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Show v: ,,f Xdited by Aunt Busy",) ZJ i DIRECTIONS FOE, LETTER WRITING. WRIT-ING. Write on one side of paper only. Do not have letters too long. Address all letters to "Aunt Busy,' Intermoun'tain Catholic. Denver, June 18, 1900. Dear Auntie: I have not written to you for a long time, but I did not forget you. I was very busy in school all last month, but now it is vacation. I am going out to Palt Lake to spend the summer. Do little children go into the lake. Aunt Busy? I hope to see you when I go. Good-bye. Your 'loving niece. FLORENCE DJIESSER. Aunt Busy is glad to know that you did not forget her. She knows that all of her boys and girls have been very busy. Palt Lake is a beautiful place to spend the summer days. Tes, indeed, tiny babies can bathe in the lake, some one will look after them. (Salt Lake City, June 16, 1900. My Dear Aunt Busy: How are you during the warm weather? wea-ther? I think it is very ht. I am having a fine time this vacation. I am going to be a little convert very soon at the Grand theatre. Are you going to go? Good-bye. Auntie, it is too warm to write very much. Your loving niece, STELLA ENGLISH. Aunt Busy is very well, thank you. and she does not think the weather very warm. She always remembers how much warmer it is in other places. Always make the best of your troubles, my little girl! Any Other "Way. "A telegram for Miss Archer." Every head in the schoolroom Was lifted in quick surprise and expectation. expecta-tion. Florence Archer left her desk and went forward, with changing color, to receive the yellow envelope whose seal so often covers fateful messages. The message was clear and concise, but entirely inexplicable: "Take the 9 1. in. ex press on P. & B. Meet me at Fluvanna Junction, S a, m., tomorrow, Thursday." The rest of the day was spent in hurried hur-ried preparation. Many of Miss Archer's Arch-er's friends opposed her going: even Miss Hall, the principal, seemed doubtful. doubt-ful. "Surely, my dear, your father did not know the difficulties in the way, or he never would have made such a plan for vou. Does he know that you will have to drive twelve miles after dark to meet this 9 o'clock express?" "Certainly, he does. Miss Hall. Father is perfectly familiar with all these routes," answered Florence, who continued con-tinued her preparations amid the protests pro-tests of her friends. "Please, girls," she cried at last, in desperation, "don't mention the subject ! again. Mv father is the wisest man I know; he "is the kindest man I know; 1 if there had been any other way better ! than this, he would have chosen that way. I am sure that he has made the best plan that could be made for me under the circumstances. Now you must help and not hinder me." This decided stand silenced Florence's troublesome advisers; it silenced her own doubts and anxities for the time. At last she was ready for the first stage of her journey. It was very cold and dark when she started for her drive. Part of the way the road was a narrow pass round the base of a cliff on h T-ifvht. with a deep gorge on the left. Florence got out again and again and walked over the most dangerous places, while the driver led his horses. "How could my father give me such a journey?" she thought, and again she settled it with the loving answer of faith- "If there had been any other , way that was better, father would have taken that way." Altogether, it was a most uncomfortable uncomfort-able and tiresome journey, and- it was not until the lazy winter sun of another day had gotten up that Florence reached Fluvanna Junction. Then from her father's strong, loving arms she was set down in a "Vestibule Limited," and the first face to greet her there was her dear mother's. When the three were comfortably seated, the father said: "Now, little daughter, I am prepared to answer questions without stint; but first let me ask one: What tfid you say when you read the telegram?' , "Of course I was surprised, father, ehe said. "Of course." "Of course, I was perplexed. "fdidwo'nder a little why you hadn't told me more about it." "Very naturally." "Then" Florence's sweet face was as bright as the new day-"then I just said to them all: "My father has done the best he could; if there had been any other way for him to do that w, better, bet-ter, he would have .done that .way. Her fond father gave her a bear's hug; then Florence heard the story: Her mother, whose health was delicate, deli-cate, had been ordered to Florida, and had agreed to go only on the condition that Florence should go with her. But the very day the decision was reached word came from the weather bureau that a big storm and a big drop in temperature tem-perature were traveling in from the west. "We had to outrun that storm, vou see. Florence, for the mother's sake; and the only way to get you in our possession pos-session was to give you that disagreeable disagree-able mfcht journey," said her father. "Was it disagreeable?" asked Florence, Flor-ence, lying back in delicious repose. "I had forgotten it. I would lake a dozen such journeys gladly, to go on such a lark with you and mother." "I might have explained the situation, situa-tion, but there was. not time for a letter," let-ter," continued her father, "and even a long and costly telegram would have left you uneasy, for you would have feared that I vas keeping back some thing." "I am sure I should." "So, my child, I deliberately chose for you the physical discomfort and the mental perplexity." ' "Your way was the very best possible, father,' 'said the happy daughterA Florence accepted thankfully and joyously joy-ously her happy winter. But as the years went on other trials and difficulties difficul-ties and doubts met her. and they meet every human being. She could not always al-ways see why they were sent; but always al-ways there arose before her that night's journey with its hidden meaning and its happy end. "Shall 1 not trust my heavenly father, too?" Florence would ask her- splf "Tin T nnt linmi' that if there vvas any other way through life better for me than this, that my Father would have chosen that way for me?" Then Taith would whisper: "When you see your heavenly father's face you will say to Him.too, "Thy way was the very best possible way." Elizabeth P. Allen in the Advance. Child's Fairy Tale. Auntie, listen! I'm going to tell you a story. Once there was a little girl outdoors playing with her kitty, and a Fairy came along oh, such a lovely Fairy, with long yellow curls and a soft pinkey dress. And the Fairy said, "Little Girl, come right along to Fairyland!" Fairy-land!" And the Little Girl got into the fairy car, and sat down beside the Fairy, and the Fairy said, "Up! up! up!" And up they went.oh so fast, you can't think! Oh, a great deal faster than the cars! Faster than lightning! Ten thousand times faster than lightning! And then they got up to Fairyland. And everybody was glad to see that Little Girl. Listen! I was that Little Girl. And the Fairy took me all 'round and showed me more pretty things than I could -count in aj whole year no, in twenty years! Do you ant to know what those pretty things were? Listen! All sorts of things! Carnations and geraniums and calla lilies, big beds of them, all growing grow-ing wild. And big flocks of canary birds flying about and and little white lambs! Do you want to know how the houses look? Listen! Very, very pretty! Some are made of gold, and some of silver, and some of glass, and some have pearls and diamonds on them. And we can coast in the streets all summer! I had a coast! A nice little boy with red cheeks lent me his sled. And I coasted very fast, to the end of the street. The children never get run over when they coast! No, never! Listen the sleds are fairy sleds, and they turn out theirselves. Do you want to know if they have stores in Fairyland? I think so, but I only saw one little one. What do you s'nose they had in it? Only two things roses and little babies! Wasn't that a sweet little Fairy store? And then we came home faster than we went and you did not know ,1 had been away at all. You thought I was asleep on the dining room sofa! Emma F. Leonard. A Kind-Hearted Governor. A timid little woman, carrying a baby, was about to enter one of the public galleries of the House of Representatives, Repre-sentatives, when she was stopped by the doorkeeper. "It's against the rules, madam," he .said, "to allow infants in there." "But this is my first visit to Washington," Wash-ington," she mildly pleaded, "and I am so anxious to see Congress in session." "I am sorry, but that's the rule," replied re-plied the inflexible Cerberus. At this moment a patriarchal looking gentleman with a wealth of white hair and whiskers, who was passing I and had overheard the conversation, apparently attracted by the disappointment disappoint-ment in the voice of the woman, . stopped. 1 "Let me hold the little one a moment, madam," he said, "while you go in and look over the great men." The mother was visibly embarrassed, but yielded. For two or three minutes the baby, who seemed to be entirely content with the new guardian, ran its chubby little hands through the elderly gentleman's whiskers and gave vent to a series of . delighted "goo-goos." Then the mother reappeared and thanked the unknown for his kindness. The next day, when she again visited vis-ited the House, the patriarchal looking gentleman who had held her bahy was summoned by Speaker Henderson to the chair to preside in committee of the whole. "Who in the world is that white-haired white-haired man?" she asked in great surprise. sur-prise. "That," replied her neighbor, who happened to be a Washington woman, in a tone of pity at the other's ignorance, ignor-ance, "is General Grosvenor of Ohio." Washington Letter in Philadelphia North American. Sharp "Words. You sometimes hear boys and girls say words at play with a quick, sharp tone, as if it were the snap of a whip. If any of them gets vexed, you will hear a voice as if it were made up of a snarl, a whine and a bark. We would say to all girls and boys, "Use your best voice at home." Watch it by day as a pearl of great price, for it will be worth more to you in the days to come than the best pearl hid in the sea. A kind voice is a lark's song to heart and home. Yes, wanted, a girl! a daughter, in thousands of homes, bright, smiling, helpful, always ready to hold the baby, set the table or sweep the floor, and to do these things so happily and cheerfully cheer-fully and well that the baby will crow, the table will look like a well-balanced picture, and careful, critical grandmother grand-mother will find no dust under the chairs or in the corners of the room. Wanted! a loving daughter, the touch of whose caressing fingers brings a happy light to the weary eyes of father fath-er and mother, the sound of whose cheery and mellow laughter is a joy to the whole household. Catholic News. |