The Huttig news., 1917-09-08
LOVE AND CONTEST
By JANE OSBORN.

The woodthrushes were singing their evening song on the elms that sur rounded and looked down upon the low-eaved farmhouse, but Metty Cramer did not hear them. To be sure, she was spending her usual after-sup- per hour on the front stoop," but her thoughts were far from the songbirds. Open in her lap was the latest. issue of the Hearth Companion The magazine was open at the editorial pages and there, in large black-faced type, one might have seen these words: Our Heart Problem Contest
 If you have heart problem, we want you to write and tell us about it. ] Prizes will be awarded for the best let ter and as many of the other letters as possible will receive personal an- swers with advice from one of our edi- tors."
 AS she rose from the step she was too intent on her project to see the l tall, erect, though muscle-weary fig ure of Sf Iarned as he came from his last duties fin the barn, through the shadow of the house. Si enjoyed the distinction of being the one and only "hired man" on the Cramer farm.
 Metty stole quietly to her fathers desk and took from it the sole bottle of ink which the Cramer establish ment boasted and, with this and her fathers pen In hand she ascended te her own room, there to work out her problem, as she regarded 1t. Mean time Si sank down on the porch step. 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 tolG himself. "Some city man will come along for her and then she won't look aI me-"
 F He thought he might be able to see Metty If he went into the house, so, absentmindedly picking up the maga- zine where Metty had left it, he rose and made his way into the sitting room.
 Metty wasn't there, so the next best | thing that occurred to him to do was to read the new number of the Hearth Companion.
 On the last page of the magazine beyond the frontispiece he came to the editorial and, with keen attention to every word. he labored through 1t. Then cautiously, he went to Cramer's desk and took out a pencil, delved in- to the woodbox for piece of discard cd wrapping paper and started toward the door with the magazine under his arm.
 It was a month later, and neither Metty nor Si had received the answer to the problem that confronted them. Then came the Hearth Companion and, as MT. Cramer had overtaken the mall carrier on his way back from the vil- lage that morning, he had come into possession of the magazine first.
 Il guess you want to get look at the new fashions" he told Metty as he came Into the house and, passing 1t to her, he turned to Si, who had come in from the fields for his midday dinner. Here, Si, here's letter from the magazine folks. Iguess they want you S ~"2ssap apS eo tiiciA HidhuLIue. AHu, by gravy, If there isn't letter for Metty, tool"
 Si opened his letter hurriedly with out excusing himself, and his strong sun-burned hand was fairly shaking with emotion and surprise when he took out an oblong of white paper, on which was written an order for one hundred dollars, payable to Si Larned. We take great pleasure In announcing to you that your letter has been awarded the first prize in our heart problem contest" 1t ran. By way of giving you the help and advice we promised we wish to attract your at tention to the letter published under the tenth place in the contest"
 While Metty was still reading her letter-which announced that she had won new patent vegetable press as a reward for having the tenth best let. ter, Si grasped the magazine which she had laid on the table. He turned past his own letter-which was published exactly as he had written 1t, save for the omission of his name-and passed ,pn till he came to the tenth letter.