The Taney County republican., 1900-04-12


There's some hens a-squawk.n, any
way
She opened the gate and walked
boldly up the tagged walk to the front
door. The true city gamin. male or
female. is untroubled by bashfulness.
Her ring was answered by tall.
thin. gray-haired man with melan-
choly gray eyes. Lill held out the
basket in one hand and the quarter
in the other. saying:
Miss Thusy says will you please
let her have a dozen fresh eggs
for Easter, an she wants 'em good
an big
Henry Gleason stared at the odd
little figure, who stood stock-still aft
er delivering her message.
Miss Thusy! Was the world COM
ing to an end? Then the eXplana ton
occurred to him. Thusa must have
sent this queer child to his next
neighbor. Mrs. Wilson. who sold eggs
regularly. and the girl had mistaken
the house.
A sudden thought whirled into his
mind. Not being widely read in the
poets. the line
did not occur to him. but he acted OIL
the principle implied. He took the
basket and the money. and bade the
child come in. He was alone. the
housekeeper having gone to the next
town to do some trading" and the
hired boy was plowing.
Easter egg! Thusa should have
such an Easter basket as no young girl
in the village could boast. In the bot
tom of the basket, he arranged two
dozen of the finest. freshest eggs he
could find in the henhouse. Then he
wrote hurried note-not high
ing. but with true love in every line.
Truly he was making up for lost time.
He slipped the money inside. sealed the
letter and lai1 it on the eggs. folding
a paper over ali. Then he went to the
housekeeper's cherished window plants
and loaded the basket to the very
handle with Easter lilies and roses.
''Ain't there no change from the
quarter?" asked sharp. city-bred Lii.
looking curl onsly from him to the
flowers and back.
''Inside-in an envelope. Miss Thusa
will understand"
did he spose I'd lose it. if he gave
it to me in my hand?" said Lill to her.
self rather scornfully. trudging off
with her fragrant load. A little later,
the f1ower-la,,an basket was dumped on
the Hills kitchen table by breathless
Lill. who had come as near to running
as the safety oi the eggs would permit.
HE sent you all these lots an lots
of flowers, Miss Thusy, an the eggs an
change is at the bottom of the basket.
He said you would understand
He! What was the child talking
about?
Didn't you go to Mrs. Wilson's,
Lille"
Il went to the first white house with
green shutters Thusa dropped
white and trembling into the little
kitchen rocker-''where the hens was
a-squawkin'. an the man that come to
the door give me the eggs an the flow
ers. 1 didn't see no woman any
where's"
Thusa sprang suddenly from the
chair and lifted out the flowers, Lill
bringing water for them in an old
fashioned pitcher. When the note APP
peared. Thusa caught it up and fled to
eggs. Kneeling beside her patchwork
covered bed. Thusa vept and smiled by
turns over he- old lovers note. in which
he told her he would be with her in an
hour Then. womanlike. she got up
and began to freshen and improve her
faded face and hair. her plain gar
ments. But tbs greatest beautitier was
the soft light in her changed eyes.
On lovely summer morning. Lii
BurdelI. plump and rosy from weeks of
care and Kindness. stood on the back
porch of the Gleason farmhouse. scat
tering corn &; n flock of hens. Mrs.
Hill sat near. shelling peas freshly
picked in the morning dew: and Thusa
Hill Gleason. looking years younger
and prettier. was stirring in house
wifely fashion about her spacious
kitchen. getting ready a substantial
breakfast.
Look. grandma" said Lii, ''ain't
they pretty: An squawIin' jes' like
they did the Cay I came for the eggs
an neither me nor them a-dreamin'
how soon we'd all be livin' here to-
gether."
All. Lii, you little guessed what you
were doing that day. when you stopped |
at the wron. house-the first house i
where the hens were ''a-squawkin""
Nor did your Miss Thusy-who will al
ways be Miss Thusy" to you-realize, |
on that cold spring evening, that the |