The Topeka state journal., 1919-12-18
Euening.StoW
A Little Child.
BY MARTHA MCCULLOUGH WILL
LIAMS.


the wind over to Barton's-shore's m
knee-high to grasshopper."
How come you to be so shore?' |
Widow Allan demanded. settling her
knitting sheath more firmly against
her plump side. Miss Prue half shut
one eye-a shouting Methodist OF
course could not wink-set her arms
akimbo, advanced a large foot, and
said still with the oracular intona-
tions: I'D tell ye-enly I'm main
afraid yen go strowin' all up and down
-Bresh Crsek neighborhood, and gettin'
me the name O. tall<in' scandal"
The widow smiled broadly. Miss
Prue was known already for the head
and front of all gossip-espeeially of
the more lurid sort. Suit yerself.
she said TRANQUILITY. Tell hit or keep
yer mouth shet. l know and you know
1 caint possibly want to hear things
half as bad as you want II tell EN-"
Which was fact rudely stated. Miss
Prue magnanimously ignored it Il
know you're a sensible person." she
began. "Besides-I ra'alely must have
somebody ter take counsel of. This
yere business is too much for one lone
woman ter wrastle with
How many other ones have we done
told a'ready?" the widow interrupted.
Miss Prue looked down: II jest sorter
slletched things to Nan Wickfield and
Josy Crimes" she began. The
widow threw up both hands, shaken
with gusty laughter. Eye had better
wrote hit to the county paper" she
said. But 1 wonder at yo' choosings
Nan and Joe won't rest till they've told
the whole neighborhood. rot 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 admirin' my domin-
ecker pullcts.'~ Miss Prue protested.
/ They seen him-aIso 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 Mss Prue drew a
lohg breath. "Ee 1 but knowed the
whole full of hi; 'twould be wuth
dred dollars!" in an awed voice:
! Enough to send a missionary clean to
China
! EFF I didn't know folks CANT git
sunstruck in the late fall, I'd think
your head was fetched" the widow
exploded.
Miss Prue looked at her loftily Sc
verely: Make light of it all you
wanter," she said, but tha.'s the
! ward. Herc' Look at the handbill.
Didn't you find one like hit in your
/ letter boX?"
enough, there was a reward-five hun
dred- dollars for information leading
to the capture of counterfeit ers, dou-
BILE that for capture actual. Followed
descriptions-three men. girl. hardly
more than a child, an elderly person.
very dark-sl,inned. a small boy, aim ost
a 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. short" she said
her finger on the DARK woman with
the baby in her arms. "S'manthy told
me out of her own mon h they was
Eoin' to hoard a boy-child and hits
nurse till after Christmas. Now I ask
yot, wha; would honest folks be doin'
sendin' a child to the country sech a
time o. the year"
"Oh. tina. amt nothin' Town folks
has got so silly they don't sprtse me,
no matter what they do" the widow
commented. You're hatch;r' a mares
nest out of nothing, as usual. Pru-
dence. Your parens ought to ana med
We Im-P m-Prudence-you talk Wild"
"Waiti You amt heard half Miss
Prue said majestically. Two of the
men. and the sal, are at Barton's every
little while. Come and go in a car
always on the edge of dusk else mighty
early mornin'. And this o heI-he
come yis erday-he makes up the hull
three"
Are you shore? Did he look like
them pictures?" the widow demand ID.
LAS mucf. as anybody else" Miss
Prue answered, to-sing her head. But
that amt all I jedge by He actually
offered me one o. his bad bills-a
twenty, bran-new--wan-ed ed to buy a
dozen pulle s.. and said he hadn't no
change"
~ ou look hit-then you've got the
gang dead to rights" the widow said
uuiveriny in her eaSerness over the
unfolding drama
sech thing" she said. "Once is enough
for me I amt forgot that time
taken a bad dollar SOS to sell dozen
aigs-and had the bank man shove it
back at me, marked counterfeit
: told that thar man I hadn't no change
he might come again fer the pullets
I don't believe he will do it--but if he
should
well. WHAT" the widow asked as
Miss Pruc's lips closed like a steel
: trap. On. nothin,-much." said that
lady, "onIy I've got telephone and
! the sheriff's office has done promised
: me already to come runnin when
call it"
The Bartons shouse, clean, rambling
! and comfortable, had an absolute
| mona rch. by name Roy Evers. He
was five years old, golden as to hair
blue-eyed. chubby. and dlmpled as q
Cupid. The young woman who game
: intermittently in the red car hugged
him throughout the most of her visits
; and left him always with streaming
2 tears. She surely looked too young tt
be his mother. yet he called her MY
Nanny" and they were very much
alike Roy liked the men who came
I and went with Mammy-especially the
] tall one with graying hair. whom
Nanny addressed as Big Injun. Bis
Injun had a way that made you mimi
in spite of yourself. Johnny, the other
man, showed that even palmer thar
Roy himself AS for Nanny, all Of
them appeared to think the eartf
ought to turn around for her slightes
whim- She being Roy's bond slave
his kingsnip followed inevitably. will
her as first subject and Anne, hi
nurse for prime minister.
While Miss Prue was expoundin,