The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-10-29

a moment gazing at Miss Grace with
horror, trembling. and then, before
Uncle Chad or Miss Grace realized it
Fla Eye had flown at the smiling girl
and was tearing and pulling the light,
fluffy dress, and scratching the white
wrists and hands that vainly tried to
hold her off.
It did not last a minute. Uncle Chad
grasped the frantic little figure in his
strong arms and bore her across the
street. When he set her in a chair be-
fore Aunt Lou she was sobbing, but
her eyes were quite dry. She chung to
Uncle Chad's coat when he tried to go
He told Aunt Lou quickly and forcibly
of Fla Eyes strange TT of temper.
They agreed that Fla Eye must be i'll
she never acted so=and Uncle Chad
was told to fetch the doctor. Neither
of them said she was a bad girl, and
she glared suIlenly at them.
''She is certainly Ill" said Aunt Lou,
so Fla Eye was rocked and kissed and
lay in Aunt LOUIS arms, thinking until
Uncle Chad returned to say the doctor
could not come until after tea, which
reminded Aunt Lou that people must
have tea, even when little girls were
i'll. She put Fla Eye in the big arm
chair with a pillow behind her head
and went to the kitchen. Uncle Chad
went across the street to explain to
Miss Grace that Fla Eye was not well,
Fla Eye waited until she heard
Aunt Lou moving the dishes in the
dining room and then slid quietly from
the chair and stole on tiptoe from the
room. She glanced across the street as
she passed the front door and shud-
I dered, for Uncle Chad was sitting by
1 the Angel, quite as if there was no
danger. But then the Angel had said
/ Uncle Chad was not good. No doubt
/ he was safe Fla Eye turned quickly
from the horrifying sight.
Quietly she climbed the front stairs
and glided along the upper hall until
she came to the door of Uncle Chad'S
own room 1t was just bit ajar, and
1 she Widened the crack very quietly un-
til she could just slip through. She
looked around quickly. On the dresser
lay the case of razors she had so often
been forbidden TO touch. She opened
| it and ran her hand over them. She
even took one out. Surely that was
sin.
But that was not what she came for.
/ On the other end of the dresser stood
an oblong box of cedar wood, around
| one end of which was a green paper
| band. The end of the box bore the
! picture of a lady's face, surrounded by
/ little gold medals Fla Eye knew the
box well. She kept her dearest treas
ures in a similar box Uncle Chad had
given her.
Now she raised the lid OF the box
and listened. Aunt Lou was still get
ting tea, for the sound of dishes came
up the back stairs Fla Eye took from
the box long. black cigar. 1t seemed
enorm ously large and she tried to find
a smaller one, but they were all of 3
size. She bit off the end of the cigar
as she had seen Uncle Chad bite them
! and lighted the other end. At first it
would not Iight-the match blew out,
for Fla Eye blew instead of putting
but presently she learned the right
way.
It was very, very nasty. Nothing
she felt sure, could ever induce men
to make a practice of smoking. except
the fear of the Angel, just as people
put horrid eamphor in their furs tic
drive moths away.
The smoke would not come out of
her mouth alone, as it did for Uncle
Chad. It came out of Fla Eyes nose
and went down her throat, choking
her. and seemed to come out of her
eyes, too. making them smart and all
with tears. She wondered how much
it was necessary for her to smoke in
order to render herself rAngel-proof-
She did not believe she could live tc
finish the whole cigar, but she kept on
bravely.
The tea-beH, rung from the front
porch rescued her, and she threw the
half burned cigar out of the window
and stole down the back stairs. When
Aunt Lou came in Fla was seated IN
her own chair=the one with the cush-
ion-at the table. There were rasp-
berries=big, soft, red ones, the kind
Fla Eye liked best-and ice cream, and
thin white slices of bread such as I'm
Gle Chad laughed at, and other good
things But Fla Eye was not hungry
She gazed on the food with an intense
Indifference that alarmed Aunt Lou.
land when Fla Eve turned quite white
like the snowy tablecloth, and reeled
unstea Oily in her chair, Aunt Lou
was seriously alarmed She thought of
diphtheria and scarlet fever. and made
Uncle Chad carry Fla Eye up to bed.
Fla Eve was a very sick little girl for
a while. but when the doctor came he