The log cabin Democrat., 1916-04-15
FREEDOM ev CATHERINE GRAMMAR.

Mary Hanson turned her face to- ward inc wall and shielded her eyes with bent arm that she might taks her extra sunday morning nap, and n the iumbled dream which followed she seemed to be toiling alone up long hill at the top of which she rested un- der q shady tree and was joined by the tall man who lived next door.
 Then suddenly into her dream came the magnetic voice of the man with whom she had held daily business tel enhone conversations for two years, but had never seen.
 That afternoon when Mary went to her room after the midday dinner she again felt the loneliness of hex lot.
 Through the open window there came to her the wondrously dear song of a bird. It brought Mary tS>the win dow to see what the singer looked like. Perched on the topmost branch of the big tree in the yard next door was a tiny yellow canary, intoxicated With the joy of being released temporarily from it's cage, which maid was plac- ing conspicuously on the fence back of the large apartment directly across the alley from Mary's boarding house.
 The man next door sat as usual unI der the tree with book, and as she saw him, Mary remembered her dream The song of the bird seemed to penetrate his thoughtful mood,
 l,a bo1e o1ocoJ bic hook and lnnk aloft until he located the songster
 Although Mary still held book in her hand, she read little, for the song of the bird kept coming to her and with it the memory of the sympathetic smile of her noighbor Her occasion- al surreptitious peeps showed the man apparently absorbed in his book, al though if she could have faced him directly, she would have found that his eyes were dreamily gazing at nothing at all.
 The maid and the child reappeared and began to whistle to the canary to lure it back to it's cage, but the sing ing speck of yellow fitted from limb to limb without cOndescending to mo- tice their poor imitation Of it's song.
 Suddenly it came so near to Mary's window that she looked out and saw it perched on the tall lilac bushes at the corner of the back porch. The maid saw her, and asked permission to bring the cage into the yard. Mary bade her come, and, without thinking of the proximity of the man next door. went below to try to help capture the fugitive.
 When the maid approached the H. lac bushes with the cage, the tiny bird 1 tucked it's black-eyed head to one side, eyed her saucily until she was almost near enough to reach it, and, with 1 pert little chirps to emphasize each ] move, he went from branch to branch 1 until it reached the top of the shrub bery, from which he flew across the i fence to the upper branches of the ] big tree next door.
 The man next door put down his ! book and rose. He spoke to the maid l just as Mary was consoling the weep | ing child, who thought her pet had got ! permanently beyond reach When | she raised her head the man was whis- ] ting to the bird in notes wonderfully 1 like it's own. The little yellow song ster peeped down from it's lofty perch. and gave a timid response to the mans call. Slowly, by almost dis tracing methods of coming downward a distance of six inches, and remount- ing four or five, the bird was coaxed to the lower branches of the tree ! The maid passed the cage to the man, but the bird rediscovered the li- lac bushes, and took refuge again in their branches.
 Without a word, the man handed the cage to Mary, and their eyes met in smile of friendly conspiracy. The man then crouched by the fence, and as the bird again began restlessly to measure the distance back to the big tree, he rose with such sudden bound that it covered motionless for an in- stant and he quickly closed his large hands over it. With great tenderness he held the quivering mite until Mary got the cage near enough for him to transfer the prisoner
 If the little fellow knew that his 1 freedom would deprive him of his life, he'd thank us for capturing him, wouldn't he?" As he spoke Mary col ored with surprised pleasure, for she recognized the voice of the man with whom she held those daily telephone conversations.
 Yes; he didn't have his freedom long enough to learn how many other things 1t deprived him of" The mans 8 surprise at this enigmatical remark would have been greater had it not been eclipsed by his surprise at rec ogaizing the voice in which 1t was spoken.
 Why surely I've learned to know Miss Hanson's voice by telephone too well not to recognize 1t at closer range,' he said simply. Don't you talk to Wells at the Macon Barnes Printing company every day?'