Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-12-23
Macy Darr's
Temptation
[Original.l

her that for the sake of economy she
lady should have helped her to get an
other place, but she was selfish WOm-
an and turned her servant away with
the few dollars she owed her to shift
for herself.
Maggy's mother was widow with
one child besides Maggy, a boy two
years old. 1t so happened that at the
time of the girls discharge her moth
er fell sick, and the money Maggy
brought home from her mistress was
all the means the family possessed to
pay rent and the doctor and buy food
and medicines. The consequence was
that it was more than exhausted with
in few days.
One night Maggy left her sick moth
err and her little brother, who was cry
ing for food, and went out with deS-
peration in her heart She was walk
ing along the street crying when she
was stopped by a rough looking man
with the question:
Hello, little girl! What's the mat
ter?
Maggy gave an account Of her con-
dition and the reasons for it.
young woman" said the man, eff
you don't take care O. yourself no one
won't take care o. you. I'm an escaped
jailbird myself. Nobody won't give me
no work, and I've got to take what
need, whether the law allows or not
Say, I've been watchin' house around
the corner. There's a window open,
just enough for girl like you to
crawl through. Besides, you'd step
lighter N me. You go in and get some
swag, while 1 watch for cops outside"
But one vision danced before Mag
the crying of her little brother Her
brain was not very capacious, and
there was no room in it for more than
one thought at time The immortality
of the means by which she intended to
procure the coveted result was crowd
ed out She went with the man, who
showed her the window and, handing
her a revolver and dark lantern, told
her to use the former if it would save
her from being caught. Maggy was SO
beside herself with her proposed work
that she took both mechanically, not
knowing what she did Entering the
house and not finding anything of
value in the lower rooms, she went up
stairs. The door of a bedroom stood
ajar, and she threw the light into the
room. On bed lay a girl about her
own age, sleeping. She was perfect
picture of tranquility, her face an ex
preston Of absolute innocence. Mag
gy's light flashed on dressing table,
lighting up jewels that had been laid
aside for the night Then she turned
the rays again on her from whom she
was to take these jewels.
Maggy was no more Of burglar
than the sleeper. She was not even
naturally dishonest. A coincidence
her meeting with the convict, his point
ing out a way by which to gain relief
had been too much for her young pow
ers Of resistance This defenseless in
nocence cast as sudden a light into
Maggy's moral nature as her lantern
cast upon the sleeper.
Now, beside the bed in which the
girl lay was an electric light button.
The sleeper, when Maggy had flashed
the light in her face, partly awakened
and listened, but, hearing nothing, was
about to sink to sleep again when she
heard a low sob. Reaching up, she
turned the button and the room was
Illuminated.
Perhaps no one ever saw more nov
ell sight A girl about her own age was
on her knees in the middle of the floor,
with her hands clasped and her eyes
raised in prayer. On one side of her
on the floor was lantern, on the other
a revolver. There was little time to
gaze on the picture for in a moment
a door without opened and a voice
said:
There's somebody in the house."
The awakened girl must have had
brain capable of taking in a great deal
on sudden notice. At any rate, she saw
a vision of her visitor marched to Jail,
and at the same time she devised
means to prevent such a result.
Bring those things and put them I'M
der the bed. Quick!' she said.
Maggy, called to herself by her dan
ger, obeyed
''Now get into bed with me-"
Maggy had no sooner disappeared un-
der the covers than her bedfellow turn
ed the button, and the room was dark
again. A man came to the door with
candle in one hand and pistol in the
other, asked the girl if she had seen or
heard anything, went away, prowled
for awhile about the house, then went
back to bed.
In the darkness, covered by the same
bedclothes as her protector, Maggy told
her story Just before day both girls
arose and stole softly downstairs, and
Maggy, after peeping through a crack
to make sure that her tempter had gone
away, walked out of the front door
The next day the girl Maggy had in
tended to rob came to visit the Darr