The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-04-05
The Epening Story
schooIma'am Daisy.
lBy Jane Osborn.

bell that called the children, little
and big, back to the afternoon ses-
sion.
Here's another letter for you, Miss
Dodge" piped one of the older girls. |
1t was Gussie Love, daughter of the
general storekeeper, who also acted as
postmaster. "And my father says he
thinks something's up. There were
four yesterday and two this morning"
And the piping voice trailed off into
self-conscious giggle.
But Daisy, the school teacher at the
door, turned crimson. She took the
letter with repulsion, tucked it within
the folds of her simple bodice and
school room, around which were rang
ed the various grades of the eight
sided school.
Gussie Love fingered after school
Say, Miss Dodge" she faltered,
after the others had left the school
house, twas your letter nice? You
amt going to get married and leave
us, are you?"
AS soon as Gussie had gone, first
making sure there were no prying
eyes at the windows, Daisy began to
read her letter.
Dear Miss" it began in large, dis
tinct, boyish writing, Pm not much
of a letter writer. and 1 haven't ever
started writing to a young lazy before,
but it is so lonesome out here in the
begin just to keep from getting so
dreadfu1ly blue. Perhaps you have
never seen a lumber camp. If you
have, you know why l feel as 1 do.
The men who are married are all
right, for they have their little shacks,
always nice and comfortable and So
cable, but we fellows that aren't so
lucky have to take things as We get
them. I am sending a snapshot that
shows just what / look like. When
lit, 1nf%
will soon, please send me a picture of
yourself. I always did like brown
eyed girls the best. With best wishes,
Thomas William Jones.
"P. ST. forgot to say that I am
boss of a hundred men in the lumber
work and I own ten thousand acres of
unworked lumber land that L am going
to begin cutting when 1 have saved
enough to begin-perhaps next win
ter
For just a moment, Daisys eyes lin
gered with interest on the snapshot
photograph that showed the writer of
the letter in his characteristic cos
tune of the lumberman at his work.
She tucked the picture back in the
envelope when she realized that she
was allowing herself to admire the
broad shoulders. straight figure and
well-proportioned features of the
stranger.
| Then she took the key from the
pocket of her plain school dress. open
! ed a desk drawer and carefully took
out ten letters that she had received
within the last two weeks. They were
written in every sort of handwriting,
from the unframed scrawl of a retired
sailor who had written letter of pro-
| posal from a little seafaring commun-
| ity in Canada to the fine, copybook
writing of a correspondent who styled
/ himself an exiled marquis of France,
and also professed to wish nothing
more than to marry the little school
teacher. Fas4ss
Why these letters?s Why these pro-
pGsals? And would more come the
next day and the next? What would
people think? How could she stop
the letters that kept coming?
For half an hour Daisy sat and
pondered. Then she drew the last let
ter-that of Thomas William Jones
from her pocket and reread it. Then
she studied the picture of the writer
that the letter enclosed. After this,
she wrote a letter that she hoped
might clear up the mystery and re-
store her piece of mind
1t was to this Thomas William
Jones, and in it she told him frankly
what had happened and she asked
him, as the gentleman which his let
tiers showed him to be, to help her to
solve the problem.
The letter she received in reply was
brief and to the point. II am ashamed
of myself for having written the sort
of letter 1 did, but 1 was very lonely
and since 1 left home five years ago
1 have been cut off from friends and
of course, 1 thought you wanted to
find some one to write to- he wrote.
Then he explained that he had read
I a description of Daisy in sheet pub
lished in a matrimonial bureau.
Daisy answered this letter promptly
and then waited impatiently for the
next letter from her unseen champion
In the meantime, the annoying letters
of proposal ceased to come.
On a warm spring evening, about
two weeks later, Daisy was sitting on
the upper porch of her three-room
upstairs abode watching the stars
come out in the balmy spring sky
when she saw through the semi-dark-
ness the tall figure Of a stranger
swinging up the road and then turn
ing in at the schoolhouse path. Her
heart was beating with excitement
when she reached the downstairs door
and stood face to face with q strange
young man. She had half guessed
surely she had hoped even--that it
/ was Thomas William Jones, and
Thomas William Jones he turned out
to be.
i've been travelling a day and a
night to get here" he told her. stand
ing in her open door, hat in hand.
1.-THE reason I came-partly, at least
is TO tell you that I have put a stop
to those annoying letters. I went to
the place where they publish the sheet
and I held them up for the letter.
Some one had sent it in signed with
your nama.
That's forgery and a penitentiary
offense. We can have the offender
punished severely. That's enc reason
1 came onto help you trace the mat
ter to its beginning"
Strange how speedily Daisy and the
stranger forgot all about the offender
and began to talk of other matters
even about themselves. They had
both been very lonely. They had both
lived for years without any real
friends-Thomas William Jones in his
lumber camp and Daisy in her little
schoolhouse.
1t was quite dark when Thomas
William Jones started to return to
the little local tavern where he had
left his bag on his arrival in the viii