Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1905-07-13

tie creature had p1leN numDerTeSS dance
programmes, fans with names scrawl-
ed across them and couple Of period
lcals containing verse from the pen OF
the irrepressihle Will.
or the three men VIII had been most
In earnest The afternoon Of the mar
riage he had gone west to work for a
Chicago newspaper and to forget. The
latter part Of this purpose was set
forth beautifully in one Of the letters in
the packet
Anne Stacey. who had written ION
space" for living since gi:hood and
who had never had sweetheart had
rescued the bundle from the Japanese
waStebaSket She recalled Will as a
1ne. broad shouldered young fellow
who up to the time that he had ceased
visiting her chum, Il few months be-
fore. had paid no attention whatever to
the large mouthed, smeI nosed, intel
lectual girl who alWa! le Il point of
having an engageMen II where with
in ten minutes Of IT, ,lr Of his ar
rival. Anne had never been noticed,
and she didn't expect it. She prompt
~ forgot being snuDbed and renem-
beved only that once Will had pressed
her hand quite tightly while he said
Little woman, think you understand
wha; this means to me-
Recol!ecting this, Anne had adopted
tie letters. At first she had enjoyed
them only as love letters-letters which
were real and which said just what
she had been making her people say
for ever so long. Then, as the deser-
ton of the bright little creature came
TO be realized as an endless desertion
and as she made no new friends, those
ardent notes had commenced to seem
her very own Their author was her
lover She read them over and over
and over. making them more personal
with each reading. For three years
she fed her hungry soul with them,
aud then, being temporarily destitute
of ideas for stories. it had occurred to
her that they We're the clew to one
ready made-a story of which she was
the heroine.
"A Taker Of Crumbs was duly fin
ished that very night and dispatched to
the mail boX IN charge of the young
woman in the room adjoining who was
going out to buy ice cream. Anne
thought about it a great deal in the
days that followed. A dozen times she
would have given the world to have
had 1t back, if only long enough to
T., ~
ones she had taken from the letters
Dear Lady O. Mine!" Twice at night
she dreamed that Will had come out
of the west to rebuke her for stealing
his love words and to take the packet
out of her keeping. At the end of
month she got check from the maga-
zine to which the manuscript had been
sent, and after that she merely waited
for the appearance Of the story in
type. When it did appear, illustrated
with a picture Of a very tall girl hold
ing two extremely long arms toward an
astonishingly low door In the middle
distance she was surprised that no one
seemed to take the least notice Of the
tale
Anne went back to her work and
wrote other stories By grace Of these
and kindly providence she was able
to pay 81 to her landlady regularly on
Saturday evening and to take three
car rides q week. Every Wednesday
morning she walked uptown and drew
q little money from Il newspaper for
which she wrote a column called Hint, /
for Home Makers She dined at 6. |
revised manuscripts until 10 ana cried |
awhile over the bundle of letters bel ore ,
going to bed. Now and then she st oo. .
at the window, looking out upon the /
hurrying throng and remembering that |
not one person in all that throng cared
she lived or died.
Three weeks after the publication of
"A Taker Of Crumbs" she found lying
On the table in the lower hall all en-
relope without the name of a newspV
per on it. The pOstmark was New
York She climbed the steps leading
10 her room and sat down on her
,ouch to read the letter. Dear Lady
} Mine'-yes. 1t was addressed to her.
Who would have believed that there
was 50 loving a little woman in the
world? May l call tonight? That's
'ather soon, l admit, but-well, I am
'ery lonely too. WILL"
Anne Stacey got up and dropped
he packet Of letters in the japanese
She locked the one let
er just received, envelope and ALL in
Ter bureau drawer in a place left for
t.