The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1905-10-04

make an end of an escapade which wa:
| just beginning to cl0y,
/ As he grew serious he rejected up
on the f0lly-"folIy? Perhaps it was
mean of me- he thought, and this last
! idea held him so that he went home
| and wrote an honest, manly letter t.
| the girl, in which he strnFe to exOner
ate himself. He knew she would for
give him for returning her photograph
| he said, and for asking her to fgfgel
| the whole episode, which, he hoped
| had given her as much harmless merrl
ment as it had given him, The tone 81
| this letter was SO modest, so sensible
so lf-depFecating, and 50 c0mpletely
disilluSiOning that Dan thought as he
dropped 1t in the mail box:
siDad would have liked that letter.
would never have written the others II
he had been with me-
That was Monday. Thursday was
Thanksgiving Day. and as Dan Kent
was to be the guest at a banquet that
evening, he resolved to get a bite I'D
his favorite cafe. The place was crowd
ed with diners, and he looked IN VAIN
for a familiar face. The head waiter
found a place for him at a table at
which sat a woman alone. She was
modestly, but quite fashionably, at
tired, young-perhaps twenty-at ease,
with an odd mixture of confidence and
shyness. Her black eyes shone with
the light of a brave and quick intelli-
gence. Her swart hair dropped about
her small ears in smooth glistenlng
tresses. Her red mouth
Dan had got thus far In his sub
conscious cataloguing of the beautiful
woman opposite him when she darted
one angry glance at him in which
there was an unanswerable reproof for
his fascinated stare. 1t vanished as
quickly as it came. She drew from her
reticule parcel of papers, read clip
ping, and then unfolded his letter to
Kate Colvin with the same photograph
of the Oldsburg school teacher that he
had mailed on Monday! He started,
looked again, stood up, and betrayed
his curiosity by leaning forward.
She glared at him, looked frightened
for an instant and then flushed with
anger.
"How dare you!a was all she said,
but the emphasis OF her low voice
helped him:
II beg your pardon, madam" he an
swered, sitting down. Il wrote that
letter myself to the girl whose picture
you have there. and it startled me to
see 1t in your hand, am the Dam
of that letter, Daniel Kent"
He stopped short Her face was
wreathed in smiles.
''Why, Dan," she commenced, in that
same sweetly singing voice. s'No! Are
you Daniel Kent? The picture? Any
how, il you're Daniel Kent, or. just a
friend of his who helped him try to
make fool of country girl, you're
both mistaken. I'm Kate Colvin."
She began the sentence with a coo
and ended it with rasp.
Dan was dumbfounded, but he got
out his card and gave it to- her.
"Well, you might have known l
wasn't the kind to borrow money from
man I. had never seen," she said,
smiling, and her bruno cheeks red.
'tYou might have known / wasn't fool
enough to write drivel to an utter
stranger. As for you, ! thought you
were a downright idiot until | got that
last letter. That rang true. | came
down to Chicago to pay you the So |
owe sb gfu' R snf asked the delighted
Daniel, "what prompted yon to start
-foolishness?"
ooh, I didn't like your sending that
money, and-well, didn't want to be
pitied, either. | imagined you were
one of those Chicago smarties, and
we'll, it was dull in Oldsburg; it's al
ways dull there"
!. FAnd now we've met and found each
other out, Kate?"
They laughed like children, looking
frankly into one anQther's happy faces,
tits Thanksgiving, DAM she said.
"I'll give thanks that this (holding
out the picture of the pudgy blond)
isn't you," he laughed.
"And Til give thanks that you
couldn't look like this!" And she held
out the picture of the dashing barber.
And they dined so merrily together
that Dan forgot everything but Kate,
and Kate nearly forgot to pay back the
$2.-Chicago Tribune.