Connecticut western news., 1920-04-22
SALISBURY GIRL WINS
 SHORT STORY CONTEST
Mary L. Cooper Receives First Prize of Twenty
 Dollars

Mary L. Cooper of Salisbury, woS the short story contest conducted nf the Hartford "Courant" for hiah school students. Miss Cooper ak- tends Gilbert School in Winstea- Following is the prize winning storyc
 "Whenever I read Joyce Kilmegsn charming poem about that sweet oM man., said the Summer Lady who talks like book, "T always think of Henry Ford. His white hair, grey suit, cheery, sunny ways are exactly the ones that the old man in the poem had"
 Poor Summer Ladyl' But yud couldn't expect her to know our Henery Ford. She wasn't nativel4- she said Henry. We have to can Henery Henery so that he'll not get confused with the inventor of tho vehicle. (Henery's name is one. of our town jokes.)
 Let us hope that the Summer Lady never finds out Henery's trus character. That first summer she was here Henery was enough to de- ceive almost anyone. He sat out on his dimunutive grass-plot-cut by his daughter Lizzy; the sunlight On his white haircut by the sanSe hand; glad in a brilliant necktiaw- knit by his daughter Lizzy; clad im gray suit, oh, immaculate and un- wrinkled-cleaned and pressed by his daughter Lizzy. He loved tha bright little fiower-bed, in which ub never worked. Yes, there is no dount | knf xasa villain to have for an oldest inhahS- tant-he was over ninety; there Js also no doubt that his daughter Lizzy was most shamefully overworked for an elderly woman-she was over sixty. Henery was har-rd mas, and ruled her with a rod of iron. Lizzy, being of a yielding nature, submitted; not gracefully-we don't do things gracefully in Connecticfit but at least uncomplainingly.
 Besides being har-rd man, Hen- cry was subject to occasional fits of self-indulgence. don't mean thAt he drank, but he did love pork. NdG you know they were very poor<- there was only Henery's tiny pension -andHenery never took any exer- else, so that the pork made him vefy sick. Still, whenever that craving came on, Henery must have his bft-- good big bit-of ham or sausaga- It worried Lizzy terribly. She didn'h care for ham.
 One fall Henery told Lizzy tJ order the pig that they always god in the autumn, Lizzy flared out sud- denly.
 'I ain't going to'rder no pig" shst said, mot for nobody; not if tbe Governor'n Judge Roraback r MK. Robert Scoville all come on their pended knees t ask mel We can't afford it." Lizzy was not trying tS be funny. "An' it'll make the bothpx us sick to death. So therel You c'a storm n you 'cn rage, but you won't get no pig. I ain't never stood up to you before, and ain't never goin' to again-if you'll shut up about pork fevever n ever."
 Henery's keen old mind saw that it was no use to buster and storm; and so he took up an unexpected weapon. He went to bed, and stayed there, speaking only once:-
 "I dunno, Lizzy, but I 'xpect ft you've killed me. I ain't got ne stlen'th ner nothink. 1t must "a been the shock-you speakin' so ts yer poor ole father. Seems's if tn only thing I'd relish'd be s'm nice sassige."
 Probably no one will ever know the struggle that went on in LizEy's fr,I fho I Mm knew that she ought to call in the doctor; on the other hand-'I 'xpect t you've killed me-" What if the doctor said her father was dying of the shock. What if he said she was murderer? Murderer-murderer murderer The word throbbed over and over in her poor tired brain. And supposing her father died before the doctor came? Oh, murderer-mur- derer-murderer. Do they hang people any more? Lizzy's hand went N up to her corded old neck.
 After five days, almost crazy with horror and fright, Lizzy decided to end the suspense. When the doctor came, he noticed Lizzy's state, but being a man of wide and kindly tact, said nothing.
 After he had looked Henery over. he sent Lizzy out for hot water.
 "Jim," said Henery, "I didn't think you'd go fer to treat me like this-coming in unawares. I never thought't Liz'd send fer you, CT woodena done it. I might "a known, though, after how she acted up, com ing back at me fer wantin' her 'torder the pig"
 "Henery," said Dr. Chichester, q should think you'd be ashamed of yourself, pretending to be sick like a bad boy that doesn't want to 20 to