Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-07-02

Silently the storekeeper put II up for
her and then she was gone. There was
rattle of pony's hoofs outside before
anyone spoke. 1t was Ambaugh.
"What dye think now?" he asked tri-
umphantly.
''Goin' ter pizen him." drawled the
nasal voice.
"Guess we'd better Co." adm tilted the
storekeeper. ~ don't like tn looks OF
things an / believe Lank is in the
right"
There was little council of war and
then the door was shut and half dozen
forms cantered away across the duslxy
plain toward farmhouse lights twink
ling in the distance. TIE widows in
opportune errand had decided her fate
at their hands and they had agreed to
help out their comrade.
Melancthon did not belle his nick
name, Lark. lie was long, bony
and ungainly. lie had been the only
bachelor in the little colony when it
came out from Ohio to the western
country, and had never married. He
had taken up a claim like the rest and
lived on it alone.
A few weeks previous the English
woman had purchased the adjoining
quarter section and claimed the hand
some wcdge-shaped piece of bottom
land which the government survey by
an error had left unaccounted for.
Melancthon had always used this strip
and was bound to keep possession. The
Widow Morley had hired the grass cut
and stacked while her opponent was
called 20 the county seat, sixteen miles
away, by jury duty; and now he pur-
posed flank movement, assisted by his
friends. The following evening the hay
should stealthily he transferred to his
own barn.
Melancthon rose early on the NOR
row. lie took down n tattercd flag
which had done service in the old
training days and hung it against the
wall. He decicd himself in red sash
and blue army coat with brass but
tons and afte, dinner started out for
stroll.
1t was intensely sultry with banks of
white clouds floating aimlessly here
and there across the electric blue sky.
He rambled toward the disputed land,
thinking, and chuckling as he thought,
how neatly he would outwit his enemy.
His heavy boots swished through the
uncut grass before reaching the moved
section. Gold day when anybody gifts
ahead of me-" he unused, IAN to-day
amt chilly. Mighty good time to de-
clare my indepen-well, what's that?"
a curly head rose from the bending
grasses and Windhowers before him. al
most at his very feet. 1t turned and a
round. babyish face looked up into his
bronzed and harsh one.
"Well, little one, where did you drop
down from?'
''Erom mammals house." replied a
sweet. girlish voice. Its lonesome
over there an ruined away"
"Who is your mother?"
"Jrst Mariana. Are you soldier?"
The child took in with eager chances
the semi-militarY appearance of Me-
lanchthons attire.
mo, I'm cclcbratin' to-day
"Why are you doing that?"
Don't you know? It's Fourth Of
July when we licked the Britishers-
didn't you ever celebrated"
no" replied the little one, 'let's do
it."
The settler was puzzled yet attracted
by this odd little creature before him.
He could not imagine where she had
come from, as he knew of no such chill
drcn in the neighborhood. He offered
to take her back to his cabin, but she
refused TO go and insisted that he bring
the materials for n celebration to her
and hold the proceedings there in the
midst of the prairie.
Finally, away he trudged back to the
cabin, leaving her watching his course
with wondering eyes. lie took the flag
from the wall and resurrected from
among some old keepsakes q few fire.
crackers and torpedoes. There was an
OF fife there and he took that also and
putting together lunch he started to
find his audience.
A comical figure did Melancthon
make plodding through the palpitating
tSlis ~ litlu BAO"A ouAbil anu bAO
clouds were moving faster, but he did
not notice it. A full-throated Bob
White balanced himself on n broken
sunfower stalk and called to the eager
but he heard not There was
mingling with the image of the little
one waiting yonder thoughts of sun
ny-faced sister who back in the old boy
hood days had played with him by {
the waters of Lake Erie. He had (
scarcely thought of her for years, and
now the old pang that nearly broke
his boyish heart when she was taken
from him and laid to rest came back
again.
A pearly drop twinlSled on his beard
IS he leaned over the child
"Are you crying?" she asked, notice