Show 1 4 2 MH ta ii l lh ma 14 H t THE OLD SHOES 1 by GENEVIEVE ULMAR M H l MM M t lm 4 1 I am sorry to have to ask an immense favor of you mary began john rico in his clumsy but straightforward fashion it if it Is something that pleases you or does you any good brightly responded spondee his patient gentle faced wife dont be sorry john be glad tor for I 1 am bound to grant it you dear lovable sweetheart enthused john 1 I dont know how I 1 ever came to get you 1 I dont deserve you you have been imposed upon ever since I 1 married you just to it I 1 calculated that father had enough to care tor for the home brood as long as any ot of them lived you know how he went out to oregon with all his money bent on buying a big fruit farm and moving there you remember how he lama camo home dazed and telling telline an boing being beaten in a rough mining town to wa out west wo we could get no tr trace ace ot of the thirty thousand dollars he had taken with him tor for investments it was gone lost rather father died mother found barely enough left to support her to relieve her you consented to take the children wanted them you mean I 1 was delighted to have the dear little ones to care tor for well I 1 may as well I 1 reak break the final bad news went on john desperately mothers millinery venture has tailed failed she can struggle on no longer and hold on where are you going tor for mary was flitting bitting away fast as she could go whore am I 1 going she chirped vivaciously why to get the spare room ready and comfortable fast as I 1 can ot of course why sir air do you think 1 I am going to have honored company catch me unprepared you angel voiced john rice you have brought nothing but brightness and blessings to anyone coming near you johns mother was settled in the very best room in the house new life seemed to inspire her with her cw dren restored to ter her and marys maryn con cheerful smile brought radiant sunshine Bunah lne to her droop drooping droopS mg ng spirit things were not going well with john A cut in salary made him look serious but mary declared it possible possibly pos to meet the grocery bill without do privies dirig them bein t of enough to eat the mother contributed a few dollars a month to the household from doln doing some se sewing iving but john was worried for it looked vague tague and dark ahead then came a new surprise and COM and burden the brother 0 mary was crippled in ili an accad accident it at the tha mills where its ha had worked tho doctor said he would ie be an invalid for about a year harry estes could get around well enough but ho he could not do the hard work his former position had required requIre il harry was cutting away a dangling dandling piece of a shoe sole when old mrs rice noticed the tact fact why harry your shoes are pretty well gone up arent they she remarked that for soma same time harry tried to say lightly 1 I was thin thinking kirg proceeded proceed ad if mrs rs rice reflectively 1 I have some clothes and such up in the old trunk ot of my dead husband yes and I 1 am certain there Is a pair of 0 shoes he wore they are not new but certainly better than those you are wearing it if they fit you they might do walt wait ill 9 go and look them up mrs rice proceeded to the attic she returned shortly with the pair of shoes she had described and handed banded them to harry why they fit just famously ho he declared as he tried one on they would do me ma tor for six months it if they were patched up a little I 1 helped the file old shoemaker ou on central street carry in some leather supplies a few days day since ile he told me that made me a free customer in the way of repairs I 1 might need ill go and see sea him now the shoemaker was true to his promise harry sat in his stocking feet as the artisan began work on the shoes the worker had found the sole ot of tho the shoe quite regular and ordinary when lie ha came to the othor other however it hold held fast and firm and he had bad to dig hard bard to loosen two thin plates of steel ile he drew draw them out between them lay a little package done up in oilskin whoever wore these shoes shoe used this solo sole tor for a pocketbook observed tho the cobbler as he handed the oilskin packet to harry I 1 the latter unfolded it within rest ed a note or a check no a berti fiesta ot of deposit on an oregon bank tor for thirty thousand dollars harry knew enough of the history of the rice family to read the oracle pr promptly 0 m aptly he uttered an excited yell T then h 1 in his stocking feet ho he made a das it for horns homm the agitated mrs rice insisted on going straight to the local bank to be b assured the certificate was good there she lett left it for collection halt half to john and mary she directed it if we taken in the children mother would never have como come nor tho the old shoos reasoned the happy mary diary and oh ob john soe see the grand fortune that has come to us for duty well performed copyright 1915 by the mcclure mc clure newspaper syndicate |