The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1913-01-24
came confidential, and Lucy answered

L
him In the same spirit. He told her
OF his life. his plans, his dreams. And
promptly with the post, came Lucy's
answer
But one thing old Rogers had not
found courage to tell. He had not
told her that he was fifty. For he
knew that the romance would be shat
tered. People thought man of fifty
could not love-the fools!
He had asked for her photograph,
but she had not sent it, nor alluded
to the matter again. And then old
Rogers dared to hope that she might
be neutrality-suspicious. she was SCARED
or manned, so that he might after all
take her and shield her from the
world and it's cruelty.
Slowly, very slowly, old Rogers ham
mered out his purpose He was re-
solved to put all selfish thoughts aside.
he would let her 60, let the CORE
spondence cease. But when he came
to die the girl in Egan would find
that she had fallen heir to all his
money. And he would work like a
mailman all his days to accumulate a
fortune for her. So he ceased to an
swer her
She wrote less often. But one day
came despairing note in which she
confessed something perilously like
love. And then old Rogers knew
that he had no alternative. So he
wrote back, a wild letter such as he
would not have been capable of a
year before, in which he told her. He
told her that he was an elderly man,
that he loved her with all his heart,
but had not courage to ask her to
be his wife. And so their correspond
ence must cease, and because he had
been fool and a coward he would
suffer in remembering her all the
rest of his days.
Then a week passed, and then her
answer came. 1t was little note, the
shortest that she had ever written
him except the first time, and it said
simply:
Come up to Egan. The third house
from the depot. LUCY"
| On that same afternoon old Rogers
drew his money from the bank, paid
the rent and gave notice to his land
lord, to the utter establishment and
dismay of that gentleman, who had
left old Rogers's apartment to molder
into decay untouched and implanted
during the past decade. Then he
turned his back upon Thirteenth street
forever and set forth for Egan.
| He reached the little place at five
on an autumn afternoon. 1t had not
changed as he had expected. A few
houses had sprung up along the rail-
road, but otherwise 1t was just as it
had been during the past 30 years.
| He descended at the depot and
walked slowly toward the cottage.
There was no mistaking it, that little,
old-fashioned building with its cling
ing ivy and Virginia creeper and the
carefully tended lawn and garden.
1t was just such a place as he would
have imagined for an abode for Lucy.
So he passed through the latched gate
and knocked at the door. A pleasant,
gentle-looking lady of about forty
| y
81 am James Rogers" said the Wis
itor simply. II have come to see your
daughter" He said the last word with
a tone of interrogation. Yet he felt
sure that this was Lucy's mother. This
was Just such a mother as he would
have expected Lucy to have. And yet
it was strange that she had never
| lot
Come in, Mr. Rogers" said the 9TH
err "Sit down in the parlor until
light the lamp"
She showed him into quaint, old
fashioned parlor and then began trim
ming the wick. But she could not
finish. She set the shears down
hastily and came up to him. Old
Rogers rose.
81 am Lucy Morrell," she said, trem-
bling.
Old Rogers looked at her incredu-
lousy, and then 1t was all SO
different from what he had expected
But he saw her eyes filled with tears
and her head bowed in shame-and
then, quite clumsily, for old Rogers
had had no such experience during his
fifty years-or during the last thirty
of them, at any rate-he took her In
his arms and kissed her.
He knew then that he loved her the
more truly because she brought to
him a mind ripened by experience
and a love whose strength was only
the deeper for the passing OF the
years. And she had feared as he had
| feared. when the correspondence, be-
gun in jest, had ended in earnest.
And then his letter had come!
"But there's one thing I can't I'M
derstand. dearest" he said that eve
ming. as they sat before the fire.
.eWhy did you write your name on the
paper and put it in the bottle OF
peaches? | could imagine that OF you
as a young girl. but not now"
my DEAR" she answered. smiling,
81 bottled those peaches 20 years ago"
Heaven bless old Holtzapfel!" was
Rogers's remarkable ejaculation.