Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 262, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 November 1916 — Milk and Honey [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Milk and Honey

By Frances Elizabeth Lanyon

(Copyright, 1916, by W. G. Chapman.)

“Do you think you can manage, Mr.—?” -—"Jim, ma’am; just plain Jim. Can I manage! Pm a gorger, ma’am, when Tm hungry, but that royal layout stumps me!” “If you’ll stay here and see that no one carries off the trunk, Mr. —James, I'll feel greatly obliged to you,” said Priscilla Davis, twenty-four, but sprightly as a girl of sixteen and Just as pretty. “You see, I am an old maid.” “Then I’m blind!” declared Jim chivalrously. “And this is my sister’s former home. I’m moving her over to Somerset, and she has notified Mr. Sprague, who roomed here, that the trunk will be left here for him. He will call for it tonight or early tomorrow morning.” “Yes, ma’am, I understand,” nodded the accommodating Jim. “Going to ride on the load? Hope you have a smooth journey. Fifty cents, a night’s lodging, and milk and honey and a big loaf of home-made bread, all for toting a few pieces of furniture to that wagon—ma’am, you’re a princess, and you wouldn’t be an old maid, or a young one, either, down where I come from and where they appreciate such qualities and beauty!” But Miss Davis, blushing, laughing, full of spirit, w’aved the speaker adieu, and the wagon moved over the hill. A harmless, ambitionless. natureloving “tramp.” the vulgar i>ublic classed it, Jim had happened along on his wanderings just in time to get a

job. He was jolly, without being familiar; he was chatty, without being a bore. He was clean-minded and wideawake and, old as he was, and shiftless as he was, had the fine sense to discern most estimable qualities in the fair woman who had treated him so kindly. All there was to leave for his supper, she had told him, was a quart bottle of milk, a cake of honey and a loaf of home-made bread. To the feast Jim now applied himself with appetite and speed. “It’s rich grazing, too rich!” groaned Jim, surfeited at last, and, stretching out on the grass near the front porch, was soon asleep. Now strange happenings were in the air that rare night of sweet sounds and hazy moonlight. About midnight Jim awoke. The sound of voices disturbed him. Dimly, he saw three men flitting his vision.

“Nothing but the trunk, eh?” queried one of them. “That's all ; house seems deserfeiL Tvetossed it in with the other plunder. It’s a good haul for one night, pals, and Darby ought to be satisfied.” “Say,” broke In other tones, “I’m dying of thirst. Can’t we find a well about the old place?” “We’ll see. Get a drink, and make for the city,” put in a third voice, and the three men disappeared around the house. ’ “H’m!” muttered Jim, getting to his feet, “they’re stealing the trunk. Yes, they’ve busted the front door open. And there’s an automobile out in front. I think I. guess the riddle. Drink and be merry, my friends, for you’ll have a long, dusty walk before you!"

Jim chuckled as he made for the road, looked over the machine, chugging low and steadily. He took in its mechanism with a practiced eye, for he had once done some .chauffeur work. Then he was in the seat. Gr-rr-up-zip! it started up like a mettled steed. Jim had sized up the situation completely. The three men were city thieves on a looting expedition, apparently financed by one Darby. They had stopped at the village, the halt at the house Jim was guarding being merely incidental. Primarily all that Jim cared for was the rescue of the trank, but, us, he glanced into the

( rear seat of tne machine and noticed ! various boxes and bags, he decided i that he had done something of real importance in divesting the criminals of their means of transportation, and their booty. Jim had a definite point in view as he whizzed down the smooth country road. He had gathered from what Miss Davis had said, the location of her new home. He had gone about 15 miles when he observed a trim feinlnine figure coming down the road, clearly silhouetted in the misty moonlight. He slowed down with a jerk and peered forward with a stare. “I declare!” he shot out briskly. “Oh, ma’am! —please, it’s me.” "Mr. James,” warbled up the melodious tones of Miss Davis. , “Yes, ma'am.” “And in an automobile?” “Borrowed, ma’am—that trunk and aH. But you, ma’am?” “The wagon broke down. It’s just ahead. It will have to stay here all night. I was going back to the next village to stay until morning,” explained Miss Davis. “Why not go to your sister’s, ma’am?” suggested Jim. “I’m a careful driver, being sober, ma’am. Besides, I want to get to some safe, sure place, for I’m thinking there’s a lot of valuable stuff in that back seat of the machine, and we want to protect it.” The eyes of his interested passenger glowed with keen interest as Jim recited the story in detail. They expanded to their widest after they reached her sister’s home. The trunk had not been opened. In the various boxes and bags they found a great mass of silverware, watches and the like. Obviously some jewelry store In the village had been burglarized. “I think I guess out just what has happened,” observed Jim, “and someone is probably worrying back there at Reedsville. If I may stow the automobile in that shed and sleep in it till morning, then I’ll go back my tracks, and see what turns up.” Miss Davis was up and around when Jim awoke. She suggested that they telephone Reedsville. Their call brought back a vivid response. The main jewelry store of the town had been looted the evening previous and nearly five thousand dollars of its contents carried away. Within two hours Roscoe Woods, a well-appearing, eager and anxious young man, the proprietor of the despoiled store, appeared in an automobile. He was overjoyed at the discovery that the entire plunder was intact. He had just started in business, and his entire capital was invested in the recovered goods. He insisted on pressing SIOO on Jim. He selected a dainty brooch and asked Miss Davis to accept It. for, indirectly. through. her, affairs had come about fortunately for him.

The police followed up the Darby hint. They located him as proprietor of a city gin palace and listed as owner of the automobile. To evade connection with the thieving gang he employed, however. Darby claimed that he had sold the automobile to a party he could not locate, palpably a lie, and Jim was left in undisputed possession of the machin'e? Very proud was he, in a brand new suit of clothes, seated in his automobile and making a fair living as a taxi servant of the public. He chuckled serenely when he noticed that the young jeweler, Roscoe Woods, came to visit Miss Davis a second time, a third, then regularly. And one day when he drove Roscoe up to the house, he noticed that his passenger took a look at a beautiful diamond ring, and guessed the natural sequence of affairs. “You dear man!” said Miss Davis, all aflush, as she prettily showed an engagement ring, a few days later, “I hope you never leave us. You have made everybody fortunate and happy all around.”

“Me leave!” chuckled Jim, “when finding you has made me quite a nabob ! No. indeed —more than ever do I see that I’ve struck a land flowing with milk and honey!”

Dimly Saw Three Men Flitting Before His Vision.