Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1891-06-04
A GIRL WORTH WINNING,

4
cannot, will not, longer bear the insults
have submitted to here for three years,
and have resolved to take myself Out
OF the way. You comprehend me, Mat.
tie2"
ooh, yes, Paul, responded the young
lady sorrowfully. II thought it would
come to this. I have not been an idle
observer of your impotence and dissat.
isfaction in this house for months past, "
continued the girl.
u have been preparing for my de.
parture for six weeks, and shall leave
for New York tomorrow evening""
"And thence?" queried Matte.
"To South America. My plan is not
matured, but I shall leave this place,
which has become hateful to me- You
will remain, of course?"
Il can't do otherwise. You will re-
turn some day, Paul." she murmured,
with a terful expression, "and them
"We shall be older, Matte, and more
experienced, and better judge if we are
as sincerely attached to each other as
we now think we are"
You are right, Paul. You are older
than | am. but we are only children as
yet, / know; am scarcely Is; you are
Is. You will succeed am sure you
will. And then you will come back"
These two speakers were very young
people to talk thus seriously, but they
had been reared in q school to make
them serious.
Matte Purcell was the only child OF
Mrs. Highfoot's dead sister, who had
taken her into the family ten years pre-
viously and had "done for her" Gas she
termed it, from her childhood, though
she had family of her own to bring up.
But her husband was rich and she was
a very airy parsonage, continually pratt
ing of her wealth, standing and infiu-
ence in society,"" while AZ constantly she
had turned the cold shoulder toward
poor little motherless Matte.
Paul Crumlett was a good hearted
boy, and he was an orphan, too. Mr..
Highfoot was his fathers cousin.
Matte found herself more lonely and
more dispirited now than ever she had
expected to be, but she strove to
make her condition endurable, though
the continued sights and annoyances
to which she was subjected in the
heartless family of the Highfoots hui
inflated her excessively.
She never heard one word from
Paul. Once, year after he left,
when he was 10 years old, he
wrote her long, affectionate
letter, but she never received it. Had
it been intercepted? No one seemed
to know.
The lad went to Panama, thence to
Brazil. He worked hard, but met
with varied fortune. He passed three
years in California, and tired at last of
the wild though busy life he exper-
fenced there. He thought of Matte
very often. Was she the same sweet
girl he knew her to be in their young
days? Did she remain the same de-
voted friend that she hal ever been
during their weary years together? She
had never answered his letters, though
ne remembered. Had she married :?
Was she alive? Had her rich relatives
cast her off?
He had been away some seven years,
and one day he concluded to take the
train for New York and make visit to
his old acquaintance
Having reached the city he attired
himself in very plain suit and repaired
directly to the elegant home of the
Highfoots, having first sent up his we'll
worn trunk, upon which the family
quickly recognized the initials P. G.
Back again. exclaimed Mrs. H.,
with unfeigned disgust. "A bad penny
DON returns" she continued. snow,
father" she added, addressing her hus-
band earnestly. "this must be put q
stop to. We can't have him here and
I won't
"nere he is, my DEAR" responded
Mr.. H, locking out at the lace-cur-
tanned window.
The daughters came into the parlor
an hour later in their stunning" fash
ionable costume-for the Highfoots de.
cided that they must be coldly civil
and Paul remained to dinner. The girls
thought him very nice-looking young
man; and pity twas he was SO poor and
friendless.
aWhele's Matte? My little friend
whom used to be so familiar with 2"
asked Paul, ut length.
She had gone out to the neighboring
park with the baby and nurse.
"She must have grown out of my ac-
auaintance, suggested Paul.
"Well, they didn't know that Matte
had changed much. She 'peared to
them the same old sixpence--dull and
quiet and taciturn as usual.
.She won't look at gentleman,
scarcely. She's had half dozen
chances and lost them all by her SEEM
ing aversion to the other sex, added
the mother.
Paul was inwardly delightly with
this information. but he made no avowal
of il.
"Here she comes,' said Mrs. High
foot, as the front door opened and .
blooming, lovely woman, with rosy
cheeks and rosy mien, entered the
apartment to greet the stranger lust
from California.
4 Il @.~tx%