Arizona republican., 1920-04-04

k\1 \ LE\O AA0ES better so. The very happiest exper- fence of a lifetime is to be granted an- other glimpse into this morning of life. This is the story of girl who went back to her youth after she had known some of the deeper hurts of life.
 As the train puffed and grumbled into the station. a tall, slight girl with shadowy blue eyes rose and adjusted her neat coat of navy blue. Light brown hair curled rebelliously under the dark band of a simple but becoming urban. She wondered tiredly as she gathered her scattered belongings. what Aunt Mary would be like. She wished she had not come here to a stranger-would her aunt like her? She felt somehow that she would be an un- welcome burden. Yet she didn't seem to care a great deal, if her aunt would just let her be alone for a little while. It was as though she had been blindly feeling her way thru .an intending maze of dayS-days-days-a from the in finite stretch back of them all, haunt ing picture was forever creeping out, a lurking shadow that followed her everywhere, and there was the nause ating odor of flowers, and smothered somewhere in their midst a still, bruised face. Thru burning eyes Mar garet Wells found another face, very sweet and gentle, and her numbed senses felt the warmth of strong arms, as Aunt Mary greeted her.
 It was a month later that Margaret entered an office marked private, note book and pencil in hand.
 Miss Wells is our new stenog- rapher,'' her employer was saying. Miss Wells, MT. Harrison" he added
 Margaret felt the extremely dark eyes of a tall young man gazing steadily into hers. She bowed hastily, mur- muring something in response to his acknowledgement.
 "Mr. Harrison will be with us a few months, looking after his fathers in terests," the older man continued There followed a short conversation in which Margaret learned thatsshe would help MT. Harrison in getting their adds ready for publication He and his father, it seemed, were the chief customers of the Thomas Printing House, and MT. Thomas always at tended to their adds personally.
 In this way, daily thrown together, Margaret and young Sam Harrison were not long strangers, which is the way of youth. Sam Harrison, more over, was not stranger to this land of rocks and great old pines, in which Margaret had come to make her home and so it was quite the most natural thing in the world that he should offer to help her get acquainted with these friendly hills surrounding them. And the next quite natural thing was that he became a frequent caller at Aunt Mary'S home.
 For while everything went smooth ly-then Margaret began to feel the shadow of new trouble. Aunt Mary was not as comfortably situated as she had been led to believe, and in dozen tiny ways she began to feel herself burden. Vaguely she tried to put the thought away, but it persisted, and the heavy oppression of those still recent events returned and with it the haunt ing, aching memories. Sensitive to her position, the girl felt keenly these tiny nothings, and in her dreary mind they grew to enormous size. At first Aunt Mary had refused to take anything from her, but now Margaret insisted on paying her board and room. The long ings to go to college she put away, for she had nothing left for that treasured hope after paying on the debts still hanging over from that other life so recent.
 During the weeks that followed Mar garet saw a great deal of Sam. There were happy hours spent in the late au tumn woods, long trampS in the hills on Sunday, when the cold winds of coming winter blew fresh and free across the mountains. Slowly the rich, warm color came back to her cheeks. her eyes lost their tragic hopelessness and her quiet smile had given place to a clear, ringing laugh.
 Things in her new home went on about the same. Troubled and not un- derstanding, Margaret was at a loss how to approach her aunt. so that she was torn between this new hurt and the strange awakened happiness that had come to her. In sam she found all of sympathy and strength, and she turned to him with all the craving of a loneiy heart.
 There came a day when, looking down into the dark, gentle eyes, she told him all of that other life, the pitt full years when a widowed mother had worked to put her tfsSu school-and that black day without warning, when a bruised form had lain in the hospital and then the last day-the flowers and the dear face.
 'Poor little girl he said softly. you've surely known a lot of mighty hard experiences for one so young"
 Margaret found comfort in his sym pathy and new hope in these happy hours, and she gave herself utterly to this new joy that possessed her.
 THELMA ROBERTS,
 Senior, Prescott High School.