Evening star., 1914-12-10

engine. The street car whir1ed ahead
of it and didn't stop at the next corner.
for the engines and ladders to cla-tter
by. Wad then hunted industriously.
but futilely, for radius of three
blocks for the girl. Afterward he fig
ignorant of the city. he had forgotten
which corner was the one at which the
car had stopped. Anyway. he didn't
find her and she didn't find him, and
SO. when he went back to the hotel
about two hours later. he had forgot
ten the weather and his lonesomeness.
Little IDIOT" he stormed, as he set
the pump on the chifronier. she ought
to lose it. But I'd like to know how
she got home" The pump was tiny
f shoes. Tawdry! '' Veil. Vel saayi maybe neaks ths
youngster-she was nothing more
couldn't afford better. Her indignant
called the pathetic droop of her mouth.
Say, I'm an IDIOT he grunted. as he
got into bed. But he dreamed that
might that she was out in Dakota and
arguing fiercely with him that satin
pumps were quite proper to wear while
she walked over long. tawny wheat
fields with him.
Il sure am an idiot" he grinned at
himself in the mirror as he shaved.
But I've got to get that slipper back
to her."
1t was easier said than done. He ad-
vertised. Evidently she didn't read the
pa pers. He thought afterward that
she, of course, could not know that he
had picked the shoe up. Doubtless she
regarded 1t as lost forever. 1t was two
days later that he thought of the sim
pie expediept of going to the corner
where he had first met her and stand
ing there for several hours a day. in
Guiding those from to . am, when
she might be going to work, and from
> TO 10 pm, when she might be re-
turning. He Was sure from the first
that she worked.
A week later he found her. She
wasn't in gala attire then. 1t was $50.
and she was a tired. droopy girl, in a
shabby black serge suit-the uniform
of department store salesgirl. He
looked at her once without recognizing
her. Then her big, dark eyes seemed
familiar SO he accosted her.
She remembered him and frowned at
the remembrance. Certainly, I want
I my pump" she said. with childish
haughtiness Thank you!" But there
was more resentment than gratitude In
| her tone. Evidently his criticism of
her clothes still rankled.
But Wad was persistent. Had he not
! been he never would have climbed
from ranch hand to ranch owner be-
| fore he was thirty. And. somehow, he
| had mentally added this girl to his
ranch. Since he was big and clean
| ISeeIN'C CN sthu CREAM SOuleu ne cOdAtu
from her the knowledge that she lived
in rooming house and worked at a
notions counter. and, because she had
to choose between cheap, pretty clothes
and enough to eat, she had defiant,y
chosen the former. No-she wouldn't
like to live on ranch-not at all
| Well, OF course, girl might learn to
like 1t. Yes, sometimes she was tired
OF working and living alone. Anyway
he had no business to talk that wa
about her, clothes. Everybody wore
EN-. Wad nodded Standing on that
corner. he had observed other girls
And she always intended to wear them
| even on a ranch
1t was two weeks before she shyly
admitted that she might like ranch
| Anyway, she wouldn't mind it with
him. Wad sighed with relief. His fore
man had been teleeraphing for his re-
turn. But he waited week longer
1T took that long to buy fur coat, the
collar of which hid her neck. But he
bought pumps. too-frivolous, pretty
things He chuckled when he thought
| of what his foreman would think.
THE END