Hyder weekly herald., 1933-12-09
Wanted--An Uncle
By VIRGINIA GAY
C. by Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.
 WNU Service

CiX-YEAR-OLD Peggy dug her bare - brown toes Into the cool green dampness of the grass where the dew was beginning to gather. "Auntie Jo. whynt you get you a husband?' she asked Of the woman who was reading on the porch above her. If you did could have really truly uncle like the rest of the girls and boys In our crowd. Didn't you ever know any body that wanted to be your husband! Didn't you ever think about getting married?"
 Josephine Lawlor came down to where her niece was playing in the grass. to stem the tide of eager Ques- tlons.
 Peggy. of course there are men would like to marry. Don't you worry about getting an uncle. Maybe some day I'll surprise you. And now there are some good cookies in the big stone Jar in the kitchen" she said don't you want someT The handful of cookies succeeded In diverting the thoughts of Peggy with regard to her aunts amorous adventures. and when she returned with the cookies. she curled up in the porch hammock and soon was off to sleep. But she had started the train of forbidden mem- ories for her aunt.
 In the lot at one side of the house . baseball game was in progress; but as darkness fell It resolved into blind mans buff. crack the whip and a gen. eral melee. Lights appeared in the windows of the other houses on the street and In the little church across from Miss Lawlor's home. the choir had met for practice for the Sunday services.
 Josephine could hear the voices sing ing familiar hymn-''My Redeemer and My Lord" Through the open windows of the church came the fa- mlliar strains and she listened rev erently as she took her small niece In her arms. Then the spell was brok- en by voice from across the street Peggy's mother called for her daugh- ter.
 Josephine's voice was carefully pitched as she answered her sisters call-"Let her stay with me tonight She's asleep now" She held the warm little body close and gave herself up completely to the memories that some. times would not be denied. Swiftly before her eyes was unfolded that pageant of lOng-gone dreams Once she had thought about husband and about marrying. About holding her own child as she now held her niece.
 No wonder Peggy had asked. For Peggy had never known that gay lad whose gray eyes laughed into Aunt Jos darker ones. Peggy had never heard that deep and tender voice that had sounded as none other in Joseph tne Lawlor's ears. Peggy did not know what it meant to find ones hearts de slre-only to lose It.
 Over and over again the choir sang the familiar lines of the anthem. Vaguely Miss T.awlOr noted the con- stant repetition, but she did not know that the song was being repeated at the request of a stranger who had dropped into the rehearsal with the choir director and professed special pleasure in that particular song.
 Through years of waiting in the in- evitable shiftings Of the sands of time. Through change of scene and loss and gain in friends and family. Josephine Lawlor had stayed-waiting. Not she to forget. to find solace in lesser love even If the best were gone forever. Though the l0ng-ag0 sweetheart knew not where to find her now. she still waited for hlm. And kept her light burning In the window. Even six year. old Peggy knew the oddity of Aunt Jos lamp that was always the first to flash through the twilight of eve ming.
 The choir voices rose to a last ere scendO-"With my lamp well trimmed and burning!" The organ rumbled out the final chord. The lights flick cred out as the choir members slipped through the vestry and out to the