The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-01-03

There were no punctuations in the letter.
+ anu the capitals were badly mixed and took
astonishing liberties by appearing in the
middle OF words, ETC., and the postmaster
would have 10 have taken considerable
time 70 decipher it, II be had been able TO do
so at all.
/ Now it happened that there had not been
mu"h gum on the envelope that held Fan
I MES letter, and as the clerk was bundling il
up with others for the train, he noticed it
was unsealed. I'm see if the inside Of this
letter is as pretty Its outside" he said TO a
fellow clerk, as be pulled it out Of the en-
VeIope, and together the two men read It
over.
They We're both young men with no little
girls OF their own. and rather inclined to
laugh at the odd spelling and queer charac-
ters on the much-soiled sheet but that
want it dreadful made the laughter sound
KIND OF stiff, and each moved about his
work quite silently for while. until the
clerk who opened the letter said: BLANKS
failed and gone away hasn't hef'
Yes
"".Wel that youngster is going to have a
doll anyway. Let's canvass among the fell
lows and send her big onen And in less
TIME than 1t takes TO write it, he had gone
the rounds OF the postoffice, hat in oue hand
ana letter IN the other, and all the men
knew that not very far from them was a
little girl who had never had a doll and
wanted one "dreadful;n while the hat held
enough money to buy a bigger doll than
Fannie had ever dreamed Of.
Not far from the postofflce a fair was in
progress, and to the ladies in charge Of the
uoll tables the young men took FannieiS
letter aud the hat full Of money.
Nv e want The largest aud best doll you
can give US for the money they said; and
the ladies, after reading the letter, declared
that TX haf hnr
The hat or not, the largest and best dolly
should go to the writer OF that letter. So
the picked out the prettiest doll in their
stock and pinned the letter in its
hand and stood it where all the visI-
tors to the fair would be sure to see 1t. and
When the peple stopped to look at it they
told them how the kiudDhearted postal
clerks had bought this dolly for the little
girl who never owned one, until Fannie's
letter became quite feature Of the fair
and Miss Dolly's wardrobe received so many
| contributions from the Wis tors that she had
more pretty things than she could possibly
wear out in dolls lifetime.
AS the days went by and Fannie received
no answer to her letter she became more
! and more anxious, and one by one the
household we're taken into her confidence
until all the family knew that Fannie had
sent whole cents to Bigtown and got
swindled. Poor Fannie heard the most
doleful stories about the wickedness of
every body In cities, and how the
men advertising In newspapers lust
did SO tomget foolish people to send
them money, whereupon they pocketed the
money, tore up the letters and forgot to
send the goods, until she began to think that
IN addition to everything good being mon
sense" everybody in possession Of good
things were dreadful wicked, and it was
happy thing Though she rather doubted
this that she had so little. During all this
anxious time Ben Yves the only
one in the family who still had
confidence that Fannie's letter would
be answered. and every morning he would
put on his little cap and walk to the depot
with Fannie, feeling very sure that some-
thing would be there awaiting them. But
it took the ladies in Bigtown several DAYS
to get Miss Dolly ready for her journey and
Ben and Fannie had walked to the depot
every morning for two long weeks and re-
turned home empty-handed.
One morning as Fannie stood on the plat
form watching the baggagemsster move
the bundles aside, aud wishing, oh, 81 earn
estly that one Of the heavy packages was
hers, she heard freight man ask passing
teamster IL he was ''going up Deans ways'
and saw him point to a large box 1t did
not take her long to ascertain that that box
was addressed to Miss Fannie Dean,n and
as the teamster was going up Deans way :,
she and Ben embarked with the box and
were carried home IA state.
You canimagine the unpacking of that
wonderful dolly! Just within the cover OF
the box was letter from the ladies' of the
fair telling Fannie how her letter came to
be answered 80 delightfully."-, and do not
need to tell you how welcome Miss Dolly
was nor how Ben was so overawed by her
beauty and dignity and her marvellous eye.
shutting quality, that be could not be pre-
vailed upon to touch her for several
days; nor how many happy
years the children spent with her, until she
became battered and worn out old lady
doll; nor how. when Fannie had grown up
to be young lady, Miss Dolly was care
fully tucked away among her outgrown
treasurer, a momento OF the worlds kind>
heartedness and refutation Of all the hard
things said Of it. MARGARET FLOOD,