The Press., 1919-12-18
cA . Cherished Fee
 ~@ By ALVAH JORDAN GARTH
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Copyright. 1919. by tho Western News
 IIninn.l

paper uHInn.) There was the noupO of crowding feet and hushed but excited voices. Young Dr. Allen Reeves, just at the threshold of professi s,al practice. fac ed group of half <'ozen women and children who bore ir their midst the figure of an exceedingly beautiful girl, but limp, lifel> ,s, her fece devoid of all color.
 "1t was at the alley, Doctor Reeves" babbed forth one of the women. "She was passing it's end when Murphy's horse ran away. She was brushed against the wall and she went down like a broken flower. She is so still and white. Is it dead she isl"
 The poor of the neighborhood knew the young physician well in time of illLess and trouble and were friendly and familiar. Doctor Reeves spoke a reassuring word.
 "NO bones broken, one shoulder bruised quite badly, but there's the shock" he said to Mrs. Hannigan. and fan the young lady till go to the drug store and get some medicine I find l have run out of."
 The young doctor moved with celer- ity. He was not man given to triv ial impulses, yet his whole soul was enlisted in the present case. Never ir his life had a lovely face so impress. ed him as that of this haphazard pa. tient. He wondered who she could be, \J> T h. l> T was not gone from his office more than ten minutes. His face clouded as he entered it, for his absence, brief as it was, had been of sufficient duration to mark the return to consciousness of his mysterious patient and her depar- ture:
 "I couldn't stay her, doctor dear," explained Mrs. Hannigan. "She was all nervous and troubled. She said she must hurry to a train and that her sister had her railroad ticket And when l told her of you she looked at your picture on the wall there and said you must be a truly kind-hearted man. Then she said something about having no money and after she'd gone I found this lying on the little stand wonder.
 'This" was a small pretty finger ring holding an amethyst surrounded by small pearls. Along it's inner rim was the inscription: "Anice from Sis ter" Doctor Reeves traced an ele- mcnt of pathOs in the situation. This Anice, whose fair features were so powerfully impressed upon his mind, had left the ring in lieu of the money foi his fee. He made a great many voin inquiries regarding it's owner the 1eXt day, but it was of no avail. Petro Santos, settlement favOrite who made and peddIed plaster of paris images, was brought into his office that afternoon with an injured limb, and this distracted his thoughts from this provokingly beautiful and persist ently haunting Anice. She was back in his memory and cherished regard, however, within a few hours. Reeves attached a ribbon to the ring and wore it hidden fI@ view.
 Goa de country, doctor," announced Pietro month later, all mended up anG staring on one of his usual trips away from the city. "Owe-a for you fiX-a PietrO up so fine. Pay-a when I come back"
 Don't you worry about that" said the young physician, waving the grate- ful itinerant an encouraging adieu.
 Two afternoons later at the edge of a little village PietrO came across a gang of rough loafers, who attacked him, took his hard-earned money bound him and, setting his pretty wares on fence posts as targets, pro- ceedcd to demolish them. An hour la ter, passing the spot, a moan attracted tho attention of a fair, gentle-faced girl. Dr. Allen Reeves would have giv- en a good deal to have seen, for she was the patient who had disappeared so disappontingly-An Merrill.
 Her true sympathetic soul was re- vealed as she set the victim of bru- tality and havoc free and heard his pathetic story. She led him to her home, cared for him until the next day and even prOvidel him with the 'HHney to pay his fare to his city home.
 "fou sav-a my courage, my life" he told Anice. 'I never forget When I come again bring-a you a great work O: art. An. you have inspired the poor mock sculptor. He mak-a your beau tiful face live!"
 Ii was two months after that when IietrO appeared in the office of Doc tor Reeves. He was thin and showed q strain of incessant hard work, but his eyes glOwed and his face was irradi- ated.
 "Doctor." he said, placing on the able an object done up in a cloth. q never paya yet, but now l go out
 tn a new image-oh, such beauty! >h! it sell-a everywhere. Soon I will
 ave for you the glad-a pay. See. you
 my good-a friend. Is it not beau-
 "uI?"
 And removing the drapery Pietro re-
 "alcd H Doctor Reeves his marvel Of h"ndiwOrk-a statuette in which ge- niuS and gratitude had portrayed true to life the dazzling features of Anice Merrill.
 objects in the household when Doctor Reeves and Anice Merrill were install "G in home of their own: the little 'nlcthySt ring and the statuette which
 't '.' 'ho ardent Allen straight to
 ri+ <"nro of the o'rl ht. loved.