The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-04-04
EVENING STORY
Horseshoes for Luck.
BY HILDA MORRIS.

stree when she found the horse shoe.
1t lay in the gutter at her very feet,
and almost before she realized what
size was Going, Cisay stopped and
picked it up. Ono does not often find
horse shoes in the city, but back
home" where Cissy had come from,
they are frequently to be found in
TIC country roads. Moreover, one
who finds horse shoe should pick it
up, thereby bringing good luck. 9th
erwise some evil MAJ befa1l.
The stout lady in the sealskin coat
who stood beside Cissy looked scorn-
fully at the girl who stopped to pick
up horse shoes, but Cissy hastily con-
ccaled it among the bundles she was
| taking home from market and hur-
ried on, little breathless. Her days
were so drab that even the finding
of T. horse shoe was an event if in
terest. Since she had been keeping
houss for Uncle Josiah in his tiny
apartment there had been none of the
young company that she was used to;
people in the city did not make
friendly advances and CissyS days
wer- punctuated only by marketing,
the visit of the Ice Wan and an occa-
sional letter from one of her girl
friends. She found one of these wait
| ing ~ the mail box when she reached
| home.
! The letter sent thrill of home
sickness thru Cissy. What good times
they had, Jack there in Oldport, Par
| ties, picnics, the church socials, sew
ing bees! How she wished she might
g. back! They all envied her living
IN the city. of course. Doubtless they
| supposed that she had gayer times
than they. If they only knew! Cissy
! put the letter down and wiped the
tears of self pity from her eyes before
finishing it. But the very next SEN
tence made her forget herself and
utter sharp little exclamation.
You remember Arnold Black, Cis-
sy? He's just left town and gone to
New York. Think he's going into
! business there; but he told my broth
er THAI he was going there to be mar
wonder who she can be? He's awful
ly CO. d-looking and has plenty of
money 1 suppose even a city girl
would think him CATCH
| Cissy dropped the letter and stared
at the blank brown wall. Arnold
| days they had spent together walking,
driving, boating, the precious packet
of his letters in her desk, the hope
that some time. some where. they
would meet again-these had been
the things which made Cissy's lonely
days endurable. 1t seemed now that
| lney were taken from ner, ana the
future looked suddenly as blank and
dun colored as the walls which hem
med her in She had not heard from
| him for some months-he must have
! been writing to the other girl.
As Cissy reviewed the days of her
| friendship with Arnold Black she told
herself sternly that, after all, there
had been nothing in it which gave her
friends. good friends. And yet per-
haps there had been something more
between them. She had felt it; evil
IDENTIFY he had not. If only she could
forget, if there were something else to
| fill her days-some other man. Yet
deep in her heart she knew that there
would never be any other man who
could take Arnold Blacks place. She
saw herself living thru dreary length
of years with q secret ache in her
heart, a pain which she could confide
to no one.
Cissy was reused from her dreary
reverie by a sudden sharp thud, and
the horse shoe, which she had put
hastily down OF. the couch with her
bundles, lay at her feet. Cissy looked
For iucE!" she murmured with
| bitterness.
But the horse shoe lay there as
tho it were fact not to be denied,
| a cheerful fact In spite of the girls
gloom the sight of that horse shoe
seemed to suggest hope and infinite
possibilities for good fortune. Cissy
had inherited superstition regard
ing horse shoes. she felt that she was
bound to respect this one. 1t was the
only pleasant thing that had happen
ed to her that day; it might be an
omen of some unknown, approaching
good. She resolved to hang it up.
The tenants of the city apartments
do not often hang horse shoes above
their doors; but. after all, there is nc
reason why they should not. Cissy
decided that it would not do to put it
outside in the hall; the janitor might
take it down. So she climbed upon
place above the door, inside. 1t was
quite dark in the hail. and Uncle
Josiah. who was not given to looking
up. never even noticed it Yet the
mere fact of it's being there seemed
to tighten Cissy's skies little. She
glanced furtively up at it every time
she went in or out.
But several days passed and moth
ing happened. The ice man came as
! usual, she went marketing, and Uncle
Josiah gave her money to buy a new
hat. This last was luck, of a SORT, but
Cissy expected more of her horse shoe
than that 1t must perform some mir
acle which should ease her loneliness
A new hat is desirable. but its desira-
bility increases ten-fold IL there is
some one to wear it for or with.
And then one evening. after Cissy
had washed the dishes and settled
down beside Uncle Josiah with her
knitting, the door bell rang. It was
so unusual for it to ring at night. after
Uncle Josiah had put on his slippers
and buried himself in the newspaper
that Cissy felt a sharp little thrill OF
excitement. Perhaps something was
going to happen, 1t couldn't be the
ice man or the man to read the gas
tmeter, for they came by daylight
Uncle Josiah, grunting disgustedly
that it must be mistake got up and
reared down the speaking tube in a
tone that would have scared away any
but the most persistent of callers.
What" he shouted. Miss Curtis
Cissy? Yes. she's here. Come upv'
"Who-who is it: asked Cissy
breathlessly.
Some Young man. Farmer or Bar