Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1914-01-20
WORTH THE TROUBLE.
Stcry Of a Spring, a Girl, a Man
and Quicksand.
BY DONALD ALLEN.

| TWO Wcehb vacation, out bne was not
enthusiastic a bit about II. She felt
that she would rather go to bed and
sleep for a fortnight.
She had found cheap board at a
farmhouse.
She had skimped herself for weeks
to buy a few extra things.
None Of the other telephone girls at
her station was going along.
There would be cows and pigs and
sheep out there, but what of It?
There would be a meadow and a
brook, but 1t would be just a common
meadow with an old spotted COW in
it, and was that anything to enthuse
over?
The brook, IL there was one, would
be about as big as a cent, and instead
of babbling it would be as dumb as
an owl by daylight
There would be a hill somewhere
around, but girl would be an idiot to
climb a hill when she might walk on
level ground.
Very possibly there might be syl-
van grove, IL the farmer hadn't sold
It to the lumber trust, or the worms
eaten up the leaves, but the palm trees
on the roof garden beat a sylvan grove
all hollow.
There would be a red-headed girl
there from a department store-the
one at the notion table-and every day
she would be Dragging of the tremen-
dous sales she had made and how she
froze the fioor-walker when he got too
funny. Besides, no telephone girl can
have a friendship with a department
store girl, and vice versa. For some
unknown reason they glare at each
other as they pass by.
No, It was not worth going away
for, and yet Miss Mira Anderson
would go. The manager of the Of
fee said she was tagged out and need
ed the change. AS she sat in the park
after her boarding dinner, out of sorts
with the world, a woman came along
and sat down beside her.
You are sad" she said, after a mo-
ment.
No answer.
You are going away very soon"
A shrug of the shoulders.
Where the corn grows?"
A sniff of contempt.
out there where the corn grows you
will find a spring near a creek. Look
into it and you will see a face"
My own, of course" laughed Miss
Mira
mo, it will not be-"
Then whose?"
"The face of the young man you are
to marry within a year."
Nonsense! l am no longer kid"
You will see-you will see. / do
not ask you for money. l tell you this
because l see it. Things shall be bet
ter with you-goodby."
When the woman had passed on the
girl laughed sarcastically to herself,
but behold, what a queer thing human
nature is! Five minutes later she
was saying to herself:
There's nothing in it, Of course, but |
it's funny she should tell my fortune |
pay. have read Of such things |
and they may be true. 1t would be |
funny, wouldn't it?"
And at the end of half an hour she
went home to finish her packing, and |
she actually whistled as she packed!
The state ought to pay some women
by the year to go among discouraged,
women and cheer them
up with predictions.
Miss Mira found herself glad to be
out in the country. Not so much on ac-
count of the spotted COW and the creek !.
that didn't babble, but while she laugh
ed over what the woman had told her
on the park bench, down in her heart |
she almost believed 1t. She wait
ed three days and then asked the
farmer:
DO you grow corn?"
Lands, yes!" he replied.
Where is it,"
Right in FROM Of your eyes. Don't
you see that ten-acre feld?"
Why, ! thought corn grew on
trees!"
The field fronted on the highway
and ran back to the woods. If there
was a spring anywhere around 1t
would be back there. Had the girl
asked the farmer, he would have told
her exactly where It was, and at the
time given her a caution, but she i'm
agined that if she asked he would sus-
pect the reason and poke fun at her.
Thus. she wandered of by herself. and
1t was two hours before she came upon
the place she sought.
Yes. there was the spring, and a
little rivulet flowing away from It.
The ground around was damp and sog-
gy, but Miss Mira took little notice OF
that. II the woman had been right
about the spring. why not about the
face? Two steps more and she could
kneel and look. Then she stepped
upon a wet and sandy spot and was
pulled down.
Quicksandl It gripped her feet
like the teeth OF a wolf. It pulled at
her ankles as II there was q rope