The times., 1897-05-23

|
never mind his feelings He had been
| father and mother to these girls for years,
| and no word or act of theirs had ever
| before caused him moments uneasiness.
| If they had taken two letters they had
| taken all the others, and he asked me 10
| go to the house and confront them and
extort confession. Hard-hearted as 1
| thought myself, / hadn't the nerve TO
| do that, but put It off till morning. He
| gave me his promise to say nothing over
night, and l was at the house soon after
breakfast / sat down with the girls and
went over the case as / had with him,
hoping to break them down, but they had
| only anxiety on their faces as they listened
Then boldly stated what had seen on
the previous day, and the shot told Roth
blushed aud stammered and began weep
ing, and | took it as a confession, and
told the father so He couldn't speak to
them for his emotion, and when / told
him they must consider themselves under
arrest and search made OF their rooms
he simply bowed his head in acquiescence.
wanted to keep the girls below while
searched their room, and unfortunately
for me | called in the village constable to
sit with them. He had to be told more or
at liberty he went out to spread the news
In an hour it was known all over town
that the two girls had been caught rob-
bing the postoffice, and some of the ex-
cited people even went SO far as to say
that the father had probably winked at
It,
Ny search revealed two letters from
two different men in New York They
had been directed under other names,
but the two girls had opened them.
They had stolen these letters and for
got to destroy them. / went out and
made inquiries, and then l discovered
what a blunderer l was Both girls
were carrying on clandestine CORE
spondence, using fictitious names, and
these were the letters / had seen them
pocket. When l asked them to confirm
tins theory they did SO, butit was evident
that in their eyes clandestine letter-writ-
ing was about as bad crime as robbing
the mails. The news had gone forth that
they had been detected in purloning let
ters, and how could combat it? l spent
the next two days in trying TO explain mat
tiers to the public, but found not one man
or woman who would believe me.
Postofficc inspectors didn't bring charges
and retract them, they reasoned, and
strong petition was drawn up and sent to
Washington asking that the culprits be
duly punished Letters were also written
stating that j must have been bribed to
act as did and declaring that l was not
a proper man for the service You may
well reason thatI was summoned to report
in Washington without delay, and that my
reception there was anything but fiat
tering to me / bad lost my official head
before saying twenty words 1t was my
first and only blunder for ten years but
that didn't count. If / got q grain OF
comfort out of the situation ii was when
/ heard that several more complaints about
lost letters at Shelby had just come In that
day.
left Washington with no particular aim,
but on reaching Denton made up my mind
20 90 over to Shelby and have one more
look around. / went back in my old role
as hired man, and entered that postoffice
about half an hour after the mail had
been distributed. Looking through the
glass door OF q box l saw one Of the girls
sewing and the other reading Behind them
was anopen back window and within three
feet of this window was the general de-
livery box. III front Of the window and
only two feet away was the table on
which the mail packages We're done up,
and a score of letters were lying there to
be wrapped.
had just made out these things, when q
good-siZed bird, black in color, alighted ON
the window sill, hoped along TO the de-
livery box and picked off the top letter and
darted away. In fifteen seconds the bird
was back, and in the course of ten minutes
! watched her take away five letters. That
bird was a magpie and the real thief, but /
had ruined the reputation Of family be-
fore solving the mystery. at once made
the back yard TO search for the letters.
There in an old dog kennel, which had been
tenantless for years, we found them every
single one which had been missed. The
magpie belonged TO neighbor, and sinGu-
larly enough she had never been caught al
the trick AS 1t was summer the back win
dow wasope1 all day, ndthere were times
when only one person would be waiting on
the public. With the usual cunning of her |
species, the bird watched her chance, TAX
-ng letters from both the table and the |
speotors might have been put on the ease |
without solving the mystery. l had that |
satisfaction, though l was not reinstated, |
and 1 also take great pleasure in saying |
that after awhile the people of Shelby came |
30 believe the Harpers entirely innocent, |
an d made ample amends for what hah been |
said and done. CHARLES B. LEWIS.