The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-06-19
THE ADVERTISERS
 DAILY SHORT STORY

I "and feared her son might have been | In it." She was on her feet with q spring.
 Who dared , tell the lady & that alr, !,ey tn; It's You tell 'em who says 1t they lies. lady! | DayHa's boy warn't there!' Her voice | raised, and suddenly the tent flap lifted and young man came out; He showed now sodden with drunken sleep. Shut up. there" he called. tell the lady's fortune. can't you? Don't mind her. lady. she's a fool" 'Ay, I'm just fool. don't mind me. | lady! Let the gypsy tell the lady's for tune,' she repeated, her gaze following | him. ''Maybe you haven't coat now, laiy? There's them thatll want coats over bad this year."
 NO. the coat was for Daylia's boy | I said, as I left her
 I took the road skirted by woods, and presently there came cracking of un- | broke through the leaves, and she stood | panting beside me.
 Hold on. lady, stop bit" she said; z. l; | with hand on her heart. Lady, if l | she-she died, mebby you can get me a | mans coat too. It'll be cold after awhile l and there's them that'll need it bad!' Tell me all about Daylia Herne, l | said. She lowered her voice and came | nearer.
 | Twas this way, lady. and you tell it straight to them as said Daylia's boy was | there when the robbing was done at | Tivoli. He hadn't mortal thing to do with it. Daylia done it herself! But Day. | lia she got caught and locked up for five years for it, and no more'n she ought | to've got. That's why she didn't come for the coat, she was locked up in jail. | lady see?'
 l Perhaps there hs mystery in the air of autumn: At any rate. I felt 1t. | could not then aver that this woman was Dayia Herne. therefore told her should have a coat ready for her the next day if she would come after it. | But the next day she did not appear The young woman had seen in the camp came. however. and asked if were the lady who had promised the old woman a coat. m, gets 1t. lady" said she.
 | I offered to accompany her back to the camp and take the coat We hastened | by way of the cornfield. and when we reached the woods, an old man came out | of the tent smoking.
 shes gone,' he said. with a backward jerk of the thumb. The young woman | took her baby from the wagon where 1t lay whimpering, and followed me into let under ragged cover, and the face | now stripped of years by deaths serenity awakened my memory unmistakably.
 Where is Daylia's son?' I asked, sud. denly. The young woman started and
 La. lady how'd you ever know her ? she said I explained to her. and while | walking the baby back and forth shf said: Tt can't do her no harm now. noi him neither. She was so fierce about be ing known lest the law'd get him. Int law don't want to be bothered with Jaci | Herne no more'n we do. I guess. He wa.
 around here yesterday getting all ht could out of her; twas him made hel l heart get so bad. She wanted that coa
 for him. You see, Daylia was sort o
 cousin to pap. and she come and nurset us all through fever last year. Oh, sh'
 was the good sort! But a fool about tha
 son of hers. My man drove him off las
 night ahd told him If he ever shows hi
 face here again we'll give him up fo T the robbing at Tivoli Fair that time. Dit
 you mind that time, lady? Twas tn
 time he loosed the lions and got up
 robbery, all himself. Oh he was
 whelp! And Daylia Herne. she got hin
 away and let herself be caught. vowinl
 she'd done it, and got herself locked ul
 for five years for it. Daylia Herne locke' up five mortal years for stealing. ant
 pap, he's known her to keep whole cam
 straight in her time by being so straigh
 herself Why. she hated stealing like sin
 and wouldn't eat stole food. Dayli
 wouldn't, Since she come out of jai l she's hid away, feared lest shed disgrac
 him-Daylia Herne disgrace the likes 70
 him."
 Afterwards I went my way marvelin over the mysteries that are held iron
 our solving especially the divine an tragic mystery of motherhood.