Middletown transcript., 1906-06-30
HOW MISS ALMIRA Gel LIsB K ATED
BY MARY MORRISON

shirtand oyeralls scram-
Bile up of the ground and limp
over to where an old gray horse
stood aejectedly by the roadside.
It was little Joe Tearall. He
was an orphan and lived with old
Mr, and Mrs. Nc cDermott, over
on the State road. She had seen
them drive hy in top buggy an
hour earlier 1t was like them to
leave The boy toEride old Gray to
the celebration.
He grasped the bride and tried
to lead the animal upto the fence
but it seemed to have gone hope-
lessly lame He's gone and STUN
bled and hurt 'hisself a purpose,
50 / can't go to the Fonrth, he
said, despairingly, as Miss Al.
mira came out to the gate.
He has hurt you, too, hash t
he? she asked, solicitously, point
ing to Joe's foot, from which the
blood was trickling down.
Joe looked down unconcerned-
1y. Huh that amt nothing.
'Twouldn't hurt me none to ride,
he said.
But you haven't got anything
to ride now. Poor old Gray. You
had better turn him into the pas
ture here and come and let me
dress your foot, she told him. 1t
was not a serious injury, but the
dressing was quite a painful OPP
eration, which Joe bore with
out fiinching. She bandaged it
in arnica and made him as COM
Portable as possible with a dish
of ripe strawberries smothered
in sugar snow, which was Miss
Almira's idea of offering eonsola-
ton to q boy.
He ate them absently, however,
with a faraway gaze which she
knew instinctiyeiy was looking
across country to where the
crowds were gathering at Pen
dleton. You can go to the cele-
bration next year, she told him,
consolingly.
There was reproachful disbe-
lief in his eyes as he looked up
into her face. 'Tain't likely.
I'm ten year old and | amt never
went to one yet, he said. / amt
never had but one bunch of fire.
crackers, neither, he added in
aggrieved accents.
The distress in his face was
very real. it was so thoroughly
hopeless. Something came up
into Miss Almira S throat and
choked her, as she realized the
dull emptiness of his life and the
magnitude of this disappointment
which she had hoped to alleviate
with strawberries. a sense of
all that the boy had really missed
came to her in a sudden tide of
childish memories'o of waving flags
and gay uniforms, of throbbing
music and marching feet, of
merry, noisy crowds, of which
she, herself, was the merriest
and noisiest. Even now her
pulses quiekened to the rapid
rhythm of childhood at the r.c-
objection. She looked up at the
clock; it was only ten o'clock.
Miss Almira was not given to
sudden decisions, but she turned
now and went abruptly out the
"
door. Old Kate, out in the pas
ture, was making the acquaint-
ance of her strange companion
Miss Almira drove her up to the
barn and put on her harness, then
she hitched her to the old fash
iened carriage, and tied her under
a tree.
When she went back to the
house, Joe stood at the window,
looking toward Pendleton. Sew
eral big tears had dropped off
the end of his sun burned nose
to the window-sill below, but Miss
Almira affected not to notice
them. She went into her bed
room and shut the door, and when
she came out she had on her best
black dress, also her hat and
wrap. Then she went out into
the garden and picked a handful
Of bachelor buttons, pink and blue
and white, and made them into
two bouquets, one-of which she
pinned conspicuously at her
throat. The other one she took
to Joe.
Put them in your batband, she
said. Everybody wears red,
white and blue when they go to
The Fourth Of July, she told him.
He looked up in amazed be-
Wilderment.
Are you-be we