Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-11-24

somewhere. not stagnating among the

l hills. He thought of it all as he tramped after the turkey. It seemed to him suddenly that his quest took on 8 1 sacred significance. He had promised Mandy turkey. He must keep his promise or be less a man.
 i The blackness of the November , night settled over the forest. AS he 1 came out upon 8 craggy turn of the l path he could see, far up, the light in Mandy's cottage window He knew that she was making her simple prep arations for the Thanksgiving dinner. Without the turkey there would be only the usual fried meat and corn bread, with perhaps a little festivity added in the way of simple pudding with raisins in it. Jed had bought the ralsins at the store in the city many miles away on one of the rare and tedious trips when he laid in his stores for the winter
 With the thought of the city came a vision of the shops as he had seen them then. Men did not hunt for tur- keys there-they bought them from the butcher, above whose stalls the big birds hung in plump rows.
 He laughed little as he thought of them, and laughed again as resolve grew slowly in his mind. Then he counted the money in his pocket. It was enough. There would be many miles to travel to the city and back again. But Mandy would have her turkey for the next days dinner.
 All that night the snow fell. By morning the road were almost i'm passable. Mandy, high up in the lit tie cabin, looked out with anxious eyes. Suppose Jed had hunted all night, and had been lost in the forest? Such things had happened even to experienced woodsmen, when they a simple dinner, bearing patiently the I complaints of her father and of the disappointed children.
 "Jed ain't no good" said the old man as he stuck his fork into the fried meat q thought he said he'd bring a turkey
 "He did say so," Mandy responded
  in the woods" "They's plenty of turkeys for them as hunts them,' sneered the old man. ; Jed ain't no good"
 He's better than the rest of you," Mandy fared, and then apologized penitently T didn't mean to be hateful, father
 But the children's disappointment was harder to bear. zgy
 T don't want to be- thaukfui, ,st lit le Annabel walled, when Mandy tried ;tp talk of the reason of the feast. aI want some turkey-and I want it be- fore I can be thankful bit
 Mandy felt, however, that if she only knew that Jed was safe she could raise her heart in thanksgiving Nothing else mattered now. A neigh |. bor had: strugg eag through the snow ' to say that it yyas the worst storm 7 in years, and that nothing had been seen of Jed since the night before
 Daylight died. and night darkened, and Mandy set candle in the win dow. She knew that Jed would come straight to her if he came back alive. Indeed, she felt that even if he were dead his spirit might return to her over the snow.
 The figure that staggered suddenly out of the darkness into the circle of light made by the candle might have been a ghost, so white was it with the flakes of the falling snow, so noiseless the footsteps on the covered ground.
 "Jed!" Mandy shrieked, and ran to meet him.
 He was worn out with the journey, and fell on his knees before the fire, but in his arms was bundle which he held out to Mandy. 1T brought your turkey, dear," he whispered, and fell over in 8 dead faint.
 And when he walked. Mandy was bending over him. "Oh, Jed,'' she said, land that ain't all got in the city, sweetheart
 It was not until the next day when Mandy served the turkey all brown and cracking that he told the good news. He had been promised a place in the butcher shop where they sold the turkeys, and Mandy and he would be married, and with dad and the chil- dren they would move to house lower down on the mountain side. T am going to keep horse,' Jed said, "and I can drive /home every night, and some day am going to have a Business of my own, Mandy"
 Mandy's eyes shone. T always felt that you were different, Jed,' she whispered with her cheek against the roughness of his coat, "and-and now I know it." FS
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