The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1918-11-28
ROMANTIC EPISODE
BY J.. ISABELLE BURNHAM.

Syndtcate.)
"Now, what shall I do next?"
thought mischievous little Miss Court
ney Burke. She made a very pretty
picture as she sat on the dark sofa,
her golden head laid against it and
her dark gray eyes gazing earnestly
at the ceiling. :
AS she was sitting there her broth
er's little t~wo-year-old girl came into
the She toddled up to Courtney
and said: "Me wife letter to papa
poor papa, way off dere in Fance."
"What have you got, Helen'?" Court
ney. asked her.
Helen held up a newspaper which
showed several pictures of soldiers.
Suddenly Courtney's eyes danced
michievously and she eagerly scanned
the faces Of the soldiers to find one to
whom she thought the word romance"
would fit.
She came to the name of Lieut.. Ar
thur Stanton. Then she stopped and
looked at the half-finished sweater be-
side her.
"Ill finish this sweater" she said,
"and there won't be any harm in writ
ing a little note for a lonely soldier"
Accordingly, after the khaki sweater
was finished she wrote a CHEEKY little
note and signed her niece's name,
Miss Helen Burke to it.
Time went on, and Courtney had
very nearly forgotten about letters
and sweaters, when a letter came for
her little niece. Upon opening it
she found a very interesting and
grateful letter from Lieut.. Arthur
Stanton.
He thanked her for the sweater, also
for the letter, which, he said, was the
first that he had received from the
good old U. s. A., closing by asking
her to write as often as was possible.
Courtney wrote to him, and she re-
ceived his nice letters, but all the
while she had the guilty feeling that
she was deceiving him.
A long time elapsed and the letters
ceased. She wondered and watched
for them. Until now, she did not
know how much those letters had
meant to her. She was angry with
herself for thinking and feeling as
she did. What did she know about
him? Nothing, only what he had writ
ten her.
She soon Tad other things to take
up her mind, as her brother had writ
ten that he was coming home on a
short furlough. .
1t was a very warm day in June that
Courtney had just finished combing
her little niece's hair, as Helen's papa
was expected home that day. There
was a strong resemblance between the
seventeen-year-old aunt and her little
~two-year-old niece.
The bell rang and Courtney jumped
up and ran out of the nursery. She
hurried to the door, but instead Of see
Ing her brother, as she expected, she
looked into the merry brown eyes Of
q young soldier.
"Does Miss Helen Burke live here1'
he inquired politely.
Courtney replied in the affirmative
and after asking him in she called her
little niece.
The soldier expressed no surprise at
seeing the little tot instead Of q grown
up young lady, but he introduced him
self as Lieut.. Arthur Stanton.
Courtney turned red, then white.
She didn't know whether to cry or to
laugh. 80 she turned to the window
until she could get control Of her.
self.
What would she dor Here he was
making himself right at home, paying
no more attention to her than If she
wasn't there. Oh, dear why did she
write that letter. She might have
known she would get into tr6uble-she
always did. My, but he was a very
good-looking fellow at that. Well, the
only thing to do was to tell him the
truth.
Lieutenant Stanton, ! wish to make
N apology" she said.
He raised his eyebrows and stood
y. His Young figure 80 very erect,
3EA8s E#xa