American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1918-09-06
DAN CUPID'S WORK
BY U OLIVER.

1hey say love lduHlS at lOckSlnlIlS.
It does. And it has been proved that
it also laughs at gas bomb and shrap-
mel, bayOnet and trench knife; the
depth of the sea and the tops of the
highest mountains, the icy terrors of
the frozen North and bitter agony
of the desert.
But there is one thing left. We shall
learn how love conquered that.
Betty Barstow was a very pretty
girl, but spoiled. Perhaps that was
why she merely laughed at Jerome
Gilbert, a young superintendent in her
fathers mill, when he fell foOlishly,
desperately, pitifully in love with her.
"Betty," he plead. mo one ever loved
as l do. You see it's the only thing I
live for. Other people have been in
love, or thought they were, but it was
nothing to this. Can't you feel 1t?
Don't you see it, that I can't live with
out you? You'll find it out some day,
why can't you give me a little hOpe?"
Betty laughed. Eventually, why
not nOw?" she quoted from an adver-
tisement.
Jerome colored. you're cruel. Bet
ty. You don't mean it, I know, but 1t
hurts awfully. I can't stand it any
longer. Pm going to enlist and l
hope 1 get killed"
But Betty had heard that before
and it worried her not.
He did enlist in the aviation corps.
That was the next thing Betty heard
of him, and he was gone without say
ing good-by.
Then she grew thoughtful. Perhaps
she had been a little unkind. She
really hadn't intended to go so far.
She had only meant to tease him a
little and make it up the next time
he came.
"He doesn't deserve any credit for
going" she said to her father one
morning. "He went because-because
he was cross about something, I be-
lieve."
81 don't think so,7 returned her par
ent. HE confided to me a couple Of
months ago that as soon as we had
certain important work done in the
mill he thought he would CO."
"Oh!' Betty's eyes filed with tears
of humiliation and she left the break
fast table hurriedly.
For the first time in her life Betty
had a rebuff, and with characteristic
wilfulness, fell in love with the unat-
tainable. And then she discovered that
she had really been in love with Jerry
all along.
Then her mind being serious for the
first time in her life, she began to
think earnestly of the war and of what
she could do to help. She went in fol
Red Cross work for a while, and work
ed tirelessly in the Woman's Motor
corps.
But there were others who could dc
her work and she wasn't satisfied. She
wanted something distinctive.
Then one day she read how carrier
> pigeons were needed in France, anC
: how difficult it was to get people tC
: train them. And instantly she decided
that that was her work.
She went out to their house In th'
l country, with only the caretaker ant
his wife for company, and started GU
] with twelve birds.
I 1t was interesting work and kept hel
busy. She would take the birds {
short distance away from the farm a
first. in her motor car, and let them tl
: back. Then gradually she increased
the distance, letting the birds fly alone
. At last it got impossible for her t
take them herself, as the distance grew
Il greater, and she would ship them t.
L friends in different cities to release.
They came back u%nfailingly, Away.
with their little brass tubes containing
g a friendly note. White Wing was tn
swiftest of them all. Betty was yer,
proud of him.
d One day she sent a message TO her
self, or rather to Jerry. She had bee
so lonely all week, and the solitude o
the country gave her plenty of time t
think.
m "Oh. Jerry. Jerry, if you would onl,
come back she cried nightly on he
ID pillow. I'D never let you go ava.
y again."
lie The next time she went to the city
n her father was shocked at her appear
e. ance. you're working too hard wit
those BIRDS" he said. Pack up an
lie Wen both go to the seashore for
week. They can get along for a wee
er without you"
So Betty went, but she took he
80 birds to test them in a five hundre
mile flight home. the longest they ha
T. ever made.
And that was when she sent tn
k message to herself. or rather to Jerry
RS for on the little slip of paper she tuck
a. ed into the tube on White Wings lie
was written: "Oh. Jerry dear, com
home. I do love you. Betty"
Now arctic ice, and burning sands
gas bombs and rencn knives not hay
= ing bafied love, such a thing as a fey
E hundred feet in the air was not goin
80