The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-06-29
EDening Story
Elizabeth and Lizzie.
BY RUBY DOUGLAS.

young and very pretty to have at
tanned this position; young to have
gained the confidence of the officials
of the railroad, pretty to have escaped i
the tangles of matrimony.
81 am z. Warner-the agent" she
had to insist many a time when some
person or other came to the window
with freight receipts bearing her sig
oh" the man would remark, coca
sionally. Your father. perhaps, was
Edward Warner agent here for years.
knew him WELL
And Elizabeth, in her very business
like manner would admit then that
her father had been the agent before
her and that she had been his assist
ant every since she had been out of
school.
A passing glance at the old Long
Island station would bespeak the pres
ence of a feminine hand. There were
flowers in the garden in spring and
summer; flowers in the windows in
winter. There was a bird singing in
the sunshine above the agents desk;
there was a clean drinking glass; there
was general order about the old
fashioned station building.
There was one thing that Elizabeth
did every day that was not strictly
business-she watched carefully over
little automobile that stood day after
day opposite the station as carelesSly
and as carefree as if its owner had
stepped inside for a moment only.
But the owner of this little machine
was in the habit of driving down to
the 500 train each morning, jump
ing out of the car and onto the train.
leaving the machine where it stopped
nosed UP to a high wooden fence. At
night with all the confidence in the
world that his little car would be
waiting for him, the young man would
Jump off the o'clock train, crank
r. n the
hill to his bachelor home. Little did
he know of the devotion of the pretty
station agent to the welfare of that
car all during his absence.
Aren't you afraid some one viii
beat it with your Liz, Linny?" his
friends were, wont to ask him.
IF I were" Linnickson would re-
ply, ct wouldn't do it. That cars al
most human; don't you know it?'
About as human as its owner. ia
say" one of the boys added, with a
touch of sarcasm:
Following this conversation, two of
Billy Linnicksons friends decided to
play a trick on him and take some of
the confidence out of him. By rather
clever ruse, and taking the little sta
ton agent into their confidence, they
took the small car away one Monday
morning just after train time.
At o'clock. when Linny arrived, his
car was nowhere to be seen.
Miss Warner" he asked, addressing
the agent, have you, by chance, seen
my car today?"
! Elizabeth, whose skin was a won
derful creamy white-the sort that ac-
! companies dark, red hair. blushed and
looked confused, much to. her own
chagrin. No. That is, I saw you
leave it this morning, Mr.. Linnickson.'
Linny observed the blush, also the
confusion. Why had he never before
observed the beauty of this young
woman?
:'Yes-I left 1t here as usually he
said. Some one has played a game on
me, I'm thinking" He looked at her
questionably
rs 1t possible stammered Eliza
beth. "Perha ps-perhaps some one
has-stolen it. she added lamely.
Linny laughed. Never! No one
would steal my little red-wheeled
Lizzie, Miss Warner. 1t has a charmed
| life. I'm just superstitious enough to
think that car is the luckiest of all my
possessions"
For some reason or other, Eliza
beth's blush grew deeper.
Linny went to the phone in the sta
ton, dropped in a nickel and tele-
phoned to his house to see if, by
chance, some jester had put the car in
| its own garage.
| Well he remarked after having
/ hung up the receiver, ST suppose l
Thanks, Miss Warner"
DO let me know if you find it,
! Elizabeth said earnestly.
shall II" Linny asked, a bright
thought having quickly come into his
mind. "Be-before tomorrow morn
/ ing?"
Elizabeth hung her head "Well-if
you like. I shall be worried, you know,
1 do not go home until o'clock"
At quarter before 8 o'clock that
same evening Linnickson appeared in
front of the Glen Cliff station in his
engine running, he entered the waiting
room. 81 have it," he said, all smiles.
MOI" laughed Elizabeth
| You're a little william and an ac-
cessory before the fact Miss Eliza
beth" he said sternly. And, for SEN
cessity for letting me take you home
in the car in question. 1 know it isn't
the car girl like you would choose,
| but-well, come along. VIII your"
Elizabeth demurred. She tried to be
| very businesslike in her dealings with
all the commuters but this one man to
/ whom she had sold a ticket every
month for more than two years had
become, to her. the object nf her
dreams. She had watched him III
I Sllence; she hao looked after his little
| car day after day and now
i Don't you want to conner" he was
asking.
/ "Yes-I do" she answered in a soft
/ voice, a voice he had never observed
the sweetness of before. Why had he
been so blind to the charms of this
| lovly young woman?
/ When he left her at her own gate
he saw her mother, whom he knew as
a resident of the village, looking at
him thru an upper window.
! will you ask your mother IL may
J take you out often, Elizabeth"
VIII you ask me first, please ?''
Elizabeth asked. saucily. Her embar-
rassment had left her.
Linny looked at her with things in
his eyes that he dared not put into
words. "Will you go with me often,
Elizabeth" he asked.
"Yes-if you think you can be re-
i sponsihle for Lizzie and Fiizabeth al