Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1910-06-24

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q EDGAR ! s \ is MOODY
Copyright 1910, by American Press
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.It Copyright. 1910, 81 American
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Some years. ago Visited the lar
west, passing through u region mat
had been infested by thezworsts sRle-;
ment Of society. . =...s
1put up one night at, the house OF
Murphy, q sheep raiser. His
<fanchsh ouse was not large, but COM
Portable and Its decora lions showed
evidence OF refinement: His wife was
q: Woman who impressed me as one
having conside equipotse and
character. After supper went out
on the porch to have a smoke with
Murphy and listened with interest, to
his account of the building up Of his
region: During our. conversation I
stated the opinion that men were
what women made them Then he
told me his story -. - r.. =
you're dead right, stranger" he
said. ''and I'm one of the men that
has been made by a woman. When l
came to this country it was from an
eastern city, and my education was:
derived from the dime novel. L was.
a wait, with no father or mother to
tnstill into me the fact that however
brave the road agents and others of
whom l read they were acting on a
wrong principle. As it was, l ad-
mired them, and almost before l be-
came man scraped up enough mon
ey to bring me out here to live the
! Ute OF my heroes Of the dime novel,
II soon got to be head man among
them and for eight years lived aslife
that l would give anything l have to
forget. have to be thankful for only
one thing. During that frightful Pc
riod l never took a life. l didn't &C.
cumulate any money, and if I had
should later on have got rid of it.
zone evening 1 stopped at house
and knocked at the door, I intended
to ask for some supper, expecting once
inside to get my bearings for valua-
bles and take them away with me-
had started in with the intention Of
combining my operations to stage
coaches, army paymasters and the
like, but man is always going either
uphill or downhill, and as l was
necessarily going down l wasn't above
taking anything could get my hands
on, even from a woman
"A woman came to the door, She
was young and fairly good looking. To
my request for some supper she gave
smiling assent, asking me to come
in and make myself comfortable. She
went into the kitchen, and l looked
about me. There was chimney in
the room where / was with no fire. l
knew a chimney was favorite place
to hide money, and, going to the fire.
place, I stopped and looked up. On
projecting brick saw a small box,
which I appropriated and, lfting3the
cover. saw lot of bills and loose
change. I slipped it all in my pocket
and put the box back in the chimney.
"By and by the young woman came
in and set good supper on the table.
I ate my fill and when had finished
took out one Of the coins I had taken
from the box and handed it to her:
"'No,' she said, there's nothing to
pay. You're quite welcome to your
supper. hope it has done you good.
You looked tired and hungry whenyou
came in, and l felt sorry for you.sSs So
I have given you the best in the
house. =
'"That was the first lesson in kindli-
ness ever received. At any rate, it
was the first that ever took hold of
me. When thought Of the contents
of the box in my pocket and my offer
ing one Of her own coins in payment
for her kindness, not the least part Of
which was the way she offered It, my
despicable meanness seemed to shrivel
me all up. / couldn't look her in the
face. - -.
"'You don't need to go on she said.
we have spare bed upstairs =
II was thinking how would get the
money back in the box in the Chin
ney, and it occurred to me that If l
stayed there all night / could slip
down in the night and do the job So
I said: Thank you, miss. If you
don't mind l reckon I will. It'll be
great accommodation to me- !.
"'No more than to me. My brother
and his wife have gone away for a
few days and left me alone with the
children. They say that 'Murphy's
gang, is operating in the neighbor-
hood, and wouldn't mind having a
man in the house.
"Tn that CASE I said, 4 think Ill
sleep on that lounge, and I'll guaran.
tee. that no: man gets upstairs unless
he goes over my dead body
~ knew two OF my men would be
along there that night. and ! reckoned
they'd take in anything by the way.
The first thing I did before turningI
in was to put the money back in theI
box. When I'd done that felt. the
first Of kind of comfort I'd never
experienced before. l didn't 60 toll
sleep, wanting to be awake if anyone|
called. In the middle OF the night tiny