE
Feast of nectar ’d aweets.-Mlltun.
T IS a usual question for a young
girl to write asking who should take
the first piece of candy from a box
brought to her by a young man caller.
And when you come to think of It,
there are a good many puzzling things
Involved In the problems connected
with a box of candy.
To begin with, if a man brings a
girl a box of candy, she usually o|«M
it while he is present. She then passe«
It to any other women in the room,
then to the man, and then she helps
If he, when she passes it,
herself,
holds It for her to take u piece, she
does so. If the candy comes by mall
or messenger, she opens it, of course,
and does not wait until he calls, even
if she knows who the candy comes
from before opening it, and knows
likewise that the donor Is to call.
I'erhaps the most important thing to
remember in connection with the good
manners connected with candy Is that
the person who always greedily eats
candy and never buys it 1« very ill
bred. It Is the week-end custom for
some men to bring home u box of
candy. In some families there is one
candy-loving member who lies in wait
for the weekly sweets und eats as
many pieces as she can get. She takes
one every time the box Is passed, and
perhaps helps herself between times.
Now It Is quite all right to accept
candy, If you like IL when it 1» passed.
But you should not eat more than your
share, and you should not eat even
this much if you are not in the habit
occasionally of standing treat yourself.
You should, if you have a sweet tooth
and eat other people’s sweets, provide
a box full of your own occasionally.
Candy is one of the gifts that a man
may give a woman—candy, flowers and
books constitute the conventional trio.
Nobody wonders if the donor of a box
of candy to a girl IS thinking of fall
ing in love with her. Candy nowa
days Is quite the correct mid accepted
31ft from anybody that cun afford it.
And no girl need feel hesitant about
accepting candy In this way. Of course,
if she thinks a man cannot afford It,
but buys it for her simply because he
thinks he ought to, she might suggest
to him that be really should not In
dulge her sweet tooth so often. And
never, never should a girl hint for
sweets. There are some girls who
cannot pass a candy store window with
out casting longing glances nt them,
and sometimes even commenting on
their fondness for candy.
No man
should feel rude In Ignoring these
symptoms.
It is not necessary to write a note
thanking a man for a gift of candy If
he follows the gift shortly with a
call. The thanks should not be for-
gotten, but they may be delivered ver-
(Copyright.)
bally.
I
He Called Once to the Prone Body ot
Lennox.
barn, and the wind flung the flame
through it In an Instant The sheds
ami other outbuildings were treated
with oil. And seeing that his work
was done, he called once to the prone
body of Lennox on the snow and
mushed away into the silences.
Lennox's answer was not a curse
this time. Rather It was a prayer, un
uttered, and tn his long years Lennox
had not prayed often.
When he
prayed at all, the words were burning
fire. His prayer was that of Samson
—that for a moment bls strength
might come back to him.
CHAPTER II.
Two miles across the ridges, Dan
and Snowbird saw a faint mist blow
ing between the trees. They didn't
recognize It at first. It might be fine
snow, blown by the wind, or even one
of those mysterious fogs that some-
times sweep over the snow.
“But it looks like smoke,” Snowbird
said.
“But it couldn't be. The trees are
too wet to burn.”
But then a sound that at first was
just the faintest whisper in which
neither of them would let themselves
believe, became distinct past all deny
ing. It was that menacing crackle of
a great fire, that in the whole world of
sounds is perhaps the most terrible.
“It's our house,” Snowbird told him.
“And father can't get out."
She spoke very quietly. Perhaps
the most terrible truths of life are al
ways spoken In that same quiet voice.
Then both of them started across th«
snow as fast as their unwieldy snow
shoes would permlL
“He can crawl a little," Dan called
to her. “Don't give up, Snowbird
mine. I think he’ll be safe.”
They mounted to the top of the
ridge; and the long sweep of the for
est was revealed to them. Ttie house
was a singular tall pillar of flame, al-
ready glowlng that dreadful red from
which firemen, despairing, turn away,
Then the girl seized Ids hands and
danced about him In a mad circle.
“He's alive!” she cried. “You can
see him—Just a dot on the snow. He
crawled out to safety.”
She turned and sped at a breakneck
pace down the ridge. Dan had to race
to keep up with her. But ft wasn't en
tirely wise to try to mush so fast. A
dead log lay beneath the snow with a
broken limb stretched almost to Its
surface, and it caught her snowshoe.
The wood cracked sharply, and she fell
forward In the «now. But site wasn't
hurt, and the snowshoe Itself, In spite
of a small crack in the wood, was still
serviceable.
“Haste makes waste," he told her,
“Keep your feet on the ground, Snow-
bird; the house ts gone already nnd
your father Is safe. Remember what
Iles before us."
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
If truth is stranger than fiction. It
1* because fact outruns Imagination.
—O------------
A LINE 0’ CHEER
All ths Small Bunnies Were Sent Out
With Their Baskets.
Squlrrel, “we can get them stewed.
but, of course, we much prefer them In
their natural state."
Mrs. Squirrel, to encourage her
neighbor In laying up winter stores,
gave her a big basketful of walnut«,
which Mrs. Babbit pickled, nnd some
say those were the first walnuts ever
pickled.
But this story 1» not shout pickled
walnuts; It Is about the nice preserves
that Mrs. Rabbit put up ami the acci
dent that befell Mr. Possum.
Everybody that passed Mra. Bab
bit's home for many days found It
hard to get by her door, for such spicy,
nlce-smelllng odors as came out
through the open windows mudo ev
eryone feel hungry.
By MILDRED MARSHALL
Fart* »bout v#ur name: It« hlaaorv; mran-
ing; «meme it wa« derived; «isni6rana«|
your luvky day and Iwk* l**<l-
HETTY
HE simple little name of Het
ty, suggestive of pleasant home
ly domesticity, has a lofty sig-
nlilcance. It Is translated to mean "a
star.” Perhaps, after all, the steady
bright Insistence of the stars may
have some psychic reference to the
generally accepted conception of the
Hettys of the world.
Hetty Is in reality the endearing
diminutive given to the more digni
fied Hester, but so coldly austere is
the latter name that Hetty has come
to be bestowed in baptism with com-
pleted disregard for its proper pred-
ecessor.
Hetty camo Into existence by a ruth-
er complicated evolution through sev
eral languages. The fair daughter of
the tribe of Benjamin whose royalty
insured her peoples’ safety, was called
Atossa. Her name in the Persian lan
guage — quite unpronouncable — was
combined with the Lutin word for star
“atelia” und from the union, came tl»e
modern estrella. In the Septuaglnt,
the Homans make this word Hestera
or Ksthera.
In England, the "a” was dropped and
Hester and Esther were bestowed ns
feminine names. The latter became Es
sie when the Inevitable diminutive was
forthcoming, and Hester soon gave
place to Hetty, though the original
form was usually preserved on the
church registers. It wan for America
to gayly discard the proper appellative
and substitute Hetty for al) occasions.
Hetty’s tnllsmnnic stone is the tur-
quolse, which promises her steadfast
friends, true love, and freedom from
danger. If she sees the new moon re-
fleeted In the stone, she will have rare
good luck. Saturday Is her lucky day
and five her lucky number.
(Copyright)
T
OR seexa week I treata my boss
swella style. I no keek one time
bouta hees pipe and I tella every
body he was greata guy. And when I
tlnk he gotta good dlsposlsh one day I
aska heein please rasa da wage.
Well, he feela preety good and he
geeva me da raise. I getta dolla feefa-
ty cent more deesa week as da lasts
one. My boss sure no care for da ex
pense. He no tlnk any more of dolla
feefaty cent as he do of du right eye.
But alinosta nexa day seence I get
ta dat raise aomating mnkn me mad.
I go een du butcher »hop for buy du
beefasteak nnd da guy tella mo da
meat gotta raise een da wage, too. I
dunno wot’s matter every tree four
day he go up een da price.
Dat butcher tella me ees no moocha
feed now for da cattle, so wot feed
can get costa more. He say when da
feed ees too high price he gotta kill«
da cow. And when he gotta kllla da
cow, he say. da meat costa more, too.
Now I dunno eef I am rights Idee
or meestake, but I no can see dat way.
Eef he kllla da cow he no gotta feed
any more. But he sava da price of da
feed and charge more for da meat
sama ting.
Eef da man getta killed he no maks
any more money. But eef da cow go
dead he maka plenta money. I dunno
wot’s matter.
But I tella you wot maka me mad.
I treata my boss good for seexa we<%
I getta da raise but he no do any good
when da costa for leevlng go up. Ees
preety tough luck eef I gotta treat*
my boss good for seexa week more.
Wot you tlnk?
F
(Copyright.)
OUT OF THE ASHES.
O
(Copyright.)
“What’s in a Name?
By John Kendrick Bangs.
FF on the Bhi-ll-torn fields of
France.
Hard by a charred anil shat
tered man««,
Up from the midst of ashen gloom
I saw a perfect rose in bloom,
And knew thereby that If from pain
The form of beauty may rise again
So too from sorrow deep may we
Emerge, and rise triumphantly.
(Copyright.)
Mr. Possum was specially Inteiosted
when he found that Mrs. Babbit was,
among other things, putting up 11 great
deni of canned corn, nnd ho decided
that when It waa dark he would Just
take a peek Into her pantry window
und NS bow muny can« she had.
Hight in front of the window waa a
tree and one limb hung low enough ■<>
that Mr- Possum with a little care
could easily «wing himself from It und
reach the pantry window.
Now th!« might buve been safe
enough if the limb had been a good
one, but It wasn't. und when Mr. Pos-
sum ran along It. before ho could oven
get ready to swing, “crackle, anap,"
went the limb mid down went Mr.
Possum Into a barrel of whitewash
Mrs. Babbit had ready to u»e on her
little house.
And that was not the worst of It.
He ran home so scared that he didn't
remember running ut ull after It wa«
over. Mrs. Possum didn't know him,
but thought he waa some terrible
white creature come to carry off her
children and slummed the door right
In his face.
All night Mr. Possum hud to sit out
side, the whitewash dripping from his
coat, mid in the morning, bright and
early, nil Hie little bunnies mid Mr.
mid Mrs. Babbit us well were standing
dn front of the house looking at him.
Mrs. Rabbit wanted to know what h«
meant by carrying off some of her
whitewash. “Mr. Babbit mid I nnd
all the little bunnies tracked you,
mid you need not deny It," she said.
Mr. Possum did not try to deny it.
for what waa the use? He whs all cov-
erod with the white stuff. But he did
try to tell Mr. nnd Mrs. Babbit that it
was all an accident, that he wus Just
running along the limb and off It broke
nnd lie happened to fall iuto the whit«-
wash.
Mrs. Possum had found out it was
her busband by this time, of course,
und »he came out to say that what
Mrs. Babbit could think they wanted
of her whitewash was more than she
could tell.
Mrs. Rabbit wiggled her nose nnd
looked very wise. “Well," she said,
"if that is true. Mr. Possum, that It
was all an aocldenL why. of course,
that is all there is to it, but you must
admit that it did look auspicious.”
Mr. 1’ossura admitted that It did nnd
off ran the Babbit family for home,
but it win a long time before Mr.
Possum could go abroad again, for the
white coat he wore was to be plainly
seen In the daytime or nt night.
AIN'T IT THE
TRUTH
Moth: Shucks,
these garments
& are nothing but
cotton.