The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-10


 IT TITLE Miss Leonard had known
 4 Judge Apperton when he was not
 a judge nor yet full-fledged law. yer. It was then she had cherished the hope of some day becoming Mrs. Apperton, but the hope vanished with the coming to town of great beauty, Mildred Mott. That time and th1s were separated by many more years than the span of Mildred's life, but the acquaint- ance had never been renewed. whether she cared no one ever knew
 But then there was no one to know or care anything about her. She was just a little old maid with an injured spine. living alone. and skimping with all her might to live within her tiny income and hoping, also with all her might, that it would last as long as there was need for it. She was of very small consequence indeed. and the judge was the towns wise man.
 But, inconsequential as she was she had philosophy as satisfying as any he could have formulated. Shut ln and belpless much of the time, she had yet found a way to be happy. For loneli- ness and disappointment and depres- sion she had made world all her own. and to her liking Into 1t she nut the things she most loved, compan- ionable men and women, little children and innumerable birds and cats and dogs. The birds were just birds, the cats and dogs were likewise, but a harmonious, loving, loyal band. Her boys were sturdy, manly little fellows, her girls lovable and straightforward. Her men and women were those ot her books, the kings and queens of thought.
 Not that she dreamed of emulating, or ever in the body knowing any of them or anybody like them, but as she told herself, mouse may look at a queen, even from the obscurity of a small cottage in thriving town. Her men and women knew no caste. She was a nobody in the world about her, to be sure but she was one with them. She conversed with them as an equal, she argued with them, she entertained them and accepted invitations from them. She knew intimately the reasons for such and such a viewpoint. She watched, as a mother watches her babe the growth and working out of this movement and that. She was at home on board great ocean liners, i'll in the dim aisles of wonderful old cathedrals No studio of the living, or gallery of the dead was ever closed to her. Her acouaintances were in every land, her friendships in every walk of life. She vas a citizen of the world.
 But not soul suspected it, except the Rev. Freyer, who had baptized hef as an infant and ever since had been a loyal friend. After her pareD6s death and the accident which had resulted ST seriously. it was he who had encouraged her in her plans and studies and oD, tained for her the books she needed and which she would have been helpless without. It was he, too, who Sas to help bring a far greater happiness into her life.
 Little Miss Leonard was not club woman, but she had watched with great pride the building of a handsome new clubhouse in the now rapidly growing town. rejoicing that her mite was m corporated in it. When it was dedl- cated it was only natural that she should be present. Judge Apperton had been named as speaker, but at the iast moment a message came that he had been detained and requesting that Rev. Freyer take his place.
 The Rev. Freyer was nothing loath. Though an old man, the fires of youth were far from burning out and the ln- terest of the audience betokened the thought that he was no mea nsubstl- ute for the absent judge. But of a sudden he stopped. After a pause he appealed to a friend in the audience with whom, he said, he had recently discussed the subject, for an exact ren' dering of the turn it had taken.
 Little Miss Leonard sat very still stunned for moment by the unex- pectedness of the request, then she arose. She had hob-nobbed too long with the great of the earth to feel embarrassment and her voice, pleasantly modulated, reached every soul in the big auditorium. The audience, after the first amazed, incredulous start, lis tened with absorbed attention.
 She spoke briefly, but to the point, and when she sat she was conscious oi q sensation of having borne herself very creditably indeed The fact that her clothes were old-fashioned and un-be- coming did not bother her in the least They had been "on parade" at numer- ous affairs of state and at the courts oi kings. In fact she was not conscious of clothes at all. Her world was not concerned with such things.
 When the meeting was over acquaint ances of other times and people she knew by sight crowded about her. Pres aently, too, came the Rev. Freyer with the notables from the platform and last of all the judge who had unexpectedly arrived. He looked down at her, smil ing quizzically from his great height "Jesca'-that was the name he had given her in the old days-"Jesca," he said. You were quite grand. Con eratu1ations