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Show of summer Mrs. Culberson became more fretful. Ruth grew younger and prettier, and Mr. Winter studied still later each evening. In blissful oblivion of the added heat of the gas jet ' Mrs. Culberson had long since ceased sitting up waiting for him to go, but bade him good-night and went to bed In the next room. One evening In early June 10 o'clock passed, and Mr. Winter had as yet made no movement toward going away. Ruth watched him closely, as she always al-ways did when he seemed engrossed with the words before him. and she noticed no-ticed that he had not turned a page for more than an hour. - He looked up-.at length and their eyes met. Ruth felt her face flushing again and, with the -realization of her weakness, weak-ness, the flush grew deeper. "It's a pretty knotty problem that I have been puzzling over tonight," he said, with a sigh. "Couldn't you find what you were looking for?" she said, softly. "I hardly know. I found the word I wanted. Wether it will ever mean to me what I would like it to mean I do not know. Here It Is. I have been looking look-ing at it a great deal lately." He turned the big dictionary round till she could read the line over which his finger rested upon. There was one word underscored with a pencil, and she knew it was the one he wished her to see. It was spelled 1-o-v-e. "Is that to be for me?" he asked. The blush had deepened into scarlet then. For a moment of exceeding happiness hap-piness transfigured her face, but a moment mo-ment later the old troubled expression flrove It away. She turned the leaves of the dictionary till she came to the worth "mother." "That's all right," he said, and nodded nod-ded toward the door. Away near the end of the book her next answer was found. "Ruth," called out Mrs. Culberson, a quarter of an hour later, "what made Mr. Winter stay so late this evening?" "He was looking at the dictionary, mother." "Did he find what he wanted?" asked Mrs. Culberson. "Yes, mother," said Ruth, "I believe he did." DA1LY SHORT STORY V-JaJ-u-u-u-iru-J i- as J A GOOD PURCHASE. "Ruth," asked Mrs. Culberson of her daughter, "what was the package that came home for you today?" "A dictionary," Ruth replied. Mrs. Culberson's dismay could not have been more complete had she been Informed that her daughter had brought home a boaconstrictor. "And what did you get that for, Ruthle?" she1 asked. "Because I wanted It," returned Ruth. "It must have been pretty expensive," hazarded her mother. "Yes," sighed Ruth, "It cost tenpence halfpenny." Mrs. Culberson appeared relieved, but not entirely satisfied. "It seems to me, Ruthle." she went on, querulously, "that a girl who works for 12 a week, which Is the only income in-come two people have to depend upon, ought not to be spending her money on a dictionary. If you had tenpence half penny to spare for books why didn't you buy three or four of those paperbacked paper-backed novels that would be of some interest to me, Instead of a dictionary?" diction-ary?" The Culbersons lived in a boarding-house boarding-house where dictionaries were a rare commodity. Indeed, Ruth's was the only one about the house except Mr. Winter's, which was an exceedingly small pocket edition that contained only the words In most common use. But somehow as soon as It became known that there was a large dictionary dic-tionary in Mrs. Culberson's room on the second floor and that everybody had been given free access thereto, the desire de-sire for knowledge was given a wonderful wonder-ful Impetus. But the person who found occasion to refer to the big book most frequently was Mr. Winter. Mr. Winter was a grocer. Of course, in his business he dally . met with many terms that required re-quired elucidation. Hitherto he had found the pocket dictionary perfectly satisfactory, but after the advent of the unabridged dictionary the much-worn much-worn green-backed little book suddenly lost Us usefulness, and never an evening even-ing passed that Mr. Winter did not rap at Mrs. Culberson's door and politely request permission to "come In and look at the dictionary a minute." His prolonged visits annoyed Mrs. Culberson at first. His presence prevented pre-vented her scolding Ruth, and as he himself seemed deeply Immersed in scholastic lore, thus forbidding open conversation with him, the poor lady's evenings became seasons of exquisite torment. "I don't know what makes' him coma up here so often," she said, pettishly, one night, after he had closed the dictionary dic-tionary and gone away. "He's an awful aw-ful bore." v , "It's your own fault he comes," Said Ruth. "You invited him." "Of course I Invited him." retorted Mrs. Culberson. "I invited all of them. Doesn't he annoy you?i' "No.-she said, softly. "I don't lenow ihat he does.". As the spring days took on the heat |