The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1915-07-23


That night Daffy Daniel startled |
Pond village folks by coming to prayer
meeting, place he had avoided for
twenty years.
Perhaps he hoped the schoolteacher
would be there. Perhaps 1t was a
sudden whlm. Anyway, old friends
nodded at him, and women smiled, and
the minister shook hands and called
him Mr.. Ford"
Miss Blake did not go to prayer meet
ing She sat alone in the sitting room
and corrected exercises until the
Tweedys came home from the church.
Mrs. Tweedy was filed with mild ex-
element.
'Daffy Daniel was at meetingr' she
announced as she sank into chair.
us that an unusual event?" smiled
Miss Blake.
"Once in twenty years. Kinder I'M
usual" remarked Abner dryly.
"Its queer!' calculated Mrs. Tweedy,
and then she went on to tell about the
forthcoming fair and carnival which
was to be held in Firemen's hall.
"And the decorations are all Grape
paper and pink cheesecloth," ended
Mrs. Tweedy. Suppose it got afire?"
"That would be dreadful" shuddered
Miss Blake as she went up to her room.
That night the schOOlteacher dream
ed that she attended the carnival in
Firemen's hall and that suddenly the
whole place was ablaze. Some one
picked her up and bore her through
fire and smoke to cool safety.
And she opened her eyes and saw
that her heroic rescuer was Daffy Dan
lei.
"Why," she had said to him in wild
surprise, you are man!'
And he had answered:
"a man asleep. You have awakened
me-"
She continued to think of Daniel
Ford far more often than was neces-
sary or required by mere pity for his
lonely condition.
She knew now that many of his &C.
centricities were due to his habit Of
living alone with his grief. She knew
that through systematic reading he had
Daffy Daniel was a gentleman and n
scholar and the attitude of his neigh
bors was incomprehensible
The night of the carnival!
Firemens hall was a bower of beau
ty, according toNthe Pondpoint Bugle.
Flowers, festoons and fair femininity
crowded the floors" it said enthusiasts
tically before it went on to describe
the tragedy that followed.
In the middle of the festivities some
one cried Fire
There was Il stampede for the single
exit, but Il man impeded the way, big
man with arms stretched across the
doorway, who cried authoritatively:
"One at Il time, one ut a time! Wo-
men and children tirst!'
The man was Daffy Daniel, who had
not attended Il festival in twenty years.
While the firemen threw Il feeble
stream on the fiimsy wooden structure
Daniel Ford kept the crowd from panic
until there remained a mere handful
of people, who. frightened at the vol
umes of smoke pouring up the stairs,
declined to go and huddled near the
windows.
Among these Frances Blake fingered,
encouraging, soothing and helping one
and another.
Then Daniel Ford suddenly broke
loose upon them, grasped a woman in
his arms and rushed down the burning
stairs to safety.
Again and again he made the peril
Gus journey, until the room was in
flames and there remained only the
schoolteacher, pale and calm.
"You?" he groaned. 81 must save
your
You have saved twenty lives or
more Daniel Ford" she smiled at him.
"Thank Godv he said reverently,
"those will atone for the lives 1 could
not save twenty years ago"
AS he spoke the burning stairs fell
with a crash
A cry of horror went up from the
waiting crowd.
Daniel Ford caught Frances in his
arms even as she had dreamed.
There is one chance. Will you trust
meY"
YES" she said.
A large window opened on the roof
of the square entrance porch. The
corner of the porch jutted against the
trunk of huge tree.
Daniel stepped from the window to
the roof and swung himself among the
branches of the tree. Frances held in
one strong arm
The crowd cheered wildly, and a
hundred hands leaped up to help him
as he slid down to the ground.
But he gave the girl to no other
hands. He stood there, daZed. A
scorched. blackened figure, with the
fire Of manhood i'm his eyes.
"Three cheers for Daniel FordT'
yelled his neighbors, and as they gave
IT he knew that with the acclaim were
the love and admiration of his friends.
Never agair would they call him
"Daffy Daniel"
Then the roof fell IN, and as the
crowd ran toward the building Frances
looked up into Daniels face.
"Ahr she breathed "You are a man