The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-13
: OUR DAILY SHORT STORY ;.

mistake; that he was delirfousiy young, bubbling with youth and buoyancy since-since a moment before when she | had laughed
 "Violets," the doctor said maybe two weeks later. Aren't they coming pret- | ty often? The women here say you | get them every day. I'm glad they're better for them than bending over these eternal waists they embroider.
 ITO wear in heaven," Miss Carleton | flung in saucily.
 i And it relieves me from talking cough to them-I get mighty tired of talking cough. I'd rather hear about letters that come every day; rather | smell violets-"
 But Miss Carleton was gone. | You're laughing" she complained to the violets. having reached the safety of her own room. T never I didn't, If the vaney brimmed over with men who vented to make me less lonely. But I couldn't resist you. had to write a wee note when you came---and then You may put your naughty faces together and laugh If you like. It's just unbearable, the loneliness-since l no suuger have my work. I wonderY"
 l June &ame and drlfted away: July was ushered in: the summer rested on the mountain-top like a full tide that has no ebb, and, as day followed | day, wheeling on, more than one mountain-top dweller saw the change in Miss Carleton.
 How strong she Is growing; how beautiful!" they would say as she passed. And 1t was true. Under the | influence of the letters that were laid at her plate morning after morning. | from q man whose very name was unknown to her, for he signed him | self simply, "The Man in the Valley" her nature was sweetenIng. seeding as It's core for larger. dearer life. l Did you ever write letters to wo- man you ideslized. pr. Herbert?"
 Tn my Lochinvar days, Miss Carle- l ton," the doctor said.
 And did something come between you? And did 1t hurt so? Is that why you left big city practice and came 5000 feet up to minister to uglA coughsT'
 Nc" said the doctor gravely. T had better reason. Isn't making you we'll and sending you back reason enough for my being here?"
 Sending me back?' fin sudden ter TOT. But I'm not going! ate my heart out to go bacw when came. but now--now"
 When the silence grew heavy be- tween them the doctor spoke agaiG. "I once knew a chap who wrote let- ters to a woman-a white slip of a woman whom he didn't idealize," he said. He didn't know he loved her at first. The whole sweep of his life was away from women. But this girl was so lonely, so pathetic somehow, that he found himself writing these letters to her almost before he knew It. He had an idea, a theory--he was great chap for Aheories-and he kept himself in the background. He asked nothing of the girl. He-"
 He blundered!" she cried. Sup pose the woman had never had low CT; suppose the sweep of her life had been away from men, that she had thought of one until she got those letters"
 'childp The doctor spoke shaply
 Suppose through the whole long wonderful summertime she had reared her joy castle, at first afraid had blown in childhood. until she had come to believe in the writer of those letters with the same terrible. child like faith she gave to her God"
 Child, child" th~ doctor implored her.
 With a little unsteady laugh Miss Carleton got to her feet. How that big moon stares." she safd. ''Wouldn't you like to climb on its chin and sail to your Hearts Desire? Haven't you a land of Hearts Desire, doctorT' She leaned and looked deep Into the moon filled, sleeping valleys as she spoke.
 The doctor tried to answer. He said goodnight. He had seen a wo- mans soul, and the sight had shaken him.
 Not many days later a fairy tale happening came to Mary Carleton in the shape of 6 telegraEn that told her of the death of an ola great-aant and the arrival of a fortune. all in a breath.
 The doctor came back from the val ley settlement, where he had been vis- iting a patient, to hear the story and slip away form everybody. Tn the quiet of his den. with the little fire on the hearth fighting the growing dusk, he tried to realize what life would be with the glory gone out of 1t. A log broke and fell. shattering his reverie. The fire leaped, and sho came swiftly down the room to drop into a chair beside him and nestle there as if she meant to stay indefi, nitely.
 Tt had been a discipline-waiting for that fortune" she said cheerfully. 'Many's the time I've defied fate with it when I've been so hungry. Cocoa and toast for breakfast. toast and cocoa for lunch and my great-aunts fortune for dinner How the money has changed things" in sudden gaiety I'm not going to ride on the moons chin. It wouldn't be dignified for an heiress."
 Don't you ever meaA 70 grow up?'
 The doctors lips twitched in a way that would have gone straight to woman's heart If she had loved him.
 I'm grown up," contentedly. I'm -"
 And I'm not leas than fifteen more," miserably.
 Are you?" politely. "I could never do arithmetic" The laughing shaft of her dark eyes struck straight Into the middle of a heart that wasn't aging. and the blood that wasn't jaded, al- though the doctor had tried so hard