Little Falls herald., 1909-11-12
aunt NAN MISSION
BY NJ. QUAD.

BY NJ. QUAD. H
| copyrighted. 1909, by Associated Literary
PressI &
Being she had never married. and be-
ing she had reached the age of forty
| five, most of the people Of the village !,
OF Millville spoke OF Miss Spooner as I
Aunt Nan, and she raised no objec-
ton. She had an income. and she
lived alone. 1t was said of her that
she was disappointed woman Shef
was, but not in the sense that she had /
loved and lost. So far as any one
knew she had never loved at all. !
though several widowers had cleaned
their muddy feet on her doormat and
tried to interest her in affairs matri-
monial. Just what was the matter
with Miss Spooner was that she was
a woman with mission, and did not
know exactly what that mission was
Up to the age of thirty she had
thought it was to convert the heathen
Of China and Africa, but the returns
| were so uncertain that she had finally
track. Then it dawned on her to take
up the temperance question, but here
she was handicapped. Old Sol Pritch~
ard was the only one in the village
that got drunk. and his wife said
! that she would rather have him come
home drunk than sober, as he broke
| fewer dishes.
There is nothing more discouraging
than feeling that you have mission
| and having that mission lodging you
and keeping you in suspense. The
| only thing that can be done, however,
is to wait. Miss Spooner waited, and
at length her mission hove into view.
1t was in the form of a tramp. 1t
, called at her house for something to-
eat. She sat it down at the table and
bade it fill up. While it was doing So
she ran into neighbor's to see if that
[ neighbor couldn't spare an old coat,
! and when she returned the tramp had
| departed: also her watch and chain
and other things.
| Miss Spooner was justly indignant
| She gave the alarm, the fellow was
! overhauled, and before night he was
in Jail at the county seat, six miles
| away, on three months sentence
| The justice Of the peace, the constable
and others applauded her action. and
| for two or three days she felt that
she had done her duty. Then the still
] small voice began to whisper to her.
She had tempted the wayfarer. He
had probably been driven to trampism
! by misfortune. He might have been
an honest man up to this time. In
fact, she made a dozen other excuses
for him, and all at once it dawned on
her that here was her long sought
mission. There would be more Joy
over saving one tramp than in sending
a million tracts to the heather. She re-
called that the man looked lonely and
downcast,' as If he realized that the
world was against him, and she wasn't
| quite sure that he didn't have tears
in his eyes as he sat down to the
spread.
You probably know how conscience
works when it gets out Of leading
! strings, and it is useless to relate that
| within week Aunt Nan was asking
admission to the county jail. She had
q friend in town and had driven over
to tell her all about it and to stop for
few days. She began with the tramp
by begging his pardon. He would
have been no tramp at all If he hadn't
taken his cue from this. He pleaded
| sudden impulse and stoutly asserted
that he had turned about to restore the
property when arrested. 1t was the
only theft he had ever committed. He
had been poor. but honest.
There was second visit and third.
The tramp grew more mellow at every
! visit. He was ready to and did prom
Use everything asked of him, including
truth. sobriety, industry. economy, am.
bition and excelsior. Then Aunt Nan
went home and enlisted the aid Of her
minister in the mission. They worked
for pardon, but failed to get it. No
one else seemed to have spark Of
sympathy for downtrodden man who
wanted to climb up. Then came a
mental struggle in which the minister
did not participate. 1t was all Miss
Spooner's secret. She wanted that
tramp out Of Jail that he might lose
no time beginning new life.
When Miss Spooner visited the jail
again she carried couple Of files
with her, and they were left there.
She had convinced herself that her
mission was greater than the law. 1t
took the tramp two nights to file
through the bars. but on the third
night, as the spinster sat alone in her
house with swelling heart, he entered
by the back door. She was expecting
him. She was to give him SO to 60
far away and make a new start.
He was to keep her in his thoughts as
he climbed up and write her once a
fortnight. The money was ready for
him, as well as a package Of pro-
visions. She was giving him sisterly
advice as to his future conduct when
all of sudden she was thrown to the
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