The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-08-21
EVENING STORY
Love and Contest.
(By Jane Osborn. }

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 from the song
birds. Farmer Cramer and his wife,
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 in her lap was the latest issue
of The Hearth Companion. She had
boen reading it till the shadows be-
gan to fall too heavily beneath the
trees and now she merely sat and
thought of what she had read; The
pages and there, in large black faced
type. one might have seen these
words: "Our Heart Problem Con-
test" Below this heading the editor
of the magazine had announced the
plans of a new prize contest.
'If you have a heart problem, we
want you to write and tell US about 1t.
Prizes will be awarded for the best
letter and as many OF the other let,
answers with advice from one of our
editors
Then the editor went on to explain
that the first prize would be the neat
little sum of one hundred dollars, and
he further explained the beauties of
the parlor lamp, egg beaters, con-
densed milk can holders and other in
teresting articles that were to be dis
tributed among the others whose let
tiers were deemed of especial interest.
Metty was Indifferent to these
| trifles, and the the check for 500
didn't interest her especially. AS
many of the letters as possible will re-
ceive personal answers from the edf-
tors" These words were the ones that
chung to her inward eye and caused
her to sit and stare SO intently into the
growing shadows. Even if there were
only a small possibility that her letter
might be answered she would ven
| ture it.
| AS she rose from the step she was
| too intent on her project to see the
| tall, erect, tho muscle-weary figure of
| 81 Larned, as he came from his lass
duties in the barn, thru the shadow of
the house. 81 enjoyed the distinction
of being the one and only hired man
on the Cramer farm. position which
| he alternately regarded as his greatest
curse or his fondest blessing. all of
| which depended on the degree CT
cordiality in Metty Cramer's smile.
Metty stole quietly to her fathers
desk and took from it the sole bottle
of ink which the Cramer establishment
boosted and, with this and her fathers
pen in hand she assembled to her own
room, there to work out her problem,
as she regarded it. Meantime ST sank
down on the porch step. 1t was good
| to hear the birds in their last low
song and 81 filled his lungs full of the
fragrance of the honeysuckie 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 regret. Why had Metty
! avoided him, he asked himself, and
then he answered this question to his
own satisfaction. ''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 at me-"
81 didn't reflect, as he might have
done, that although a hired man at
present he was learning valuable les
| sons in his vocation and that already
he had won some little local reputa-
ton for the size of the potato crops
that he managed to grow on Farmer
Cramer's outworn soil.
He thought he might be able to see
Metty if he went into the house, so,
absentminedly picking up the maya
zine where Metty had left it, he rose,
passed the elder Cramers where they
sat with n weary, I'm off to bed now;
good night" and made his way into
the sittingroom.
thing that occurred to him to do was
to read the new number of The
Hearth Companion. Sis custom always
was to begin at the beginning and to
continue thus till he had read to the
end-a system of thoroughness that,
applied to agriculture, probably ac-
counted for his more than usual sue
cess with Cramer'S land.
On the first page of the magazine
beyond the frOntispiece he came to the
editorial and, with keen attention to
every word he labored thru it. Then
he sat for few minutes staring med |
itatively into the stove-hOle at the side
of the room, and then, cautiously, he
n ASH nd for mt
pencil delved into the wOodbox for a
piece of discarded wrapping paper and |
started toward the door with the mag
azine under his arm
At the turn in the stairs he ran into |
Metty-Metty tiptoefng downstairs in |
her pink worsted slippers and Japa-
nese crepe kimono and her light |
brown hair luxuriously spreading over
her graceful shoulders. He had never |
before seen Metty thus, and Metty, |
from surprise, uttered a little cry. I
didn't know you were here she said, |
holding the folds of her kimono high |
at her neck. 81 came down stairs for |
a magazine 1 wanted to finish story /
1 was reading. I am very sorry" And |
in another minute she was back in her |
room and S. was still standing en- the /
stairs, gazing up whittier the little |
pink worsted slippers and the flutter /
of the figured japanese crepe had dis |
appeared.
81 wanted to look ever that story
again" 81 unused. but 1 guess |
1 can write the letter in rough first |
and then have a look at the magazine |
again tomorrow.
1t was a month later, and neither |
Metty nor 81 had received the answer |
to the problem that confronted Them |
although each had watched faithfully |
for the mails. Then came the Hearth |
Companion, and, as Mr.. Cramer had |
overtaken the mail carrier on his way
back from the village that morning, be
had come into possession of the maya |
zine first.
It guess you want to get look at
the new fashions he told Metty as he J