The Press., 1918-07-25
ALittle Child @O
 By Martha Mccullough Wlfams
yright, 1918. by the McCluE
 pAr SyndicateA

\ III IAlE ~Auu over IO DdElOn S-SuOES g I'm knee-high to a grasshopper." , "HOw come you to be so shOre1'
 Widow Allan demanded, settling her
 knitting-sheath more firmly against
 her plump side. Miss Prue half shut
 one eye-a devout church member of
 course could not wink-set her arms
 akimbo, advanced a large foot, and
 said still with the oracular intOna- tions: "rd ten ye-Only I'm main
 afraid yen go strOwln' all up and
 down Bresh Creek nelghborhoOd, and
 gittin' me the name O talkln' scandal"
 The widow smRed broadly. Miss
 Prue was known already for the head
 and front of all gOssip-especially of
 the more lurid sort. Suit yerself," she
 said tranQuilly. "Tell hit or keep yer
 mouth shet. I know and you know I
 caInt possibly want to hear things half
 as bad as you want to tell em."
 Which was fact rudely stated. Miss
 Prue magnanimOusly ignored 1t. "I
 know you're sensible person." she
 began. "Besides-I a'alely must have
 somebody ter take counsel of. This
 we're business Is too much for one lone | Wuiuhu ter WTdSlle WltIl-
 How many other ones have ye done
 told a'ready?" the widow interrupted.
 Miss Prue looked down: "I jest SOrter sketched things to Nan Wiekfield and JOsy Crimes" she began. The wid- Ow threw up both hands, shaken with | gusty laughter. "Ye had better wrote hit to the county paper" she said. But I wonder at yo' chOoslngs. Nan and Joe won't rest tell you've told the whole neighbOrhOOd, not leavin' you nobody but me-"
 "They come in on me In the middle of things-while the young man was here, asking the way-and maxim out like he hung on aGmirin' my dOmin- ecker bullets" Miss Prue protested. '"They seen him-alsO heard. So jest | had to tell 'em-partly-the rest"
 "StOp beatin' the bushes, fer good ness sake! What Is the rest?" the widow demanded. Miss Prue drew long breath. Eff I but knOwed the whole full of hit; 'twOuld be wuth mOney-a heap of money. Five hun dred dollars !'-in an awed voice: Enough to send a missionary clean to China"
 Eff I didn't know folks caint git sunstruck in the late fall, I'd think your head was tetched," the widow exploded.
 Miss Prue looked at her loftily, se- verely. Make light of hit all you wanter," she said, but that's the re- ward. Here! Look at the handbill Didn't you find one like hit in your letter bOx?"
 The widow read, gasping. Sure enough there was a rewafd-five hun dred dollars for information leading to the capture of cOunterfeiters, double that for capture actual. Followed de- scriptiOns- men, a girl, hardly more than a child, an elderly person, very dark-skinned, a small boy, al- most baby. All pictured In the usual ghastly fashion of dodgers" Over the widows shoulders Miss Prue glared down at the alleged portraits. Them twO's at BartOn's, shOre," she said, her finger on the dark woman with the buby in her arms. "S'manthy told me out of her own mouth they was gOIn' to board a boy-child and hits nurse till after Christmas. Now I ask you, what would honest folks be dOin' | sendin' a child to the country sech a time O the year?"
 "Oh, that ain't nothin'. Town folks | has got so silly they don't s'prise me, no matter what they dO" the widow | commented. You're hatchin' mares nest out of nothing, as usual, Pru- | dence. Your parents ought to a-named | ye Im-Prudence-yOu talk so wild"
 Wait! You ain't heard half," Miss Prue said magisterially. Two of the l men, and the gal, are at BartOn's every | little while-cOme an go in a car-al- ways on the edge of dusk else mighty early mOrnin' And this Other-him come yisterday-he makes up the hull three."
 Are you shore? Did he look like them pictures?" the widow demanded
 "As much as anybody else," Miss Prue answered. tossing her head. But that ain't all 1 jedge by. He actually offered me one O his bad bills-a twenty. bran-new-wanted to buy a dozen bullets, and said he hadn't no change"
 You took hit-then you've got the gang dead to rights" the widow said qulverlng in her eagerness over the unfolding drama.
 Miss Prue Sniffed. "I didn't do no sech fool thing" she said. "Once is enough for. me. ain't forgot that time took in a bad dollar sos to sell d dozen aigsZ and had the bank man shove 1t back at me, marked 'cOun- terfeit.' told that thar man hadn't no change-he might come again fer the bullets. I don't believe he will do it-but if he should"
 Well. what?" the widow asked as Miss Prue's lips closed like a steel trap. "On, nOthin'-much," said that lady, ''Only I've got a telephone and the sheriff's office has done promised me already to come running when call it.
 The Barton house. clean, rambling and comfortable, had an absolute mOn- arch, by name Roy .Evers. He was five years old, golden as to hair, blue-eyed, chubby, and dimpled as Cupid. The young woman who came intermittently in the red car hugged him throughout the most of her visits and left him always with streaming tears. She surely looked too young to be his mother, yet he called her My man. my" and they were very much alike. Roy liked the men who came and went With Mammy-especially the tall one Wlth graying hair, whom Nanny ad- dressed as Big Injun Rig Iniun had way that made you mind in spite of yourself Johnny, the other man, showed that even plainer than Roy himself. As for Nanny, all of them ap- peared to think the earth ought to turn around for her lightest whim. She being ROy's bOnd-slave, his kingshlp f followed inevitably, with her as first subject and Anne his nnrSn Rnr- r,rir,nn 1 [