Show fly y Sister BOYS usually do not appreciate their sisters this may be a narrow assertion but I speak from experience I suppose suppose suppose sup sup- pose it must be so because boys like to tobe tobe tobe be what they call manly and think it very unmanly to show any affection for a girl I had a sister and now that the time has come when I look back to the days spen spent t on the old farm of course there are very many pleasant recollections but there always appears a cloud over my thoughts to mar the their r serenity Indeed I am very penitent now I regret regret regret re re- gret my treatment of her Cora was my youngest sister and a adear adear adear dear girl Her nature was a dreamy one so much so that I think she forgot her troubles in reflection She would have done anything in her power to please me but it was some time before I learned to appreciate her At school I was one of a crowd of boys who were very justly called devilish ilish We went about displaying our right to the title A creek reek ran immediately back of the school Our chief delight was to roll boulders into this creek at the exact place w where where- re the road went th through ough it thus making it almost for people to cross with their teams The school master had k kindly told us to quit rolling these stones into the creek but his warning was unheeded The result was that he gave each of us usa usa usa a severe sever thrashing We held a secret meeting in our barn after school was dismissed and decided to get revenge with interest by burning the school- school house It was the custom to have the boys of the school take turns as janitor of the building which had but one room an assembly and recitation room combined When the time should come for one of us to be janitor the plot would be carried out My turn came first I took my time so that it would be almost dark by the time the work w was was s finished The boys came presently and we prepared to 10 get our revenge To make our work more certain certain certain tain the boys brought a can of kerosene We We- carried the table to one corner of the room and placed a chair on it I moun mounted ted the chair and tore a large amount of lathes and plastering from the ceiling then placed in the hole thus made some shavings saturated with kerosene light it I asked Bob Cook responded and took my place on the chair He was about to apply the match when the door opened and fifteen or twenty men walked in among them our fathers Bob Cook get down off that chair Bob got down off meantime begging begging begging beg beg- ging his father to let him off easy His father seized him by the collar and after giving him the worst shaking he ever had thrashed him until Bob cried for mercy Meantime the rest of us had undergone undergone under under- gone gon the same state of misery We Wethen Wethen Wethen then left the building building and and went to our homes I entered the room where my mother brothers and sisters were sit sit- ting I hung my head Cora ran to o meet me Oh Danny she Danny she cried I heard you and the boys say you were going to burn the school-house school so I told father I didn't want want you to be a abad abad abad bad boy cause I love you She had her arms around my neck by the time she finished speaking and we wept together For the first time in my life I appreciated appreciated her Yes Cora you were quite right I said as I kissed her far more far more lovingly than I had for many a day I enjoyed that winter more th than ri usual because I was happy in the appreciation on of her love When the deep snow at last melted and the flowers again began to bloom we spent many happy hours together searching the hills and forests for new pleasures She died many years ago but I can cannot cannot cannot can can- not believe she is forever lost to me I often wander through the fields an and forests she loved so well but I cannot entirely accustom myself to her absence N Nature atur is not to me that loveliness it was when she was here Yet I feel that in some ways I am even richer than before she left us Has not her love lov impressed me le leaving ving me with a firmer belief in immortality The day slowly fades The sun of life is sinking behind those hills beyond which I am convinced there is a para paradise paradise paradise para para- dise where she and I will roam together r. r Even now I think she is hovering near me My imagination pictures her clothed in purest white and beckoning to me Earthly things attract me no more I long to know I her again h Shady dy Stringer er |