The Press., 1912-10-23
AnSel PeeVef'S
 Fortune h Didn't MateriaGze Quite
 as He Expected By eLARISSA MACKE Copyright by American Press ASso-
 ciation, 1911.
By eLARISSA MAcKE

Everybody in Little River declared
 that Lucy Mellen would be tired of
 waiting for Ansel Peever.
 @Wait until come back from Cali
 fornIa. dearest AnseI had whispered
 Then I will have such a home and
 such acres of greenhouses that I will
 not be ashamed to ask you to give up
 your splendid home on the hill.
 Of course Lucy's heart prompted her
 to tell him to remain with her. What
 cared she for the promised wealth of
 the golden west when the solid reality
 of Ansel's thrifty little flower business
 was ready and waiting for them both
 But Ansel looked so downhearted and
 disappointed at her answer that Lucy
 avaIled herself of the feminine privi-
 lege and changed her mind.
 You'd better go, Ansel," she urged
 him ''I will wait for you if you should
 be gone a hundred years," she added
 recklessly.
 So 1t was arranged as Ansel's pride
 prompted him, and Lucy stayed in her
 fathers comfortable home on the hill-
 top and watched the black smoke from
 AnsePs train dissolve in the May sun-
 shine even as her hopes and happiness
 dissolved in burst of grief.
 A hundred days went by. and Anseps
 letters were full of homesickness and
 enthusiasm. A hundred weeks passed,
 and the letters contained less hope
 fulness and the same strain of longing
 envA n nd uH
 to come home. Let the old fortune
 go," she wrote hastily. There is plenty to do in Little River, and Ste phen Futile will be glad, to sell the greenhouses back to you"
 But Ansel was obstinate as we'll as proud, and he did not come home in answer to Lucy's appeal. A hundred months went by-eight long years and four months-and Lucy's Aunt Rebec- ca Prentice repeated the words she had dlnned into her niece's pretty ears:
 He's never coming back again. Lucy. You might as well have mar ried Leonard Deane or the minister and had a family growing up around you instead of wasting your life wait i ing for a man who has forgotten you"
 ''I don't believe Ansel has forgotten | me, Aunt Rebecca," Lucy said patient ' ly. 'It has taken longer for him to | make a fortune than he expected | that's all"
 One April morning Lucy Mellen l found herself quite alone in the world. | Her parents had died shortly after An Sel went away, and now Aunt Rebec- ca had succumbed to pneumonia, and the big empty house on the hill seem ed bigger and emptier than ever. At the end of a year Lucy had managed tD almost beggar herself by several foolish investments, and there came a day when the red flag swung to the breeze above the Mellen place.
 What are you going to do now, Lucy Mellen" demanded her next <, ioor neighbor, Mrs. Hall. Here T 'ou'Ve got all your furniture crated up Is= if you was going away, and you , Itn't said a word to nobodyr' ''I'm going to California" said Lucy ,almly, though her pale cheeks flushed. 'Ansel has sent for me to come out here and be married. You see, he's so busy he can't get away just now.'
 well. of all thingsr' cried Mrs. Hall axcitedly. "You don't mean that you, a single woman, are going away out there all alone to get marriedT'
 I'm thirty-fve," said Lucy obsti- nately, land Ansel's folks are out there, you know"
 Mrs. Hall said no more, but twisted , the shawl tighter around her thin face and fairly flew down the street to be the first one to transmit the startling l news to Little River.
 Lucy's friends were at the station to l 1 bid her gOOdby when she started on { her long journey. Her household goods { had gone on a week before, and when he last moment came there were | many tears and good wishes and lots 'f rice and old shoes flying after her. Lucy looked strangely pale and silent 'or bride to be, but she had been that way for so many years now that her 1 friends quite forgot what a merry, light ] learted girl she had been when Ansel irst wooed her.
 Then the train thundered away to- yard New York, and Lucy leaned her C Dale face against the window and lOsed her frightened eyes. She had lever taken such long journey, and he was quite unused to travelling. but hat was not the worst of it. She ad told number of downright lies ? Ansel Peever had not sent for her; he Id not know she was coming out heres and she had not heard from him 2 or two months. 1t was this knowledge that made n jucy Mellen so miserable as her train h ew westward. Every mile that rought her nearer to Ansel also made CT heart beat faster until at last 7hen she reached San Francisco and hanged cars for the little town in I anta Barbara county she was almost i ick with remorse and shame at her [ VII daring. v At last it was time for her to get t O. She saw her trunks dumped on 2 he station platform at RedcIiff, and D len the train rolled away among the ineyards and orange groves. while t he was left In the soft. balmy atmos- here of the land of flowers. a
 NAAASSA 1GNCA pAaNCs 1cpGdLGu tation agent. its three miles down he valley. I'll have Hawkes. carry ou there It'n- cost you four bits, f la'am1'' h -Four what7" repeated puzzled e ,ucy. V -Four bits-5O cents. I suppose t. ou're from the east" smiled the man s! OOd naturedly, and Lucy said that t! he was, and she thanked him prettily ft 'r attending to her trunks. n Seated in the blackboard with her p unks lashed on behind, the two lean 'an horses clattered over the road uch fasterEtha Lucy cared to have lem. th The roans slowed down. and in awkes pointed whip around a ce
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