The Coolidge examiner., 1931-11-20
Romance Comes to
Matte Lou
By CHARLES S. REID

~ ing her prettieSt, which was
very pretty indeed. as she appeared
in her new pink ch&mbray dress
which she had made herself, for
Matte Lou was an exceptional
seamstresS for her eighteen years.
Old Tench Arvey owned a small
store at the flag station of "Arvey"
on the Saddle-back mountain. Tench
was a sawmill logger. and his daugh-
ter. Matte Lou, kept the store and
the post office. once each day a
small sack of mail was taken off,
and one delivered to the train 90
ing up the mountain.
1t was said that the construction
engineers of the railroad had made
an error in their calculations when
the rOadbed was laid out up the
mountain, and had allowed the road
to be graded to a percentage of in
cline almost twice as heavy as had
been intended. Accordingly trains
stopped at Arvey. on flag, only on
the way down. They dared not
come to a stop going up. as it would
have been next to impossible for
them to get going again toward the
top of the mountain on such q
grade. Passengers going north were
compelled to board the south-bound
train, and catch an up-bound one
It a junction at the foot of the
mountain. The mail bags were de-
livered TO the trains from an arm
which had been prepared near the
track
Matte Lou had to climb a small
ladder in order to hang the mail
bag upon the arm from which il
might be swept by the hook at the
car door.
She had been standing on this
ladder, two 'rungs from the ground,
when romance came for her that
day, four months before. 1t was the
morning when the new mail clerk
had gone up the mountain on his
first nm on that division. He was
a young fellow. with laughing blue
eyes, and crinkly brown hair. He
had been looking ahead from the
car doorway when he espied Matte
Lou. Squatting on the dOOrplate,
he had swung down upon the lever
of the mail hook as the train rolled
by Matte LOUIS ladder; and he had
cried almost in the girls eGr:
Gee, but you are a peach of
girl"
Then he had waved back at her,
as the train slowly climbed the
grade beyond. Since that morning
Matte Lou had been dreaming. al
though she knew there was little
chance of realization. She told her
self she was not in love with the
mail clerk, but it was nice to think
of him as a sweetheart.
Once he had dropped at her feet
by the railroad track a large box
of candy. Matte Lou had never
tasted any candy that had been half
so delicious. The second day fol-
lowing this she had tied a bouquet
of mountain wild flowers to the
mail sack which she hung on the
arm. And this time the mail clerk
had kissed his hand towards Matte
Lou, as the train climbed the grade :;
and his eyes had seemed to be
laughing with unusual happiness.
The train on which he made his
return trip always went down at
midnight, so Matte Lou never had
seen him. except on moving train.
His days up the road were Mon
days. Wednesdays and Fridays. To-
day was Friday. Matte Lou had
done her hair after a most bewitch-
ing fashion, and had tied a ribbon
about her neck, Also, she had
gathered a large bouquet of the
choicest wild azaleas from the
mountainside and had tied them to
the mail bag. Then she mad seat
ed herself little way up the track,
so that she might see Joe Perry in
the moment after he had caught the
flowers.
Presently the long station signal
fell upon her ears, and her heart
leaped for joy. Slowly the locomo-
tive labored up the track with it's
train. AS the mail car rounded a
little curve just below the station,
a head and shoulders were thrust
from the doorway. Instantly Matte
Lou sprang to her feet. The man
in the mail car was not Joe Perry,
but big, middle-aged man with
whiskers on his face.
Like the wind Matte Lou flew to
the ladder. Scrambling quickly up
ward she sn&tched the flowers from
the mail bag just as the hook
caught it. With the aZaleas caught
to her bosom she ran back to the
down again, with her back to the
train.
A moment later something hap
pened Two cool hands had slipped
about Matte LOUIS face from be-
hind her head. and had covered her
eyes. She arose with a bound,
and wheeled about When her eyes