Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 230, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1917 — Rescuing Hettie [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Rescuing Hettie

By HI AKERS

(Copyright, by W. G. Chapman.) Hettle trudged back and forth from the box factory where she earned just enough to pay for the little, cold bedroom, the scanty meals and the cheap clothes, which were necessary to exIsfence. Her hours were long and her pleasures few. Was It any •wonder she went when she could to. the nickel movies, and reveled In the delights of another world than hers? Even when the films did, touch her own world, and the poor working girl was lured away into perilous paths, she so often was rescued by handsome young men, or rich women that she “lived happily ever afterward." Hettle shrank from entering the paths of vice. The movies had done much for her In the way of warning, more perhaps than many sermons might have done. But she was only seventeen, and she wanted some of the good thlngs. something of the joy of life. She did not want to suffer the horrors that happened to the screen heroines, but she did want to be “rescued.” If only some rich woman would adopt her. That was the dream that became her constant companion. It had happened to these other girls quite frequently, why not to her? The handsome young hero seemed such a remote possibility, that the probability of being adopted appeared to be a great deal more likely to happen. In her prayers for the latter boon Hettle had especially stipulated that the woman must be rich, for to be adopted by a ..poor woman, and put into the kitchen to do all the work did not seem to offer a pleasing alternative. It might prove an even worse life than that of the box factory. Never having remembered her own parents, there entered also into her dream the longing for the kind of affection which only the mother heart can give. It is not to be supposed that

the handsome young man played no part in the girl’s vision. No, he was always there. But she reasoned he was quite sure to appear at the proper time if she could go into the society where he was to be found. Clearly the only way out of it was to be adopted. It had not entered Hettie’s mind that some slight preparatory education in grammar, and the mode of speech required in cultured society might help some in the process bf acquiring an adopted mother. She had had a rudimentary school training ia the institution from which she went to the box factory, but her association with the girls of that section of the town, had not added, to the elegance of her language. Poor little Hettle! she was bright, kindly, and well-meaning, and her desires were only the normal ones of youth. Once she told a girl companion of her wish to be adopted, and was so laughed at and ridiculed, that she ever after kept her aircastles to herself. But her dream would not down. It became a kind of obsession. , Whether It was because her vision was in this misty region while her small body was in the path of rushing traffic in the great city, or whether fate took a hand, there came the awful impact of the automobile, and Hettle knew no more till she awoke in a narrow, white up into the faces of a doctor and nurse. She gazed about for the adopted mother, but there were only nurses moving around the place. Clearly something had happened, and the adopted mo f her ought to be a part of it, When she tried to move she found it very painful, and asked for an explanation, and was told she had been struck by an automobile, but that she would be all right in a feyr days. She asked whose automobile it was, and the nurse answered It was Mrs. Burlson’s, a very-kind lady who was very sorry, and had brought her there, and tojd them to do everything they could, and that she would be responsible for the pay. Hettle felt. - r> , .•■' ' ' ' ' *■ ' . .

sure her dream was coming true, and she asked the nurse when the lady waS) coming again. “She didn’t mention anything about coming again,” she answered. Then seelrg the girl’s disappointed look, she added: “But I dare say she will.” “Of course she will,” was Hettle’s confident reply. Hettie suffered a great deal of pain. But after all, ?he told herself she must expect that. All the girls on the screen who had acquired adopted mothers, and I|vcd happily ever after, had suffered in some way beforehand. The next day she was told a messenger had come from Mrs. Burlson, and did she wish to see him? Of course she did. ! A young man came in carrying fruit and flowers. He could not forone minute have been taken for the handsome hero. HIS fftce fflg quite plain, bronzed, lean, and with 4he disadvantage of a turmup nose. But his eyes were honest, his mouth kindly, and his form straight, and well knit. He came with a mixture of pity and diffidence to the forlorn little figure on the cot. He told her Mrs. Burlson wanted to know how she was, and had sent her the fruit and flowers. Rather awkwardly he told her how sorry he was. ' Then Hettle noticed he wore a chauffeur’s dress, and guessed he was the one who ran her down. But she was too busy thinking of Mrs. Burlson to bear him any grudge, and she asked him when Tire lady was coming? He did not seem to know, but said he would tell Mrs. Burlson that she would like to see her. The chauffeur came every day to see her. The second time It was to tell her that Mrs. Burlson was out of town, but that she had left word for him to Inquire every day about Miss Hettle Baxter. She found out his name was Julius Frost, and was always glad to see him, because he brought some message from her probable adopted mother. Julius was at first so filled with remorse at having driven over the girl, he was more awkward than usual in expressing himself, but after a time this wore off a bit, and he cheered the -patient with jolly stories, and cheering "promises, of how he~wanted to Take her for some rides in that very car when she was able to go. All this seemed in Hettle’s mind to point to the facVof a probable adoption into the family. At last one day Mrs. Burlson came. She was a very pretty, beautifully gowned young woman, much too young to be thought of as a mother, even an adopted one, and she spoke to Hettie in a cold patronizing way that so crushed and disappointed the girl, that Julius found her in tears. He was so kindly sympathetic that he drew from her the cause. She had hoped to flpd some one who would want her, even ' take her In her home —as her own. Then Julius found voice for the words he had wanted to speak. “Little girl,” he said, “I want you awfully. I’d take better care of you than Mrs. Burlson. It wouldn’t be lots of money, but it would be a comfy little flat for you and me. And she never could love you half as much as I do.” The answer must have been quite" satisfactory, for the day Hettie was able to leave the hospital on the arm of Julius, she was heard to say softly to him: “Honey, this beats getting adopted like dollars do coppers.”

She Awoke in a Narrow, White Bed.