The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-08-21

came into the house and, passing it
to her, he turned to ST, who had come
in from the fields for his midday
dinner. Here, 81. here's letter from
the magazine folks. I guess they want
you to subscribe to their magazine.
And, by gravy, If there isn't letter
for Metty, too! Those fellows don't
seem to care how they use their post
age stamps to send all those letters to
one house the same day in different
envelopes. Seems to me as if one
stamp would have carried them ALL
ST opened his letter hurriedly with
out excusing himself, and his strong
sunburned hand was fairly shaking
with emotion and surprise when he
took out an ob1ong of white paper, on
which was wkritten an order for one
hundred dollars payable to 81 Larned.
I'VE take great pleasure in announc-
ing to you that your letter has been
awarded the first prize in our heart
problem contest" it ran. LAS you
see, we are publishing it, without your
name, as agreed, in this months edi-
ton of the magazine. By way of Civ
ing you the help and advice we prom
ised we wish to attract your attention
to the letter published under the tenth
place in the contest"
While Metty was still reading her
letter-which announced that she had
won a new patent vegetable press as
reward for having the tenth best
letter, 81 grasped the magazine which
she had laid on the table. He turned
past his own letter-which was pub
lished exactly as he had written it,
save for the omission of his name
and passed on till he came to the
tenth letter. Could this really have
been written by Metty?
I have not the slightest hope of
winning a prize the letter ran after
giving a more or less minute autobio-
graphical sketch My only wish in
writing is that some one wiser than
myself might give me advice. 1 am
an uneducated simple farmers daugh-
ter. My problem is not one of stified
ambition. No, 1 do not want to go on
the stage and I do not want to be a
Red Cross nurse, and I do not want
to go to college. My problem is the
old, old problem. I love a young man
who works for my father 1 think 1
could make him love me if 1 could
only live in different surroundings. I
love the country and country life, but
l believe he has ambitions. 1 know 1
could never be happy anywhere but in
this or some similar secluded spot
My heart problem is this: Since I
cannot be happy in the way that
would correspond to this mans ambi-
tons, have 1 any right to make him
love me? And since in his eyes 1 |
could 1 make him love me anyway
Then, with excitement such as he
had never felt before in his life ST |
turned to the first page and saw his |
own letter printed at the head of them /
all. 1t was the simply written, direct |
outpourings of the man who loved the /
country, the man who had an innate |
passion for the soil that left no room !
in his heart for city ambitions The /
problem he presented was this: The
woman he loved must needs regard |
him as a boor and clout because he /
was working as her fathers hired man 1
and in order to win her love he felt it I
was necessary to break away from the /
things he loved and make a way for /
himself in the city. Then he could
make her admire. But in the mean
time he would be miserably out of his I
element. What should he do?
So intent had ST been in reading
first the letter and then the magazine
that he did not realize that Metty was
at his side. reading the pages over his /
shoulder. Metty's mother had left the /,
room to get the dinner things and her
father was in the hall pulling off
his boots.
Were you writing the gospel truth.
Metty?' he asked. putting rough, mus
were just writing that for fun, tell
me-"
Il meant every word of it, she said.
and then as her father shambled back
into the room she whispered: 'I won
der if we should ever have known if it
contest. "-(Copyright. 1915, by the /
Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.)
She-sBefore We were married you told |
me you were well off, It-"well, L was |
4es