Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1905-04-13

rescued the bundle from the japanese
wastebasket. She recalled Will as 9
fine, broad shouldered young fellow
who up to the time that he had ceased
visiting her chum, few months be
fore. had paid no attention whatever te
the large mouthed, Small nosed. intel.
lectual girl who always made point OF
having an engagement somewhere with.
in ten minutes OF the hour of his ar.
rival Anne had never been noticed,
and she DIDN'T expect 1t. She prompt.
ly forgot being snubbed and remem-
bered only that once VIII had pressed
her hand quite tightly while he said,
Little woman, think you understand
what this means to me-"
Recolecting this, Anne had adopted
the 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,
and then, being temporarily destitute
of ideas for stories 1t had occurred to
her that they were the clew to one
ready madea 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 great deal IN the
days that followed. A dozen times She
would have given the world to have
had II hack il only long enough to
have substituted fanciful terms for the
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 rc!)ukc her for stealing
his love words and to take the packet
out &C llcr keeping. At the end of n
month she got u check from the maya
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 Il picture Of a very tall girl hold
ing two extremely long arms toward an
astonshiHGly low door in the mid lie
distance, She WAS surprised that no one
seemed 10 take the least notice of the
tale
Anne went back to her work and
wrote other stories. BY grace of these
and a kindly providence she WAS able
to pay 81 TO her landlady regularly on
Saturday evening and to take three
car rides Il week Every Wednesday
morning she walked uptown and drew
a little money from newspaper for
which she wrote column called Hints
for Home Makers" She dined at 6,
revised manuscripts until 10 and cried
awhile over the bundle Of letters before
going to bed Now and then she stood
at the window looking out upon the
not one person IN all that throng cared
whether she lived or died.
Three weeks after the publication Of
"A Taker OF Crumbs she found lying |
on the table in the lower hall an en-
yelopc without the name of newspa |
per on IT. The postmark was New |
York. She climbed the steps leading |
to her room and sat down on her |
couch to read the letter Dear Lady |
O Mine" yes. it was addressed o"her
"Who would have believed that there
was SO loving little woman in the
world? May | call tonight? That's
rather soon, | admit, but-well, l am
very lonely too. WILL"
Anne Stacey got mp and dropped
the packet Of letters in the japanese
wastebasket. She locked the one let
ter just received, envelope and all, in
her bureau drawer in place left for
1t.