Show sorrr rrrrrrJOJOrJQi JOJQirrJQrJOrxrrrrrrrrrJ Darkest Just Before Dawn H S By Matt Keating B JOCOCCCOBG0300CCOOOOGOOOOOOGOOOOOOeCOCC CCYeCYfJ SG 6 w hot father was dead haa been galled In tho railroad yards while coupling cou-pling cars at GO per month Her mother also was deadhaving spent tho small life Insurance money In a heartbreaking dressmaking venture for which she was eminently unfitted and then succumbed to pneumonia So Nina was left alone to work out the problem of life and In Its workIng work-Ing out she had finally landed In a department de-partment store as saleslady True the salary was not much only four dollars per week but to her lit was untold riches especially when sho reflected re-flected upon the status of the other girls Jesslo Maud and Ethel and countless others who were getting only three dollars for work much more abhorrent ab-horrent For bo It known Nina waa in thC stationery department on tho first floor which was comparatively well ventilated nnd she served people who had some sort of an Idea oa to what they wanted while Jennie anti Maud wero In tho bargain notion department de-partment In the stuffy Illsmelling basement where women shoppers knowing not what they wanted elbowed el-bowed mill fought for a vantage ground from which to paw over the stock and Ethel was under the sidewalk side-walk In a sort of tunnel which the store had stolen from under tho Direct where sho mechanically handed out tacks and nails to people who had pursued pur-sued them to this growsomo lair In tho meantime Nina was living with a halfsister whoso husband received re-ceived r 0 per month for nailing covers cov-ers on boxeR In tho shipping department depart-ment of a great wholesale house On this Income ho supported his wife and four pallid children who never load seen green things grow nor smelled fresh country air They charged Nina two dollars a week for her board and cot under th stairway and thought It was great luck to get JU Then she paid CO cents I a west car faro ten cents a week for her dues to the Salesladies Union and ten cents per week to the Medical Aid and Burial association us a sort of In suranco against sickness or death She was driven to this latter extravagance by the gloomy forebodings of her half sister and her husband regarding her possible Indeed probable Impending sickness and death the query being Wheres the money coming from to take cere of you and bury you The astute mathematician can easily figure that Nina had 110 per week with which to clothe herself and buy Ico cream sodas and chewing gum It was not a hilarious life In the meantime aha was growing thinner and paler and more tired every week It would havo boon plain to sty intelligent person were such interested ed In her that sho would not last long In such environments About thIs time there was another addition to her sisters family and her brotherinlaw being pressedto extremities Informed Nina that he would have to raise the price of her loard to three dollars per week This was a staggering blow to tho girl already carrying far more than her fair share of burdens All day long In the hot stifling store she blooded over It wondering vaguely how In the world she was to get along I at all if sho handed three precious dollars dol-lars to her brotherinlaw each week And then there was that muslin dress she hud been coveting so fiercely for so many months and nearly attained too Of course that must be given up and all the other nice things of life She must hereafter toil on enduringly with only the hope of paying her brother inlaw for her board and lodging and money enough over to pay car fare Communing thus heartbroken and sick with ftar she staggered forth from the store to catch hor car home I home oh what a travesty on the word a dismal Equalld cottage filled with tho walls of neglected children the complrlnlngs of an overworked wife and till sordid demands of an Incompetent Incom-petent master Her cup indeed wins full Jlo gong of a street car clanged fiercely just before her and awakened her from her reverie Sho stepped quickly back and found herself directly in the path of an approaching spirited team of blacks the control of whom tho driver seemed to have lost To go forwaid was to meet certain death under un-der the iron wheels of the street car to remain was to fall beneath the hoofs of tho horses On top of all her strenuous stren-uous mental strain Nina collapsed and sank to tho ground in n swoon A cry of horror went up from the passengers ou the electric car and from tho pedestrians ou tho sidewalk I all of whom expected to see the girl l11an > toll to death beneath tho Iron shod team Even aa tho gasp of emotion and sympathy wont up however a tall thlotlc figure clad In tho uumlsUik able habiliments of tho west swung from the car and with tho precision ot tho trained horseman grasped tho caring horses by tho bridle reins and with the strength and knowledgo of the plains throw them sideways with a force which made them swerve in nearly u hull circle Thou carriage barely touched tho unconscious form of tho girl as It swung around A second later tho big man under the slouch hat had tho girl In his inns like dime was a baby and was striding toward tho corner drug store at n rico which would havo mado an ordinary man run to keep up with him It developed ttiat the fainting fit was not serious at all and was duo wholly to fright and to tho nervous strain the girl had boon under Thoro WIts no physical Injury at all and sloe soon recovered Tho tall stranger however Insisted on taking her homo In a cab sho had never been In a cab before and when ho paid the cabman hq pulled from his Inuldo rocket a roll of bllla which nuulo Nina gasp In all her life she had mover seen so much money Nina thanked him with an expression expres-sion In her eyes that made his heart boat faster than It over had thumped In all his life and emboldened him to ask her If ho might call on the following fol-lowing evening and ascertain If there woro any bad effects of tho accident My name Is Thad thinker said he bluntly I live In Oklahoma and camo hero with a few carloads of cattle cat-tle I Bold em at a thunderln good price and thought I would stay over a day or two and see tho slghta Im allllrcd glad I did cause there didnt seem lo be nobody about who knew a blamed thing about a horse and youd been all in In about a minute So he called tho next night causing r almost as much surprise to Ninas sister and her husband and tho various vari-ous children as tho cab had caused tho night before There was a wheezy and jitifty old mclodlon In tho stuffy little parlor and Nina played for Mr Bunker Hor playing was very Indifferent Indif-ferent but Thad thought It was tho grandest music ho had overheardnnda great desire came over him to buy a brandnew melodion and ship It to his lonesome homo In Oklahoma and then carry Nina along with him to play It for him forever What ho did however how-ever was to Induce her to lay off from her work on the following day mind show him the mysteries of the park It was a redletter day In Ninas i life In moro ways than ono In tho first place she had never laid off from work on a week day since sho could remember Nor had she ever been escorted I es-corted about by a man nor had sho i over been treated to such a lino dinner In so line a restaurant in fact never I had money been spent for her personal pleasure Hut the great thing was when he anko1 her to marry him and go to Oklahoma Ok-lahoma with him assuring her that ho loin two sections of the best land In tho territory nil under cultivation and paid for plenty of cattle and money in the bank And sloe placed her hands In his and turned to him a face so wonderfully wonder-fully transformed by the thrill of a I now emotion by happluuss by relief I from the dreadful burden of sordidness sordid-ness so transformed In fact that lie l scarcely recognized It as belonging to the wan girl he had picked from under un-der the horses feet Wenterners ways are peculiar and Thud Bunker Insisted that they should bo married the next day and leave at once lor homo as he wantel to know by ginger what them blamed boys are doln to the cattle And being a I big dominant westerner he bud his way Leforo they sought the preacher the next day they went to a music store and Thad bought the most expensive ex-pensive molodlon In the place and had It shipped by express so It will be I there by tho time we git there by ginger said he nAnd n-And under country skies with am t pie country fare and surrounded by love and respect the roses cams to Ninas face and the music sang all the tiiro In her heart and she worked so hard on the melodion that after a time she could really play nearly as well as her husband thought she could CtJyrlltbl 1S06 by Daily Story Pub Pa > |