The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1885-10-15
"THAT TRAMP"
How He Won Her Heart and Car
RED Away It's Owner.

' "Why, Ellie, child, what have you been
doing!" exclaimed Mrs. Winters, raising
her hands and eyebrows in mild surprise.
rs a slight, blue-eyed girl entered the
breakfast-room with a huge armful of
flowers. Great crimson roses mingled
their dark loneliness with pure white buds,
and rich velvet pansies lay half hidden in
a tangle of heliotrope and smilax.
"These are for Willie, mamma" replied
her daughter, as she laid her precious bur-
den on a table and, picking out a yellow
rosebud, which well deserved its name,
''gold of ophir," pinned it lovingly ON her
mothers bosom-an act which immediately
disarmed her of fall anger, Elias occa-
sional depredations among the flowers be.
ing a cause of serious disquiet to the good
old lady.
Mrs. Winters had been a widow for
many years, her husbands California
pioneer - having. in mining %parlance,
''passed in his checks" leaving her in
comfortable circumstances. Mother and
appearing in society, and Ella, at eigh-
teen, was as sweet and innocent as the
flowers, which, verify seemed kith and kin
of her own.
They had few relatives. Mrs. Winters
sometimes spoke of a cousin who lived
away up in the mining districts, whose
family she had never seen, and Ella was
secretly in love with a handsome, bold face
which looked at her saucily from an old
daguerreotype case upon the m~antlepiece,
whose laughing mouth she had often fur
lively kissed, and wondered if she would
ever see him. And now, oh! joyful news,
there was a letter from John Gaynor, say
ing that his eldest boy, Willie, would pay
them a visit. ~ trust, dear Margaret"
ran the letter, "that he will be the link
which shall again unite the chain of our
old-time friendship" Ella was very happy;
at last she would see her girlish ideals To
her fervid imagination he must be a pleas
ant realization of the 'honest miner"
whose primitive habits and manner are so
graphically described by Twain and Miller.
To-day was undoubtedly the very happiest
in her life. The sun never seemed so
bright, the very flowers appeared to have
gained more radiant colors, and certainly
emitted a stronger and sweeter perfume.
The glamour of loving expectation en-
veloped and identified all things in her
eyes. This post is sure to bring q letter
apprising them of the time his train would
arrive. Ella pays but little attention to
her breakfast, and frequently casts an ex-
pectant look toward the window. She is
rewarded at last by the appearance of the
gray-coated postman, whose homely but
g~ood-natured face looks positively n
some in her eyes this particular morning.
With a dexterous twist of finger and
thumb, begotten of long practice, he sends
a letter flying up the garden path, and as
Ella runs lightly to meet him it and
softly and significantly against her lips,
and drops at her feet, when she picks it up
with a blush which put all the pretentious
pink flowers in the garden to shame.
The letter is for her this time, the first
she has ever received from her cousin. and
her hands tremble as she tears open the
envelope. She walks back slowly through
the garden, and as Mrs. Winters comes to
the window she is just in time to see the
joyous look die out of the bright face, and
an expression of deep disappointment settle
upon IL.
40, mama, Willie says he car not leave
for o month yet. Pm so sorry"
0There wal q touch of cadence after the
"sorry" which would have been very
could he have heard II, A big sigh &C,
ssinpArlsd her 1eres 90 she locked fsersss