The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1920-09-24
The
Scarecrow
By RALPH HAMILTON
&c. 1920. Western Newspaper Union.)

she lad reached the very height OF
earthly felicity when she became the
sole owner of home of her own. For
fifteen years she had taught school,
carefully saved her money and now at
thirty-five with paid up annuity pol
Icy bringing her forty dollars a month
she had settled down amid beauty and
comfort.
TIE house was very pleasantly ar
ranged and there was two-acre gar
den. This latter had been neglected
and Miss Burton had great ideas Of
improving 1t as she accumulated the
money to do so. An orphan niece, Ny
ra Davis, had come to live with her,
bringing the furnishings of two rooms,
inherited from her mother. The ar
rangement was that Myra should as
sist about the house, and If they could
get little fancy work to do they
would join In this feature of increas-
ing their income.
1.-THE first thing we must do is to get
that old chicken yard in order" said
Myra. 1T will take about fifty yards
of poultry netting to patch up the old
fence and new gate must be made
for 1T. There's laying boxes to get for
the chickens, too, and the inside shed
ought to be whitewashed. You'll leave
all that to me. won't you, Aunty?"
Miss Burton was fully agreeable to
this arrangement. Her own hobby
about the place was cherry tree that
occupied the center of the garden. 1T
bore for the first time last year." a
neighbors tell me-" she said to Myra.
"There was only little fruit then, but
this will be good year for it. All my
life I've longed to be able to put up
fruit raised by my own hands,"
So Miss Burton sprayed the tree and
watched the buds grow into little green
globes and cleaned and polished some
old fruit jars and made great prepare
tons for the harvesting of Ter treas
ures.
Meantime Myra lived in q sort of
elysium of delight. Her forte was max
ing things spick and span and keeping
them so. She was trying to straighten,
stretch and attach q roll of poultry
wire to posts one afternoon when a
young man of about twenty-five came
along. He was rolling lawn mower
and had small canvas bag, evidently
containing tools.
"Just let me save you time and
trouble, young lady," he spoke briskly.
you've got too pretty fingers to
scratch and mush up with such rough
work. Using nails? Or, that won't
do! Here's what you need for lacking
and holding wire," and he took from
his kit a box containing u-shaped
brads.
Myra liked his face and manner
anybody would, for he was all smiles
and good nature. He looked as If he
would feel hurt if she declined his
help, but she said, ave are doing most
of the work around here, Aunty and
myself. We haven't got much money"
"Ot, that won't be work for me-" de-
clared the young man. "Pve got lit
tie leisure. Now then, you take this
awl and hold the wire true while ]
nail. That's it. Famous! Just getting
ready to make farm of the place,
Ell? I'm picking up sort of tempo
airy living staying here for week or
two. | know something about garden
work and if you don't mind I'll drop
around once in a while and give you
some points"
ooh, if you would" exclaimed Myra,
\. FOL of IfSc
Burton's agricultural ambitions. 1t led
to her interested visito, telling her
something about himself. His was
curious story. He gave her his name
as Archie Lull, and related that he
had come from another state where
he had been in charge of grain ele-
vator for a wealthy relative. One day
maudlin produce buyer had quar-
relied with his wife in the elevator
office and had struck her. All the man
hood Of Lull resented the brutality.
He had given the man the trOuncing
of his life. The latter was influential
and threatened to prosecute Lull to the
limit.
ut was cowardly to run away" con-
feSSpd Lull, ''DuC WIS tlTeu VI TIE
monotonous job anyway, so I've sort
of made myself scarce"
He was tireless worker, well In
formed, agreeable and accommodating
and he made many new friends. He
won the heartiest appreciation of Miss
Burton by putting up scarecrow to
keep away the robins and blackbirds
from her precious cherries and cur
rants.
In making the scarecrow Lull had
used can old coat Of no value" he de-
clared. "tOo loud to wear on the
street-just used Ii inside the eleva-
tor Office" 1t was conspicuous and did
its work well. One day man motor
ing by halted and came up to the
fence.
young lady," he spoke to Myra, Eek
cuse me, but that coat on your scare
crow strikes me as familiar. Would
Won tell me something Of its owner"
and then. as Lull appeared, he extend
Ia l. ia, "a