The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1916-08-21
THE DAILY
SHORT STORY
LOVE AND CONTEST.
BY JANE OSBORN.

BY JANE
lcopyright. 1916, by the Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate.)
rI1HE woodthrushes yer singing
their evening song on the elms
that surrounded and looked
down upon the low-eaved farmhouse.
But Metty Cramer did not hear them.
To be sure, she was spending her
usual after-supper hour on the front
stoop," but her thoughts were far
EfromIthe songbirds. Farmer Cramer
and his wife, wearied by the monot-
onous duties OF the day. rocked back
and forth in the twilight. Metty sat
bolt upright on the top step Of the
porch and stared out ahead Of her
Into the shadow.
Open on her lap was the latest Is
sue of The Hearth Companion. She
had been reading 1t until the shadows
began. to fall too heavily beneath the
trees and now she merely sat and
thought Of what she had read. The
magazine was open at the editorial
pages and there. In large black-faced
type. one might have seen these
words: "our Heart Problem Con-
test..n Below this heading the editor
Of the magazine had announced the
plans Of a new prize contest.
6"1f you have a heart problem, We
want you to write and tell US about
it. Prizes will be awarded for the
best letter and as many of the other
letters as possible will receive per-
sonal answers with advice from n
Sofsour editors"
ssIThen the editor went on to explain
Rtithe first prize would be the neat
lei sum Of one hundred dollars,
end he further explained the beauties
ofEthe parlor lamp. egg heaters. con-
idensed-milk-can holders and other
interesting articles that were to be
distributed among the others whose
letters were deemed OF especial inter-
eat.
Metty was Indifferent to these tri-
Efles. and.e eve the check for one hun
bred dollars didn't interest her espe-
cially. "As many Of the letters as
possible will receive personal answers
from the editors" These words were
the ones that chung to her inward eye
and caused her to sit and stare SO
tntently into the growing shadows.
Even II there were only a small posi-
bility that her letter might be an
swered she would venture It.
As she rose from the step she was
too intent on her project to see the
tai, erect, though muscle.weary fig.
nres of 81 Larned. as he came from
his last duties in the barn, through
the shadow Of the house. 81 enjoyed
theXdistinction of being the one and
only "hired man" on the Cramer
farm, q position which he alternately
regarded as his greatest curse or his
fondest blessing, all of which depend
ed on the degree Of cordially in Met
ty'sismile.
Metty stole quietly to her fathers
desk and took from 1t the sole bottle
OF ink which the Cramer establish
ment boosted, and with this and her
fathers pen in hand she assembled to
heraowny room, there to work out her
problem, as she regarded 1t. Mean
time 81 sank down on the porch step.
IL was good to hear the birds In their
last low song, and 81 filled his lungs
fulWlso the fragance Of the honey.
Huekle that wound its way around the
posts OF the small porch. But he
caught sight of the flutter of Metty's
skirt as she went into the house and
his peace of mind was turned to re-
gret. Why had Metty avoided him?
he asked himself, and then he an
swered this question to his own sat
~isfaction. "Of course, she wouldn't
look at hired help like me-" he told
himself! Some city man will come
along for her and then she won't look
ut tme."
81 didn't reflect, as he might have
done, that although a "hired'' man at
present, he was learning valuable les
spns}i In his vocation, and that already
ne had won some little local reputa-
uon for the size of the potato crops