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Show 1 jptop awmF )j Imjgj&S'W Illustration by llll CT.kW,.Mtrrlll Ce. W.N.U- Si-P-VICt school assembly room, the room that was used for church dinners, socials nnd the like. This luncheon was to take the place of a home reception. The details of the ceremony had been carefully practiced. Horace Langley, with Eddy Jackson a his best man. was to wall in the small room at the left side of the pulpit The bridesmaids brides-maids were to gather in the primary room, just Inside the main entrance. Helen decided that when aU the Invited guests sat silently waiting within the church, she, with her father, fa-ther, would walk quietly across tbt Intervening space from parsonage to churchsuch very little way-sod way-sod while Ellen rook Um on around to the pulpit room on the right of the altar, she would Join her attendants la the primary department ror fully a week, although but tea days bad elspsed sines the forging of the first link that was to grow Into aa endless chain of sliver dimes. Ginger Gin-ger had dogged the steps of the postman, post-man, "Letter for met There's not? That's funny." But oa the very day before tbs wedding, as though 10 Oil her cup to otter overflowing, the postman delivered deliv-ered three letters addressed to B. Tolllver, all In strange handwriting. "Well, that's funny." summered Ginger, snd held out a trembling hand, and with the gnllty consciousness of the evildoer, sura die very postmaa must be suspicious of such a sudden burst of correspondence, she added, "Bunch of ads, I suppose." She was so excited that she fell off the ladder three times before she Anally got herself her-self and ths three letters Into tba attle studio under the dormer-window. She was trembling nervously. Bar chilly lingers tore uselessly at the stiff paper, she bad It open at last, a dime rolled out upon the floor. 8be seized snd kissed It. . "You're my nest egg." she whispered, whis-pered, "you're my lucky piece, you're what some dumb farmer would call pay dirt" , She opened the other tetters, three dimes resulting. A son of stillness came over her. 8he sat, huddled Into a small bunch on the old stool and read the letters pleasant letters, sympathetic "It Is a Joy 10 help In such good work," "God bless the cause," "Pleasure to sdd my mite." "The darlings." said Ginger. "The dear, sweet generous. Christian souls." Ginger had a significant hahlt of Judging one's ITbrlstlanlry, not by hta thoughts, but by hlf contributions. Three dimes to her represented three devout Christians. Very still she sat on the old stool, very quiet enveloped In a sweet and grateful gladness. Her mind leaped swiftly on, to expensive curative treatments for her father, new rich furniture to replace their threadbare shabblness, coal and steak and chickens She kissed the letters, one after the other, and crumpled tbem In her hand, to be burned. "Little white angels," she called tenderly. ten-derly. Then she cast about for a proper receptacle re-ceptacle for this Incipient fortune. Three dimes, of themselves, did not require much treasuring, but the btgbly imaginative eyes of Ellen Tolllver Tolll-ver looked already upon the thousands and thousands. In neat Utile sucks, that were to come. In another part of the attic she ferreted out an old doll's trunk, very dusty, very shabby, but stout well made, with a strongly hinged top. snd best of all. with the old lock still Intact and the key dangling from a string. Within It, aide by aide, she laid the three dimes, and turned the key In tba rusty old lock. Then she moved everything else off ber desk, and directly In the middle of It she placed tba trunk, royally alone. The key she thrust unconcernedly un-concernedly Into the table drawer. She was not afraid of thieves. Her sigh was a great and glad one. "At last fortune smiles upon the parsonage, par-sonage, and all the Toll I vers In If she whispered Joyously. "Perhaps not much of a smile so far just a little giggle, hut a nice little giggle. The poor little church mice are going to surprise folka one of these days." She wished greatly to tell ber sisters sis-ters of this sudden turn in the tide of the family fortune, but that tittle Inner monitor, which Ginger most on-acrtpturally on-acrtpturally called a hunch, warned her against thta confidence, and she buried herself and her seething emotions emo-tions as well as she could In plans for the following dsy. Long before the high hour of noon on Helen's wedding day, she was daintily arrayed In her blue organdie, pirouetting up and down the hall from room to room, hurrying everybody, criticizing the general appearance of ber sisters, ofierlng endless pert suggestions, sug-gestions, and always Inciting them to greater haste. (TO BB CONTINUED) over and over, adding a word, omitting omit-ting a word, substituting a word, until tba final version seemed Impoeslbla of Improvement The question to whom the letter should bo sent was subjected to deep thought Indeed, It was more than thought so deep It was. Men, she knew, were more rasceptlble than womea to -personal appeal particularly particu-larly when the personal appeala came from not unattractive girls. But women wom-en were more superstitious and would be more reluctant to bring npoo themselves them-selves tbe Implied curse thst wonld result from a breaking of tbe chain Women, then. Aa for location, she was not particular, par-ticular, except that It would be best to start at some distance from Red Thrush. Methodist Interests are closely close-ly allied In neighboring towns, and she realized the lmMrunce of protecting pro-tecting the family name. Now Ginger herself was deeply enamored of the chain letter Idea, to her It smacked absolutely of tbe hand of Providence. But one could never know just bow fathers snd older slstera would react to things, hence she realized It would be tbe parr of discretion to avoid questions whose answers could not be evaded. Ginger's unfailing resource In sn emergency was the dally press. 8 be got the last Issue of the Burlington Burling-ton Hawkeye, and studied IU columns. col-umns. Now, theoretically, a chain should start from single link, but aha was not willing to trust the foundation ot her fortunes to one small dime which might not be forthcoming. forth-coming. She decided upon three as a fair start "Three links are better than one." she said thoughtfully.'' "And If It starts three chains, so much the better.". When ever she came to the name ot a woman mentioned. prominently, she put her finger on the place, closed her eyes, and tried to get a vibration about It Finally the three letters were written, enclose In envelopes, addressed, and Ginger took them at once to the corner mull box. and put them In. "Ah," she breathed ecstatically, as she turned back toward the parsonage. Her heart was as light as tbe wings of a butterfly. It seemed to carry ber borne. Already the old house looked a new place to her, a may place, bright with flowers, fresh paint new furniture. furni-ture. Thousands upon thousands, Helen herself bad said It Thousands upon thousands "Oh, 1 wish 1 had asked .or quarters," quar-ters," she thought "Such a very good cause, nobody could begrudge It" Had It not been for tba pleasnrabls excitement attendant upon' Helen's wedding, Glngei felt she could oot possibly bare endured tbe strain of the days that followed. Her con 9-dence 9-dence In the outcome of her chain letter let-ter home-for-the-bllnd waa absolute. Winters might come, with- their consequent con-sequent coal and coat bills, daughters daugh-ters might go, with their petty love affairs, but Ginger Ella and the chain letter would go, on for ever. Plans for the wedding took precedence prece-dence over everything else, for Helen, yielding to the argument that for ber In this case the way of genuine sacrifice sacri-fice lay In gracious acquiescence to plans already made, proceeded calmly with her arrangements. She knew In ber heart that she would bave preferred pre-ferred a mora apparent display of ber unselfishness. She would bave enjoyed a real martyrdom. She would have been proud to stand gloriously forth, to ber father, ber sisters, snd Red Thrush, giving up her marriage for a year, for fen years, for ever, U need be. But she was honest enough to realize that the course of true denial followed another channel Mental rest the doctors had prescribed, pre-scribed, and that could never be bad In the sacrifice of his daughter's plana Tbe wedding was to be held in tbe church, with the girls of Helen's Sunday Sun-day school class, tbe Rutbeans, serving serv-ing a buffet luncheon In tbe Sunday 4TORY MOM THE iTART la the aauallf ealet homo oi Rev. Mr. Tolllver of Had Threah. Iowa, hi motharlaaa dauahtara. Halen. Miriam and Bllaa "Ola-Car "Ola-Car Ella" ara huay "aroomlne' thalr alatar Marjory for partial, patloa to tbe 'baauty paaot" that avanlne. With Eddy Jack, eon, proaparoos ronna tarmar, har aaoort, Marjory Uavaa for tha eotlclpatad triumph. Ovtr work baa effortad Mr. Tolllvar- eyao to tha point of thraataoad bllndaaaa, Olngar.haa triad la many waya to add to iba family alaoder Ineoma, but aba I act dlaoouraaad. Marjory wloa tha baauty prlao, 160 . Bba lvaa tha monay to har father aa part of tha expeoa eaeaaaary ror tha treatment of hta ya by Chteaa paclallat. Mr. Tolllvar laavae' for Chlcaae with Miriam. Olna? maata alaaaodar Murdoch. Mr. Tolllvar return, the doctor arv-loa arv-loa him litti hop. CHAPTER IV Continued "And everybody who buys one, will sell four more" "And It all started from one. One, single, solitary, little one." Tha girls talked on and on. But Ginger drew herself swsy from them, sat enwrapped In Unpenetrable thought. She remembered the old chain letters. let-ters. They had coma with some frequency fre-quency s few years ago, prayers for almost everything, for tbe sick, for foreign missions, for prohibition, for fundamentalism, for the second coming com-ing of tba Lord, for the release of anarchistic prisoners condemned to death "And everybody aends It on to so many more, and every ona of tbem sends it to so many more, and they aend It Ginger got up suddenly and went out of tba room.' 8ba walked dltzlly. She went upstairs, got the short ladder lad-der from tha linen closet snd balanced bal-anced It against the wail nnder the trapdoor. She noticed that her bands trembled. But she climbed carefully the ladder was old pushed up tbe trapdoor, and pulled herself through tha opening. From force of habit for she wss not then thinking ot trapdoors, trap-doors, sba locked It behind her, and made ber way carefully over tha beams to ber sanctuary under the dormer window. There she sat down heavily, to think. ' Sba thought snd thought and thought until aer bright eyes were so wide, so bright so blue, that of a sudden they seemed to hurt ber, and she shot them bard. Ber two small bands were gripped so tightly, with fingers Interlaced so closely, that suddenly aba knew they1 were throbbing throb-bing with pain, half paralysed, so that aha had to work them apart, slowly, a finger at a time. But aba did not atop thinking, "Chain letter on and on all over tha world thousands and thousands and nobody dares to stop because nobody no-body would dare to break the chain for the blind a home for tha blind-on blind-on and on and on." 8udenly Ginger burst Into, low nervous laughter, and laughed and cried and twisted her little bands, and rocked back and forth on the stool In an ecstasy. "Oh, oh, bow heavenly, bow perfectly perfect-ly heavenly I 1 never could bare thought of such a brilliant thing. Oh, as father says, 1 sea the hand of the Lord in this!" 8ha polled the stool to tha low table which aha nsed aa a desk, and seated herself with a professional briskness Indicative of tbe oneness of purpose which prompted her. Selecting three pencils from a large number In the drawer, ate sharpened them briskly. Then aha drew her pad of paper toward ber, and opened It Then ahe studied Intently, chewing ber pencil. She wrote s nasty line, snd quickly scratched It out Again she wrote, again she frownlngly discarded dis-carded It Several times she repeated re-peated this painful process, but at last as so often happens, persistent effort brought Inspiration, aod aha wrote fluently, without a pause tor thought "Our parsonage home for the blind la sadly In need of foods to carry on Ita noble work. Will you oot contribute con-tribute Ten Cents to this very worthy causet And complete the chain of good vibrations by sending copies ot thla letter to three ot yor friends In whom yon have confidence) In thla way, this valuable Institution will enlarge en-large Ita circle of friends and will be enabled to continue Its rare of tbe unfortunate un-fortunate and needy blind. "We depend on you. "Do not break the chain. "E. Tolllver, treasurer, "Red Thrush, Iowa." Ginger was greatly pleased with tbe formal tone of this letter. She knew very well that If she received such an appeal, she would contribute gladly U she had tbe money. She reed It - |