The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-04-26
Eoening Story
Buried Treasure.
BY DOROTHY DOUGLAS.

had spent his childhood, was the
place where his travels ended.
He hoped now to stay forever in
that place called home. Billy had
roamed SO long and SO exeitedly that
nothing in the world seemed any bet
ter than an anchor in the way of
the old house with its many fond
memories. He loved the large. old
rooms. with great yawning fireplaces
i in each. He loved the bit of tagged
garden in the rear and he intended
turning it into veritable fairy gar
den. The ideas he had picked up in
various parts of the globe were etched
| in his brain and ready to reproduce
| themselves in that square of garden
with it's high stone walls and its single
spreading oak tree.
It was while he was spading up
around the roots of that same oak
preparatory to carrying out a cicu-
! lar seat he had seen in a garden in
London that Billy found his buried
| treasure,
That old tin box flung Billy straight
back thru the years until he was a
| lanky boy of twelve summers. The
box was rusty and earthly and the
contents musty, but Billy was as ex-
cited as if the old broken knife were
famous diamond and the widowed
note a queens love missive. Also
there were a broken doll and five
marbles. The note. however brought
a swift laugh to Billy's lips Scratched
! on a bit of slate. as if with heart s
blood were the words 81 love Daisy.
I will always love Daisy"
| Billy sat long and amusedly gaz-
| ing at the treasure.
Daisy! Daisy! OH Daisy Rogers-,
a freckle- faced little imp who lived
| next door," laughed Billy.
| He remembered now having no.
ticed that the great house occupied
twenty years ago by his first love was
now an interior decorators studio ana
was called the Dragon. From the
number of cars parked against the
curb Billy imagined the Dragon to be
! most successful, but he couldn't help
| wondering to what part of the globe
| his little dove had flown.
| And because Billy was bit roman
tic and partly just to see if there
would be an answer, he decided to put
an advertisement in the papers.
He inserted it in all the dsilies'
whereabouts of Daisy Rogers, once
living at West Forty ninth street"
After that Billy went on with his
| landscape gardening, both in his own
property and that of others. Billy was
rather well known in that chosen pro-
fession.
Sundays he saved for his own
garden, and on that day Billy, in old
trousers and flannel shirt, enjoyed
working out his schemes in that small
back patch of property. The tin box
was lying on his library table-he
kept it there to amuse special friends
with Manga yarn of boyhood days
had been unearthed from other heads
by that buried treasure.
Billy was working in a great lions
| head in plaster against his stone wall
when he felt a bang on the side of
| his head. He glanced about for the
attacking party. suspeeting Ssmall
| boy. but was unsuccessful.
Good naturally he again bent over
the plaster. This time an Apple hit
him squarely on the top of the head.
His movement was too swift for the
miscreant, for she was caught red
| handed or perhaps red-headed, for
undoubtedly the head in the upper
window next door was red-a fiery,
tousled red.
| Billy gazed upward and the pert
little face in the window smiled down
at him.
Hello, BilIy!" she called.
/ Daisy! By all that's holy! Do YOU
| still live there? Come down, this
minute! 1 have something to show
YOU" He still gazed unbeIievingIy at
that head with its mop of red hair.
FOR Billy had called it a mop twenty
years ago and shamelessly he still
called it mop, albeit a FURNISHED,
coppery, wonderful mop.
You used to be a red-headed little
freckled-faced imp" shouted Billy.
and you still are a long-Iegged,
tow-headed = YOUTH! flung Daisy.
ana don't disgrace the neighborhood
remember, am dignified interior
aecorator-se stop shouting your flat
| terinS remarks. 1 am coming down To
see what you are doing" y
,,oplttlre-sane as ever!" grunted
Sllly' ana dashed thru to the front
aoer hardly realizing that twenty years
mad gone since he and Daisy had play-
ed together in those old gardens.
| Daisy rushed thru the front gates
ana INTO Billy's studio in much the
| same state of mind as Billy. Her
natik smock was of coppery silk that
matched her wonderful hair.
When they drew near one another
there was a breathless moment in
| which each hesitated before the hand
clasp. A moment in which each de-
Voured the other with hungry eyes
and eyes that took in each detail al
the others growth.
You stili have a few freckIes
across the bridge of your nose" Billy
found himself able to say, tho his
voice shook trifle. Her eyes were
wide and gray and intelligent.
"And you still have a growI in vour
voice" laughed Daisy, but that her
childhood pal had developed into a
splendid fafr-haired, clear-eyed giant
was printing itself into the recess OF
her heart.
Come here" Billy said swiftly and
dragged her, in much the same way
as twenty years ago he had dragged
her. into the library to see his --latest
treasure. ST found this in the gar.
den under the oak tree he said and
watched her closely.
My doll-that you stole from me, >
she cried and touched the broker
toys with fingers that shook. Mex
she saw the knife and then the slate
This she carried to the light tina
streamed in from the French window.
leading into the back garden and Bill,
came and stood close beside her
Il love Daisy" she read, 'I will al
ways love Daisy" she half turned t,
Billy, then quickly away. Tt
what silly things children think to do,
she said and her voice trenbled.
Billy was silent long. long momen
while ne contemplated the fluff o