Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1891-11-28

Did any of you ever see an old fashion
ed wood fireplace? One that is built in
the side of the house, jutting outward
from the logs like little brick room.
A long time ago all houses had those
freplaces, that is all houses where there
was wood to burn. In country like ours
where there is no wood, fireplace would
consume all of Papa's income leaving
nothing for clothes and toys.
But don't you know those freplaces
make jolly nice chimneys for Santa Claus
to come down through? And thai was
why little Jane liked to sit before the fire,
watching the burning logs, and the smoke
curling away up through the big black
smoke stack, to make more clouds more
floor for heaven, as she told herself so the
Angels and the stars would mt fall through.
Her ideas of the floor of heaven were
gained from experiences in her grand
mothers garnet where there were only
rafters to keep her from falling through
the lath and plaster to the rooms below.
One evening she had been sitting rock
ng in her little chair and thinking of
Santa Claus, and watching the fire till
she fell asleep.
A knock sounded at the door. James
mother opened it and received request
from sick neighbor to come to her for a
little while. Mrs. Martin looked at her
little daughter. "She will not awake" she
said to herself. So she fastened away
intending to be away just minute.
The little girl slept on; the fire burned
up and cracked merrily as it fed upon
the logs laid across the huge andirods.
The shadows deepened and took on
queer black shapes in the little room. Still
the mother did not come back.
AT last the "fore-log" was burned until
it would bear its weight no longer. The
center was burned ont and the two ends
fell down with a crash that a'yoke little
Jane with d start. She opened her eyes
and gazed around the dark room. There
was no one there but her. The fire had
quit blazing. She could scarcely distin-
guish objects about the room.
She looked fearfully around her. The.
little shower of sparks made by the break
Ing log we're gone. The room was darker
than ever. =
What is that over in the corner from
the fireplace? What could. it be! There
are-yes there are eyes-brieht eyes
glazing, now blinking at her. What
shall she do! She would not scream,
she dared not move. There is not a
stick near her-she cannot see one in
the dark. If she only had something to
drive that awful thing away with.
She thought hard for moment, shut
ting her little lips tight that she might
not scream.
All, she knows now what she can do.
Her shoes are heavy. Cautiously, with
the hand on the other side from the
object, she unties the shoe, draws it of,
then with all her little might she hnrls
it at those eyes.
And did she hit it? Say, what was it?
Did she kill it?
Indeed she did hit it and it was her
mothers new tin dishpan, hung 60 that
the f1ickering light from the dying fire
reflected on it and made it seem like
blinking, shining eyes to the little girl in
the dsrk.
The dish pan came down with bang
just as the mother opened the door.
Then weren't there two astonished people.
The little girl, that her bugaboo had
turned out SO, the mother at the noise,
and perhaps the dishpan was somewhat
surprised at such usage.
But don't you think that Little Jane
was really brave? I do. just as brave as