Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1902-01-02

IL wears q PINK dress. IL laughed at
me. 1t caught at the string and 1 let
it play with the ring" And Nancy's
fingers strayed to the leather string
about her neck, on which the treasure
dangled. "The baby's nanny she
asked me to come in. She wears
shoes. She wears them every day."
Nancy's acquaintance with the wife
of the station-master grew. "She's
got a box" Nancy told, another
evening, ga big, square black box
she keeps her fire in, an a door she
opens an a hole to cook things in"
Pap laughed his big, silent laugh.
"Sho, Nanny" said he, ''ain't you
never seen a stove afore?"
Nancy's ignorance did not abash
her. "She's got everything mighty
red up an handy. Couldn't we uns
have a shelf, too, pap, to set the dishes
along?"
Another day Nancy came home in
excitement. Granny, you make me
some O. your oak splint baskets" she
began; "the harnsomest ones you
knows how-them little ones, granny,
an me and Hence an Grit We'll pick
the huckleberries. I'm a-goin' to sell
them on the train. Their war a lady
to-day she saw my basket of berries
I was takin' to baby an she asked
me fer tan then she gives this to
me-"
And Nancy handed her mother two
ten-cent pieces.
"An' the baby's nanny says she'll
get her man to let me take 'em on
the cyars, and tibet a way I'm plum
sure to see the sun-haired lady,"
On the next day Nancy had a differ
ent tale. "Baby's nanny, Mis- Mark
ham, she's been tellin' me bout a
place at the junction, goin' on now,
where they'll larn you free. She says
the days won't seem nothin' like so
teious if l started in an went to larn-
in. I telled her I'd arsk pap"
Pap shifted his quid. "'Taint no
call agin your goin,' I can see. My
gran'pap he larned onct to read from
a man crossin' the mountings ,goin'
to Kaintuck, what stopped off here
with a fever. That's how come we
uns to have our book, the onliest
! Bible on Lilly's mounting. I don't see
no call why Nanny shouldn't be a.
we uns when I wal little as Grit here"
Thus encouraged, Nancy one day
shyly made her appearance at the dis
trict school, which was open for the
three months of summer. The young
teacher, a girl student from the coun-
ty college, eking out expenses by
teaching in the summer, looked at
the new pupil: looked, then looked
again at a glittering, golden bauble
that hung upon a leather string
l against the bosom of the faded little
dress.
Forgetting her shyness, Nancy ex-
planned.
"And that's how I'm here" she
said, in conclusion, 'waitin' for the
, summarized lady to come"
1t was the last of August that Nan
cy, speeding along by the open win
, dows of an evening train, saw in the
: last coach Il girlish, pinlk-flushed face
: framed in glorious, FURNISHED, red.
: gold hair.
"And if it want to be the right
lady, she'd know as the luck-stone
wasn't hers" Nancy had often ar,
gued, rehearsing this very scene tc
herself.
Realizing but two things, that the
: sun-haired lady was on the train and
that the time was passing, she
: dropped her baskets, grasped the
ring in her little brown hand, strip
ping the leather string over her heaC
1 as she ran, and with a cry to the
. porter-for all the trainmen now
knew her and her mission-she
r bounded up the steps into the vesti
bule and ran through the sleeping
? car with it's wondering occupants, te
S the s%un-haired lady.
"Here!" said Nancy, and her smile
:, supplied those graces of speech and
. failed to give her.
The sun-haired girl turned from
. pink to white, caught the ring from
/; the little brown hand and gasped an6
r laughed and cried. For it was hel
( engagement ring, and over its loss
that summer she had cried as many
r tears as little Nancy had trudgei
steps.
"You sensed it went in the creek
said Nancy. II been watchin' for yor
sence."
. Then happened a ~bewildering thing
a thing unknown to Nancy, unless il
s had come to her in baby days. A pail
v of impulsive arms were about hel
neck, the lips of the summarized CIR
I on her cheek. Then before the grea1
wave of emotion sweeping over Nancy
s was gone the clutch of the coloret
porter was on her, and she wa!
" dropped from the rear of the coach
which in another moment was speed
ing round the curve.
"Well," quavered granny, whe1
Nancy's tale was told, IAN you all
|, sure it war her?"
Nancy hadn't a doubt. She hat
proof. isle took it," said Nancy, ian
an she kissed me-"
s The great wave swept over hel
again. "She kissed me-" reaffirmet
s Nancy, nor doubted for one momen-
q she had been repaid.
o. But the sun-haired girl thought diff
. f~erently, so she wrote a letter to the
station master at the junction, ant
the station master gave the letter tc
: his wife, who in turn gave it to the
, school-teacher, and the school-teachel
= answered it.