Evening journal., 1901-12-20
did stop

1T did stop.
Poor Pollys breath almost stopped, too,
a moment later when she heard two men
approach the door and talk together in q
low voice. The next moment they ham
mered on the door tremendously, making
all the noise they could to scare the girl
the more, and one of them ordered her in
laundering voice to open the door:
"Opcn this door, Polly Martin We
know you are in there all alone. and
there's $500 in the house that Valentine
brought home yesterday, and we're going
to have it,"
But Polly said never word. only sat
still, so still she might have been carved
ont of stone
"Open this door," roared the men again.
But the beating OF Polly's heart was the
only sound in answer and they could not
hear that Then they pounded harder
than ever and kicked the door and shook
It in a rage. But it was of brave oak,
strong and well seasoned. and would not
yield. The robbers were in a fury. Once
again they called TO her, cursing her hor-
ribly. They said;
If you open the door, we will let
You off alive. If you don't, wen get in
anyhow, and then wen shoot you dead
for sure"
Still little Polly would not open.
The noise at the door ceased What
would the next terror be? Polly soon un-
derstood. The robbers went to a window.
1t was easy enough to force the shutter.
Then there was faint grinding sound.
The burglars were cutting the large, new
fashioned window pane with a diamond
And yet Polly would not open the door,
Indeed it would have been no good to do
so now, for the robbers would soon be in
the room anyhow. Polly only sat still
and waited for her doom. Her tongue
felt dry in her mouth. She felt so cold
her teeth chattered, and she could not
even hear her heart beat now, for it
seemed to almost stop.
Crash went the outer pane. The grind
ing, cutting sound began on the inner one
IL was quickly loose on two sides; only
matter of five minutes more for Polly,
nnd then
And then. in the very nick of time. in
the last moment, there came a sound Of
sleghbels, merry Ginning. sweet and
clear, tinkle. tinlSle, like the fairy bells
she had heard tell in her childhood sound
ed in the air above peoples heads some
times. Yes, thank God, it was bells, but
real sleighbells, and very, very near. The
robbers took to their heels and to their
sleigh with the mufiied bells and drove off
as fast as they could lash their horses to
go.
But it was not the family returning
Nobody came into the house. No sleigh
stopped iD front, neither did any move
rast with its merry ting-a-ling Of music
though Polly certainly heard the bells a
moment or two longer. Then all quieted
down. But Polly was too shaken up now
TO so TO bed at ALL She sat there alone
frightened and trembling three hours
longer till the family came home. She
was only girl you know, scarcely more
than a child.
But where were the sleighbells that had
saved Pollys life and the Valentines
property? You would never guess, and it
was some time before they found out for
certain. The story is really n wonderful
one, and, best Of all, it is a true story.
In the harness house a large white cat
was kept to destroy the rats and mice.
She seldom left the harness house and
had a warm bed made for her in n barrel
of hay That afternoon a careless stable
man had thrown a set OF sleighbells
across the barrel where pussy's bed was.
The noise the robbers made disturbed
her, and she had jumped out to see what
it meant. In doing so, being a large,
heavy, cat she shook the bells and jan
gled them, and that was what scared the
burglars Off.
Polly took a fine, big, honest husband a
few years later and is living in n pretty
country home OF her own, with the ra-
diant skies above her, the woods and or
chards and green fields around her. the
very scenes to her so well beloved. There
she will probably live TO tell her grand
children how the cat shook the sleigh
bells and saved her life and Farmer Val
entine's $500. After all, which is the real
heroine Of the story, Polly or pussy
| One question more:
Was, it a mere accident that the cat
shook the bells and made them ring at
the particular moment she did or was il
something else?