Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1904-02-18

knee by twisting her own frail limbs
in and out of it. Her little soft white
cheek rubbed the solid red of his, her
tiny finger circled his inexpensive eye.
and finally her small pink lips shyly
preferred tickling request in his large
ear, n request which might well have
made his hard brushed cnrroty hair
stand on end He turned round to look
at her You don't mean it,
The pale rosebud nodded an emphatic
multiplication of mods. Parr turned to
his wife What do you say, motherT
"Oh, give her her way: 1t won't do
her any harm. Perhaps we shan't be
able to always"
Parr coughed away a sigh and. hav-
ing set the little maid down. presented
himself in the due course of his duty
In Murphys cell. He assumed even n
sterner pose than usual, but there was
ripple of light breaking through 1T,
an odd mixture of the aspect of dis
approving envoy from rashly gener-
ous sovereign. with new pleasure in
giving pleasure instead of pain and the
conventional prison sense of humor at
the eccentric contrast OF black and
white.
Murphy, who was always thinking
about the father and child. easily read
excitement in PARIS extra stolidity,
coupled with jerky movements and
blank gaze at point in the wall ex-
actly above HIS own cropped skull. His
i 4. MI hut 1a 1nnkQf
patient and good because he knew by
instinct that any effort on his part to
elicit condolences prematurely would
make the other perversely silent.
Parr straddled moment in the cen
ter of the cell, played with the chain of
the official baton at his side, with
which Murphy had more than once
been privily raped, uttered conven-
tional rebuke on the disorder of pile
of sacks, then suddenly blurted out,
with hoarse chuckle:
"She sends you her luv."
He laughed boisterously to cover his
embarrassment The laugh for q mo-
ment misled Murphy. All the jests that
had come his way from Parr had hith-
erto been cruel, even when not SO In
tended. He scowled accordingly.
"She didn'tw he said in tone of pain
and outrage.
Parr. for wonder. caught the sound
of the disclaimer and was Modified by
the humility it evinced.
III don't tell no lies" he observed, and
Murphy lost sight of invidious compar-
lson In relief at the denial A trace of
his lost brogee reappeared as. staring
with eager eyes at Parr, he said under
his breath:
ibid she now!''
Parr nodded. Eyes. Give the pity
man--she always calls you that'-with
sarcastic chuckle-"' love. dadda,'
she says"
Murphy was in reverie. with his big
head on his clinched fists. His hands
were most Mt home in this attitude, in
which indeed he mentally confronted
the universe. He began to repeat the
message to himself in several keys and
fashions
"She sent her luv"-he tried the curt
official pronunciation. then widened 1t
wonderingly "loove - her love-" at
length contentedly, "to me! She did"
Parr assented patronizingly, swelling
his chest with an agreeable sense Of
( comforting favors and of having more
still in store which Murphy's mind was
far from grasping. Becoming impn-
tent of the latter's prolonged reverie,
he hemmed loudly. Murphy. perceiving
claim on bis attention, drew q long
breath and looked up, and. 10! there
was a request on PARIS lips He was
vis1bly, actually, asking G 10 for some
thing. He even stammered, feeling a
cession Of dignity, though be watched
Murphy with assumed indifference. as
if the matter were a trifle, because II
the latter, remembering past things,
I had refused the position would have
been unhearably humiliatng.
"You was sayin' somethin'T' he haz'
arded. Thus he tactfully helped his of.
flcer out.
/ well, yon might send her IA bit o
\ nonsense in return. Children's fools
You know"
Murphy gaped hideously. BE was moi
beautiful In moments of emotion. He
thought and thought. Much eloquence
Initiative and original. passed through
his mind, but he knew his man and, be
sides, had sincere sense of the gull
between himself and the sender Of the
messate. So he said very humbly, with
his eyes on the ground:
"Please to give her my respex."
"You might say-'loye'-I think, '
Parr suggested condescendingly. II
shouldn't mind If you did. Children
don't understand respects"
"My respex-and love-" Murphy
amended, and Parr quite beamed, but
he could not understand Murphy's
jumping up next moment as II he were
Z going to assault him-he was really as
saulting worse enemies-or his irrele
want shout in broken voice:
"See IL don't do my work now. Off
CERT
Things did not end here. Shocking tc
relate, Parr became the go between IL
this prison love affair. He was some
times artiticially severe to make UP fol
the lapse, but Murphy understood and
endured; also, to PARIS amazement
G AS, instead of taking advantage
became manageable, so that even the
governor himself, seeing results as Par
saw them, might have wtnked at sun