Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1912-11-26

Only tne usual Tried meat and corn
bread, with perhaps { little festiyity
added in the way of simple pudding
with raisins in It, Jed had bought
the raisins 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
vision of the shops as he had seen
tnem then. Men did not hunt for tur-
Keys there-they bought them from
the butcher, above whose stalls the
big birds hung N plump rows.
He laughed little rs he thought of
them, and laughed again as resolve
grew slowly in his mind. Then ne
counted the money in his pocket 1t
was enough. There would be many
miles 70 travel to the city and back
again. But Mandy wculd have aer
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?
Sucf. things had happened even to
experienced woodsmen, when they
We're overcome by cold She prepared
simple dinner. bearing patiently the
complaints of her father and of the
disappointed children.
Jed amt no good" said the old
man as he stuck his fork into the
fried meat. Il thought he said he'd
bring turkey"
He did say SO" Mandy responded,
but they amt any wild turkeys left
in the woods"
"Theys plenty of turkeys for them
as hunts Them" sneered the old man.
Jed amt no good"
He's better than the rest of you,"
Mandy fared, and then apologized
penitently. Il didn't mean to be
hateful, father
But the childrens disappointment
was harder to bear.
Il don't want to~be thankful" little
Annabel walled, when Mandy tried to
talk Of the reason of the feast. Il
fore can be thankful a 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
Dor had struggled through the snow
to say that it was the worst storm
in years, and that nothing had been
Of cd oil he ;cl,%
Daylight died, and night darkened,
| and Mandy set a 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 ghost, so white was it with
the flakes of the falling snow, so
noiseless the footsteps on the covered
ground.
JEDI" Mandy shrieked, and ran to
meet him.
He was worn out with the journey.
anu lSu vi HIS ku06S before the IRE,
but in his arms was a bundle which
he held out to Mandy. IL brought
your turkey, DEAR" he whispered, and
fell over in dead faint.
And when he walked, Mandy was
bending over him. "Oh, jed she
said, land that amt all | got in the
city, sweetheart"
1t 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 place
in the butcher shop where they sold
the turkeys, and Mandy and he would
be married, and with dad and the chill
dren they would move to house
lower down on the mountain side. Il
am going to keep a lorse,' Jed said,
land l can drive home every night,
and some day l am going to have a
business of my own, Mandy"
Mandy's eyes shone. Il always felt
that you were different, Jed" she
whispered with her cheek against the
roughness of his coat, "and-and now
know it."
Copyright. by Associated Literary Press)