The Little River news., 1920-12-25
66e B l. U E MOON 4 Tale of he Fldtnoods
 ftF fr gf1 By DAVID. sANDHRSON
 
By DAVID ANDERSON

What had he done! Had she mis- | understood him. The Pearlhunter 1 inwartlly cursed his clumsness. He | found his hard hand stealing toward | her hair. How helpless she was-and l he had hurt her. His fingers strayed | over the soft locks and smoOthed them. It seemed a long time to the Pearl
 hunter before she raised her face. He
 half dreaded to see her eyes but-a
 desperate glance-no reproach in
 them. He had not been misunder- | stood.
 | "I don't know how I am to go on." l Her throat and neck and face famed l crimson at the admission. "I can't 1 leave to go out to service; and all the ! furniture that can be spared l have
 sold" "Only your own," he blurted out, rather imprudently, as he reflected aft erward, for how was she to know that he had glanced into her room?
 q didn't wish Daddy to miss any thing"
 The unselfishness of her act seemed not to have entered her mind. but it was not lost on the Pearlhunter.
 "The storekeeper has been so good to me, and trusted me for so many things Pm afraid to think bow much I owe him. But he Is old, and his wife has been i'll. It mortifies me to have to ssk him for more credit, but can't let Daddy starve. Money used to come to us before he got-hurt. But I found out afterward that 1t always came addressed simply to Box 23. Not even the postmaster knows Daddys name. Neither-do-I" sllat
 Her voice fell very low. The Pearl hunter pitied her, for he knew what 1t was like not to know "Daddy's name" .'
 '-The doctor says,~ she went on, that the bullet broke piece of skull. 50 that it presses on the brain. .ib He thinks a great surgeon he knows might bs able to raise that little piece of skull and made Daddy we'll. And that's what hurts me worst t all-that I can't have 1t done" " ',' = ''
 She stopped; turned her head away. There came into the mans level eyes look that the hard men of the river had learned to know.
 "Listen '" he said. "You mlst trust me. You must let me help you. You already know the story of the Blue Moon. Such a find always brings the pearl buyers. They flock to 1t like vultures to a carcass. They'll soon be here-maybe tomorrow. I'll sell the pearl, and you shall send for that sur geon."
 Like one waking from a dream to find the dream come true-she turned slowly and raised her face to his. The full significance of his offer, the big generosity of 1t, the immense fact of it, escaped her in the first moments. Only a mere detail of 1t reached her.
 T-we-couldn' ever pay you back"
 It was on his tongue to say he didn't expect to be paid back-that he didn't want to be paid back, but a glance at possible. The book case gave him an
 inspiration.
 "You could let me read these books"
 "Why you could do that anyway"
 She looked at him in curious sur prise. Not knowing the hope that was slowly waking in her, he misinterpret- ed the look. He avoided her eyes. s His generosity had overreached his tact. Such an offer couldn't be made tO a girl in the same way 1t could be made to a man. His eye roved the room in desperation. It lighted fnal- iy on the cello still leaning against the old mans chair.
 You can teach me singin' lessons" He said 1t good deal as man might consent to surgical operation, with the chances dead against him.
 "That wouldn't be worth-money,"
 she said. That would just be fun. if things were so l could" The Pearlhunter picked up his hat from the table, stood fumbling it and thinking intently. It went against the
 grain of him to give up till the last lick was struck. Something she had said a few minutes before happened into his thoughts.
 ''When your father Is we'll there1l be more money coming to Box 23. He can pay me back then himself." He said it slowly-like man laying his last card on the table, and the odds
 against him.
 But the effect was utterly opposite to what he had dreaded. Her eyes 1 sprang to his face, and there was
 something in them he had not seen there before. He knew in that in stant that she had not misunderstood {, him. With freedom from which the high moment took even the tiniest ' semblance of boldness, she stepped to- ward him and laid her hand on his \ arm.
 You're wonderful! I don't suppose anybody else in the world would do such q thing for folks like-us-for strangers. Forgive me that didn't ! thank you. It was all so marvellous But do, do, over and over r The puzzled misgivings on the wind seasoned face of the man melted up