The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-02-02

But she's my girl SIR said. 1--WE
are not exactly engaged to be married.
but we are going to be when that
gigantic mortgage is lifted"
Album. Well, you can make an
opportunity to introduce us, and give
me a chance to bless you both. AS
your adopted father, l naturally have
an interest in your future. l wouldn't
want to see you wreck your life by
marrying the wrong girl You may
go now. Sammis. but bear that intro
duction in mind. and after it has come
off we viii talk about that mortgage.
didn't like Mr.. O'Dyer quite as well
after that little talk. It appeared TO
me that he had some little game up his
sleeve. An elevator boy must be full
of trust however, and l went on
l trusting The old skeesicks laid his
little plans and got me to introduce
him to Jennie, and he was so sweet
and nice to her that it didn't take me
five minutes to see that l was going
to be thrown over before many d. US
had passed.
The calamity came. My adopted papa
sent Jennie roses and candy and gum
drops, and when 1 charged her with
permitting her affections to stray she
calmly replied that she had made up
her mind to marry riches and leave me
struggle on in my poverty. On the
very same day papa sent for me and
laid his hand on my head and said
"Sammis, my son, there is not even
your first pair of blue 50-cent suspen-
ders, and your hair has the bangs OF
youth. Give up your preposterous idea
of marriage and cuddle down in thy
trundle- bed"
But I have loved" I protested.
so have calves, and they have lived
to get over it. Don't make a guy Of
myself. my son. just go right back
to elevating thy elevator, and this mad
dream will pass away in a few days
"And what of the mortgage, father?''
DO not worry about that. There
is always a way for good boy to get
along"
Such were my feelings for few days
after, that Mr.. Rasher, the agent, had
to give me a lay-of to get the malaria
out of my system. Then a desire for
revenge took possession of me. and I
passed the girl by with scorn in my
eyes When the fierce nature of an
elevator boy has been aroused. look out.
He may not pull the gun reposing in his
hind pocket, or draw the bowie knife
coIdly resting against his heart, but his
revenge is just as certain. In one
weeks time 1 was ready.
Mr.. O'Dyer and my lost love were
going out to lunch together every day,
when one day my friend Jim of the
messenger boy service appeared at the
building with a woman on his arm. She
was a woman of much fairness and
stoutness. She had red hair and eyes
that glinted and cleaned. She had her
marriage certificate and the photo
graphs of five children in her pocket.
and her name had been Mrs. O'Dyer
for twenty years
'Sammis,'' she said to me, after we
We're introduced, Il have a question or
two to ask you about your adopted
father. Is his first name Charles?'
TT is I replied.
rs he a man of sixty?"
HE is"
Has he white hair, a stoeeR to his
gold?"
'.f1e has"
And, Sammis, do the people about
here take him for widower who would
get married again if love came to make
his heart throb?'
That's the man"
Then I'll just step into your banking
office and wait until he comes back from
luncheon with the girl with the faxen
hair"
She hadn't long to wait. They had en-
tered the elevator and I had started it
before her identity was discovered or the
whip began to play, and there was no es-
cape, There was row to alarm the
whole building, and Mrs. O'Dyer didn t
let up until she had followed her hus-
ishing touches. She had only been gone
an hour when he removed all his furni-
ture and vacated his office. He wOuldn t
look at me in the elevator as he made his
last trip down. didn't wish to part in
! that cold way and said to him:
Papa, if tho clouds have lowered and
the sunshine departed, come to your son
for sympathy.
But he stiffened up and walked away
and made no reply to
SAMMIS, the Elevator Boy.
copyright, 1904 by c. B. Lewis.)
!