The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-06-24

tnem' with King Georges head
stamped on one side, and St. George
ana the dragon on the other.
Presently Sim said to me. I've got
Tour thousand more, and guess our
serimping days are over, wife Well.
at hrst l didn't understand. But then
ne told me. And so the four thousand
is going to be spent-yes. spent
Ma am, and the eight thousand Sim
mas got laid away where no banks 60
ing to get hold of it and then burst
up on him. Amanda's going to enter
college next term. and guess the
neighbors won't think SO hardly of
Sim in future, when they see that it
was all on account of his wife and
child"
There was no doubt as to the mag.
nitude Of the change that came over
Sim Lane. The whole nature of the
man had changed. BY the time his
daughter came back from college the
village had forgotten his misery repu.
tation. Secure in the knowledge of
the eight thousand gold dollars hidden
In the mattress, he spent freely. With
this change, too, his farming began
to prosper. Ten years afterward,
when Amanda was happily married to
the young man who had called, and
the mother Of children, Sim. Lane was
elected mayor.
OF the two boys who had watched
him through the fence, one was a
thriving lawyer, the other who attend
ed Sim in his last illness. Mrs. Lane
had died the year before, which made
the lawyers ordeal less hard. A few
weeks after the funeral he had a pri.
vate interview with Amanda, who first
looked indignant, and then laughed
She could afford to laugh, for her hus.
band was the richest young man in
Colville.
II Sim Lane, on his deathbed, had
known what the watchers knew, he
might have smiled ironically at the
life he was leaving, wherein shams
pass for truth, and delusion for re
atty. All the eight thousand, ant
fifteen thousand more, he left his
daughter. The mourners followed the
body to the grave, and then the truth
came out.
Jim and l." said the lawyer, "haC
often shouted at the old man, as boy!
will, but 1t was Jim who conceived
the idea. You see, Jim had always
had a laundering for theater folks, anC
when the P. Sinett troupe went brok,
and started to walk back to the me
tropolis along the ties, they had to sci
the property for what it would fetch.
Nobody was willing to give NOR
than few dollars for the scenery
and then only long speculation. Blu
some of the stuff brought in enough
to pay the ladies' fare halfway. An,
there were odds and ends left owe
that nobody wanted to touch. The,
were all afraid of the property money
It looked too real-lead stamped ant
gilded. Country folks have vagu
IearS OF the law.
That's how Jim got that bag o
fake gold, and he said to me what
joke it would be to bury 1t in the oil,
man Lanes barn. and watch his fac
when he found 1t. We didn't know
that we were bestowing Gods prov
dence upon his wife and daughter
Changed the whole nature of the mai
and sent him happy to his grave
Yes, sir. life is queer problem, bu
the moral get out of 1t is, let tn
morrow take care of itself" At least
Sims fears and terrors might hav
been with him to the grave, instea
of being dropped when he sewed Vi
eight thousand dollars of fake none,
inside the mattress"
Copyright. 1916. by w. @. Chapman.)