The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1917-01-11
THE MISSING LETTER
BY LOIS PIKE.

and left her a legacy Of 5000 Miss
Ruth was the belle OF the village. not
outstanding that her father was a
carpenter.
Then il became widely known that
Dave johnson. son or squire Johnson,
had made new proposals of marriage
10 Miss Ruth-makinE three IN all in
one year.
Then Abner TaylUrs widow, who
had been posrmisuess for several
years went suddenly blind. She had
the legal right TO name an assistant
and she named Miss Ruth White. The
Two had been good friends for a long
time and the girl took the place of as
sistant that the widow might hold her
place and not come TO poverty.
These incidents we're gossip for a
week or two, and then sleepy old Col
umbus went to sleep again. The fact
thar Miss Ruth was at the general de-
livery window gave Dave Johnson OPP
pOrtunities 10 see her and speak with
her which he had not had before. and
there was scarcely 3 day in the week
that he was not a caller at the post
Office. His father. a justice Of the
peace. received more mail than any
i've other persons in the village put
together, and his sons excuse every
time he came in was TO get his fathers
mail or mail letters for him.
As for Ruth. the girl had little to
say 10 him. for she had refused him
absolutely. but as a public official she
had 10 treat him with courtesy. one
day when there was no one in the Of
fee but the two he said to her:
~sIlss Ruth. I love you and am go
ing 10 have yOH for a wife. If yoU
keep on refusing me l shall play you
some trick 10 make you wish you had
accepted me-"
His speech angered the girl, and
she gave him back such hot wOrds
that he skunk away while she was still
talking. He went direct to his ia
theirs Office and told his parent that
the assistant pOstmistress had vilified
the whole family. He told lie after lie
to get the old man excited and re
yengeful, and the squire was ready to
enter into any plan.
"The idea that you are not good
enough for her and her family!' he
shouted. "Dave, you have not the best
Of regulations; but we must go to
work to take some of the conceit out
Of that slip of a girl. She seem TO
think she runs this whole town, but
she won't ven run the post office when
we get through with her"
There was scheming and planning
for the next month. The first thing
to be done, as father and son looked
at IL, was to cause the girl to lose her
~positiOn-and under a cloud of sus-
picfon at that. But no opening pre-
sented itself for a month or two. Dave
kept away from the post office and
the squire got his mail himself.
One day he entered the office in his
pompous way and said to Ruth:
II wish to enter a complaint to the
postal authorities, and it may turn out
to be very serious for you"
"Yery WELL" was the reply. 81 will
take your complaint and forward it.
Has there been anything wrong about
your mail?'
"Yes, ma'am, there has. A letter
containing money addressed to me, and
which | believe reache3 this post Of
fee all right, has not come to me, and
| want to know where the trouble
les"
In about a week the inspector on
that route arrived. He was a young
and ~good-looking man, and his impress
sion of the assistant -postmistress was
very favorable. She had probably
made some mistake in boxing the mail.
The squire was sent for, and the story
told was that a man named Hardness,
over at the village of Milford, had
bought a horse of him and had paid
all but $40 of the price. He was to
pay that on a certain date. He said
he would send a $40 bill over in a let
ter, and he was a man whose word
was as good as his bond. He surely
had mailed the letter and 1t ought to
have reached the squire next day, but
weeks had elapsed and the letter had
not yet arrived. He was asked by the
inspector if he had te%lephoned Hark-
ness, and he replied hat he had not.
Ruth quietly and calmly protested,
and she could do no more. The in
spector was about to go across the
street and telephone TO Hardness him
self when old Uncle Doremus came in
with a letter in his hand and ex-
claimed:
II am getting to be a darned old
fool. l got a letter in my box some
days ago and put it in my pocket to
take home. Dog my cats ii l didn't
forget all about that letter till just
this morningl 1t wasn't for me any
how. 1t was for Squire Johnson here,
and it was put in the wrong box"
The squire received and opened the
letter. There was no $40 bin in il.
Instead of sending him the money, Mr..