Missouri Valley times., 1920-11-25
2. - = -, l, ,
Love-. Miracle
By ALDEN CHAPMAN
(@. 1920. Western NeMspanar union.

t@. 1920. Western Newspaper Union.l
"rll take the farm and pay cash for
1t" said Bert Noble. How did you
come to purchase it?"
Il got it on a, foreclosure" answered
William Breen. VI don't operate 1t
myself. 1t is leased to the man who
runs it. fon see, Horace Mayworth,
the former owner, lost all he had in
FOOLISH speculation. The present les
see hires him to manage the farm, for
Mayworth knows how to do that. !. His
| wife is dead, his sons married and
moved away and his daughter works
for and lives with milliner in the
village.
"As too well know" muttered No
BILE between his set teeth, and his eyes
cleaned vengefully. "Ah! nothing
could suit me better than to pay back
Horace Mayworth for the wretched-
ness he infused into my life when I
was his employee. It was more like
being n slave"
1t was ten years since Noble had
been Mt Clyde and he had returned so
changed that no one had so far recog-
nlzed him. He now paid $500 down as
forfeit money. He had left Clyde hat
ing the whole world. An f,lmshouse
pauper, Mayworth had taken him into
his service only to work him nearly
to death, to abuse him, to persecute
him. He had broken all the spirit
there was In the poor lad, and at last,
hating him bitterly. the place all
about. the Indifferent and despising
community. Noble had gone forth an
outcast morally and mentally with dis
torted views of the world.
He had led the life after that Of a
miner in the very worst district of the
West. He had gambled, had himself
become figure among those he could
intimidate. Hard-hearted,> With no In
nate human sympathy. he had ac-
Qulred fair fortune and had wan
dered back to the scenes of his youth,
he knew scarcely why.
A fierce Joy possessed him when he
\ learned OF the misfortune that had
overtaken Horace Mayworth. All!
what satisfying recompense in finding
his enemy fallen. There flashed
through the thoughts of Noble an i'm
pulse to secure mastery over the old
farm and its former owner, to Oppress,
to humiliate, to revengefully cause
him to atone for all the wrongs he had
wrought upon him in the past. Even q
memory OF the kindly friendship of
the daughter, Irene, in his early boy
hood days, did not assuage or divert
the resolve to pay back that old score
Of oppression and abuse that had poi
soned the whole life of Noble.
So the returned wanderer allowed
no one to meet him and none recog-
ntzed him. He gloated over fancied
revenge anticipating the rare pleasure
he would experience in Furnishing the
man he so fervently hated. Point by
point, detail by detail he planned and
plotted and cherished the climax mo-
ment when he should see Horace May
worth driven forth a pauper and
friendless.
One rainy evening he attired himself
In an enveloping coat and wore hat
pulled well down over his eyes. There
had come to him great curiosity to
once more see Irene Mayworth After
ten years the inspection through the
store window was revelation to him.
She had grown superlatively beautiful
and as he watched her, she all unsus-
pecting, he recalled how in that dull,
dark past she had been the one person
who had taken the interest of plying
friendship in him. Two men had
paused under the store awning to es-
cape the rain. He heard one of them
speak Irene's name and moved nearer.
"The grandest girl in Clyde" spoke
the man. "They say she has paid up
every dollar of some old indebtedness
Of her father, buys him his clothes
and otherwise cares for him with ten
derness and fidelity"
My wife told me last week that
Miss Mayworth was providing for a
poor family here, and she helps the
the girls at the factory by working
nights to trim their hats for nothing"
Half dozen evenings Bert Noble
visited the vicinity Of the millinery
store. Somehow it became species
Of fascination to him. Somehow, too,
the angelic influence of this courage
GUS, bright souled victim Of misfortune
softened his mood. She, too, had suf-
fered, but amid her desolation love
and sympathy had sustained and glo-
rifled her.
Bert Noble changed all his mean,
rancorous plans of revenge in single
hour. he completed the purchase of
the farm and appeared publicly. He
manifested himself to Irene and she
welcomed his return with genuine glad
ness. One day Noble went to see May.
worth. 1t was to hand him deed to
his former landed possessions. The old
man broke down with contrition. with
gratitude that seemed to bring a
blessing and peace and new life i'm
| pulses to Noble.
Instead Of perpetrating base re-
venge Bert Noble awarded peace and
! contentment to the last days of Hor-
ace Mayworth. The latter went around
a new man, confessing his past errors,
4 speaking as tenderly of Noble as
though he were his own son.
! What could come of all this but the
old bonds of youthful friendship ce-
mented into the more lasting ties of
love with the grateful Irene and the
i vearninO Nnhlp II vaS a now romonoo