Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1898-02-24

which she had lost sleep. and In which
she had been finally aided by an Hitter
ate colored servant going there, to re-
turn next day-it must reach her on
the day before Valentines. This day
had come and gone, and her valentine
had not returned to her. Had the
negro failed to mail It? Had It re-
mained all night In the postof1ce-in
possession of her lover? Would she
ever see 1t again? Would her brother
ever, ever, ever get through with the
children and finish giving out their
valentines?
Miss Jemima had not long to wait
and yet 1t seemed an age, before the
distribution was over, and she felt
rather than saw her brother moving
In her direction.
Bigger an purifier one n ever for
Aunt Minnie this time-looks to me
like" he said, as at last he laid the
great envelope upon her trembling
knee.
Don't reckon it's anything extry-
In particular" she answered, not at all
knowing what she said, as she con-
tinued her work, leaving the valentine
where he had dropped it; not touching
1t, indeed, until she presently wound
up her yarn in answer to the supper.
bell. Then she took it, with her
s.t nd
dropping 1t into her upper bureau
drawer, turned the key.
The moment when she broke the new
envelope each year-late at night
alone in her locked chamber-had al
ways been a sad one to Miss Jemima,
and tonight 1t was even sadder or
deal than ever. She had never before
known how she cared for this old love-
token.
AS she sat tonight looking at the
outside of the envelope, turning 1t over
and over in her thin hands, great hot
tears fell upon 1t and ran down upon
her fingers, but she did not heed them.
1t was, indeed, a meager little en-
bodiment of the romance of life, but
such as it was, she would not part
with it. She would never send it out
from her again-never, never, never.
1t was even dearer now than ever be-
fore, after this recent passage through
her lovers hands. At this thought
she raised it lovingly and laid it
against her cheek. Could he have
handled II and passed 1t on without
thought of her? Impossible. And
since he had thought of her, what must
have been the nature of his thoughts?
Was he jealous-jealous because some-
body else was sending his old sweet
heart a valentine?
This years envelope, selected with
great pains and trouble from sample
catalogue and ordered from distant
city, was a fine affair profusely decor
ated with love symbols.
For a long time Miss Jemima sat en-
joying the luxury of nearness to her
lover that the unopened envelope had
brought her before she felt inclined TO
confront the far-away romance typified
by the yellow sheet within. And yet
she wanted to see even this again-to
realize It's recovery.
And so, with thoughts both eager
and fearful, she finally inserted hair
pin carefully in the envelope, ripping
II open delicately on two sides, so that
it might come out without injury to it's
frail, perforated edges. Then, carefully
holding it's sides apart, she shook it.
And now Something happened. One
of Gods best traits is that He doesn't
tell all He knows-and sees.
How Miss Jemima felt or acted,
whether she screamed or tainted, no
one will ever know, when, instead of
the familiar pictured thing, there fell
into her lap a beautiful, brand-new
valentine.
1t was certainly a long time before
she recovered herself enough to take
the strange thing into her hands, and
when she did so, it was with fingers
that trembled so violently that bit
of paper that came within the valen-
tine fiuttered and fell beyond her reach.
There it lay for fully several minutes
before she had strength to move from
her seat to recover it.
There was writing on the fluttering
fragment, but what 1t was and why
Miss Jemima wept over it and read 1.
again and again are other trifing
things that perhaps God does well not
to tell.
The details of other peoples roman
ces are not always interesting to out
siders.
However, in this particular case, it
may be interesting to know that the
woman who took charge of the old
lovers room in Hope and who had an
investigating way with ner, produced
seven or eight torn scraps of paper col
lected at this period from his scrap
basket, on each one of which was writ
ten, in slightly varying terms, bits
of rough sketches like the following:
sending you this new valentine just
as hearty as l sent the old one eighteen
years"
You shall never want for a fresh
one again every year long as live, un-
less you take"
IF you want the old one back again
and me along with it,
The newect models of cape and
cloaks seen in Paris have the fronts
curving from the throat to the back,
instead of falling straight, and making
right angle with the lower edge. The
curve Is not accumulated to the degree
a