The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-29
EVENING STORY
Letters and Lauretta.
(By Dorothy Douglas

|
and moved bag and baggage out to it,
Lauretta herself was perhaps even
more delighted than they were.
4 Altho she was a city girl and fond
! of city lie and music and all the arts,
1 stin nature, as revealed in the country
lent much tward completeness in life
to her. She loved prowling about
/ lanes and ancient landmarks, and
! finding out, as lar possible, what
/ kind of people inha bited the regions
she explored before she had found
( her way there. Lauretta had visions
of one day becoming a famous writer,
4 and was constantly on the lookout for
I plots and mysteries to solve. The
country. she felt. might afford many
4 possibilities if she just kept her eyes
! open and her BRAIN from going to
1 seed
The old farm was more or less di-
! lapidated when the CarsonS took pos
| session of it. but the grounds were
| lovely and the place would in time be
/ a wonderful home.
! The small, broken down mail box
! that stood on post at the gate was
! the first thing that attracted Lau-
I retta's roaming eyes. 1t was so for
! eign to anything she had seen in the
| city that she fell straightway to won
| dering whether or not the district had
Tree delivery and whether or not that
/ old box was obsolete. Perhaps there
]
| to make that wooden box one of her
| first interests. She would have to
watch continually to find out if a post
! man collected from it and whether or
! not people dropped letters in it. There
| was no sign to tell if it were or were
! not still used by the town people. The
| house was so far from postoffice
| that Lauretta was inclined to think
| the wooden box on the post at her gate
was still a part of the mailing system.
Az hill Lar
about the old box, Jimmy Gains was
| fretting and Tuning because Blanche
| Markham had answered his letter OF
| love with silence. Six long weeks ago
| he had mailed that letter while motor
ing on Long Island. Blanche had
| given him every reason to suppose
that his proposal would meet with an
affirmative reply, but-no reply had
| come.
Girls are a rummy lot" was Jim
mys comment at the end of the sew
enth week of silence. In the mean
time he decided upon a short trip
south in his machine. Perhaps speed
! ing along the country highways would
restore his brain to something like its
ordinary running order. She might
| at least have replied he told himself,
and was glad that he would soon be
up at Plattsburg training for the Of
ficers' Corps. NO time for girls, any
way" he decided. Jimmy was fine to
look upon, fine as to character and an
| all-round fine young man. Blanche
( Markham might still regret her 81
Ience
Lauretta waited each morning at
her window to see if anything resem-
bling a pOstman stopped to collect let
tiers from box, while Jimmy Gains
motored thru the country because
of letter that had reposed for seven
weeks in the very box that Lauretta
watche with much interest.
Strange bits of thread were weaving
a quaint pattern for Jimmy and Lau-
retta- Neither was as yet aware of
the others existence, but the tiny imps
of destiny were very, very busy work.
ing and planning their way for them.
Lauretta waited for one whole week
before she felt justified in looking
into the old mail box. The farm was
already beginning to look inha bited,
and Lauretta's mother and father
were happy strolling about the gar
| den one afternoon. Lauretta went
out to the roadside, and with a quick
jerk dislodged the small box from it's
ancient resting place on top of the
post.
Her heart beat quickly She felt
| letters shaking about inside. and felt
| the coming of much interesting ma
terial for her Imagination to play
with. She took the box to the wide
porch and sat on the steps to open it.
Laurette- seemed to be opening a
tomb or something that was sacred,
| but she continued nevertheless.
| There were some half-dozen letters
in the box. Some were of very an
| cient date. while two had been recent
ly mailed. Apparently there were
still people as ignorant to country
mailing systems she herself was
/ Evidently motorists had stopped to
mail those two letters, thinking they
would be collected on the first route
of the village mailman.
/ Lauretta decided to return the let
tiers to the writer's rather than to the
persons to whom they were written
| The address in each case was on the
| envelope. She thought it would be
far better to let the sender know why
the letters had not reached their des-
| tination, SO she wrote a short note
| with each one telling of the strange
1 way in which the miSsiVeS had come
all the people were still in the land
of the living and that nothing trag ic
had happened because of the failure
of the letters to reach their destina-
tions.
From five of the messages Lauretta
received most charming answers A
correspondence began with one of the
young men, which later ripened into
warm friendship. He had posted his
letter while rushing along the nigh
way and had wondered at its fate. He
told Lauretta all about it in his reply,
but, urged by curiosity regarding the
girl who had been interested enough
to renal the letters, he stopped to see
her the very first time his machine
skidded along the Cedar Swamp road.
Lauretta and her parents were all
three delighted with Frank Joyce
Lauretta's romantic spirit had pro-
duced many such episodes in the Car
son household.
They were all four sitting out under
the great gnarled apple tree having
cooling drinks when a huge yellow
car stopped at the gate.
\ Lauretta's father went forward to
see who the new arrival was He
smiled genially when he discovered
the good looking stranger to be on the
same mission as Joyce
Jimmy Gains glanced swiftly over