Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 265, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1918 — Page 3

The Girl Under the Hill

By DONALD ALLEN

(Copyright, 1918. by McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) Travelers who came that way and ascended and descended the long hill, with the creek and the bridge at Its foot, always turned their heads to look it the old stone house built in colonial days..ln summer it was covered with vinAs and stood in the shade of the pear trees, and in summer the “girl under the hill” was oftenest caught sight of. Why the “girl under the hill” instead of Molly Thatcher? WeU, travelers would have it so, and nobody knew just why. She had been called so at sixteen, and she was still being called so at twenty. It onl y to inquire at'any house in the village beyond the creek to know she was the daughter of old Mart Thatcher, the pensioner, and a motherless girt Sometimes travelers saw the old man on the porch and the daughter reading to him as he smoked bis pipe; sometimes she was working among the flowers in the yard; iometimes from the open windows of the house, they heard her singing and paused to listen. When strangers met her on the road as she went to and from the village with her basket, they remembered that she had hair that shone like gold in the sun, and a mouth that smiled, and eyes that reminded them of those of a deer. Sometimes, when a too-ourious young man the postmistress for information he received the reply: - “She's smart and handsome and good, and it’s no use for yon to waste your time. Molly has never looked at any fellow twice.” ' One summer day the girl under the Mil carried an apronful of weeds from the flower beds out of the'gate and emptied them in the highway. Just as she did so an auto driven by a young man cfime chugging up the hill. She looked fairly into Ithe young man’s eyes, he into hers. The look did not last ten seconds, but It made her heart beat faster as she turned away, and his as he continued his Journey. / An hour later, the old father hobbled out on the porch where the girl rat with her chin on her hand, staring into vacancy, and said: “I thought you might have gone to the store. I haven’t heard yon singIng.for a long-time.”.- ' “I was just—just thinking,” she replied as she got up and ran away. Autos were not a rare sight on that highway. A dozen passed up or down the hill every day, and no one minded them. The girl under the hill had never gone to the gate out of curiosity. If seated on the pofch she had Tiot raised her eyes. All at once, now, she found herself listening, and was vexed. She found herself at the gate, . and stamped her foot as she turned \ rway. That - young man had black hair and dark eyes; he was youUg and handsome; he was surely a gentleman; he—. But to break the chain of thought, Molly seized the broom and began to sweep the porch mo vigorously that her father called out from the interior of the house: “Hey,. girl, what’s the matter with you today?* You swept the porch only an hour ago. Better save the broom.” Two days had gone -by since Mollie * t:«A.thrown the weeds in the road and the young manin the auto came again. The girl was training a vine at the Corner of the house, and she heard the machine rumble across the bridge and begin to climb the hill. Yes, It was the same young man, and he was looking her way. She was partly turned away, but she knew he was looking. She heard the machine almost come to a stop, but she would not look up. Then the power-was increased, the chug Went louder and faster, and she stood and listened until the sounds died away in the distance. • ’’s' “That fellow pretty near got stuck on the hill,” said the father as Molly came around to the porch. • It was Just as well for “that fellr.wf that he wasn’t there to see the toss of her head and the snap in her eyes. She believ.ed that he had almost stopped to stare at her, and she was rejoiced that her attitude had been one of disdain. That is, thinking It over, she didn’t know whether she was or not. Three days later, as she sat sewing and her father slept In his rocker, she heard an auto' ascend the hill and stop In front of the house. The rose hushes hid It from her sight but a moment later the dark-haired young man whs standing uncovered before her and saying: "I beg your pardon, miss, but could you lend me an ax while I make some slight repairs to my auto? So sorry to bother you. Ah, I see an ax over tlvere. Don’t get up, please. I shall return it directly.” In her confusion at his sadden advent and strange request the girl had simply looked at Mm. She gave her fnther n shake to wake him up, briefly explained matters and disappeared Into the house. When the lix was returned, and while the borrower was wondering where the lender had disappeared to, the old pensioner replied : ! “That’s all right. Always ready to obleege folks in trouble. So your auto tioke down, eh?” “Well—er—just a slight accident” "Lucky for yon that you wasn’t fccmtng downhill Instead of going up.” "Yes, It was.” i

feast year there were two or three accidents Along here, and it took the men half a day to make repairs. If they’ve got machines now that they o«n repair with an old ax In ten mlnr utes It’s a big gain. I guess there’s some buttermilk from the churning, this' mopping, and if—” bnt I ftiust be going. Very kind of you, Indeed.” If the old pensioner’s eyes had not been so dim he might have seen aj young man blushing like a. girl as he walked towards-, the gate, but he didn’t see, and in Ms hospitality he’ called out: . - ’ “Call again any time you breaks down. If I ain’t out here, take the ax and use it as long as you want to.” ■'“Father, how could you speak that way to Mm?” exclaimed the daughter at his elbow as soon as the latch of the gate had clicked. “Lordy, but what have.l done now? A young feller’s auto breaks down in front of the house and we lend him an ax and tell hnn he can have it again any time. You are always ready to give buttermilk to tramps, and I wondered why you didn’t come out and offer him a glass. I don’t want folks to think I’ve turned stingy in my old age.” 1 During thq next moqth Molly Thatcher heard from the gossips of the village that the young man was Connected with the hte new factory five miles away. She got sight of him and his auto at least every other day, but he peered In vain for her. ~ She had a maid’s curiosity, but she -also: had a maid’s timidity. At nine o’clock one moonlight night, as, the village lights were going out . and a strange silence was creeping over the land, she walked down to the gate and leaned upon it. She had not been standing there ten minutes when the hum of an auto came to her eats front the crest of the hill a quarter of a mile away. She had “heard that the dark-haired man sometimes rode about at night. She would wait until the machine came* nearer and then step behind a rose) hush. “Puff. Puff. Chug.” And then the girl heard a sharp snap, and something told her that the auto was coming down the hill uncontrolled. SBe sprang through the gate and saw it coming. There was only one person in the vehicle, and Intuition and the moonlight Identified him. The- course was fairly straight, but the brake was not working. Second by second the speed increased, and as the machine came whizzing past she raised her hand -above her head and - screamed to the man:

“Jump for your life! You will be killed at the bridge!” For the fraction of a second he looked Into her eyes and smiled, and she had to turn and seize hold of the gate while she waited for what must happen at the foot of the hill and the narrow bridge. And when the crash came she screamed to her father, dozing on the porch, and ran screaming down the path the wild auto had followed. When neighbor aroused neighbor and half a dozen men gathered at ! the wreck they found the girl under 1 the hill seated on the grass and the bead of the unconscious young man in her lap, “He Is dead!” some of them whispered after a look. “No! No! It can’t be so!” she almost fiercely replied. “He must be taken to the Inn and a doctor called.”

“No, take him to our house. Run for a mattress. Lift him carefully. If he hadn’t been coming down the hill In hopes—in hopes to see—to see—” “Cut and bruised and suffering from the shock, but no bones broken,” reported the doctor to young Marshall’s friends next morning. “Leave him right here and don’t worry about Mm.” - Two weeks later, as the young man was, able to ride away in the auto of' r friend he said to the old pensioner before departing: “I may not want to borrow your ax, but I should like your permisskm call agalh.V , “Why, of course, of course. I tell Molly we must bq, neighborly.” “And will you he neighborly?” was quietly asked of the girl as the gate was reached. He must have read the answer In her eyes, for he came again.

Waterplane Piloting.

Describing Hie difference yin the operation of a waterplane and an airplane, one pilot said: “Piloting a waterplane is slightly different from piloting an ordinary land machine. It is sometimes very difficult to alight on a choppy sea In the case of an airplane fitted with floats, especially if the, alighting has to be done across wind. If the floats do not ‘land’ simultaneously—that is, if one strikes a wave—the result may he disastrous; a float may be torn off and the machine spun into the water. With a flying boat —which is much more seaworthy—there is not this difficulty. Certainly *landing’ on the water Is not so easy as alighting on land. Water is so very hard If you do not hit in the right wny, as I once found out from personal experiences with a seaplane on the south coast”

Poisoning Bees.

Up near Inverell, N. S. W., Australia, men who encourage bees to work for them arq making a hubbub over the mortality among their swayms. Whole colonies are dying out and this is attributed to the tree-poisoning carried out by the government on a returned soldiers’ settlement area. Arsenic and soda are used on the timber, and an expert has been detailed to make inquiries as to the mixture** snare in toe destruction*

TtfE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RKHMSLABB, HTOT

THREE OF AMERICA’S FAMOUS GRAPPLERS ARE NOW IN THE SERVICE OF UNCLE SAM

Three of America’s leading wrestlers, Earl Caddock, Strangler Ed Lewis and Joe Stecher, are now in Uncle Sam’s service, Caddock is a lieutenant In an Infantry regiment, wMle Stecher is a “gob” at the Great Lakes Naval Training station and Lewis is at Camp Grant, Rockford, HL

CRICKET IS DIFFICULT GAME

Americans .in War Zone Who Scoffed at English Pastime Have Changed Their Opinions. American ball players now In the war zone, who scoff Ad at* the English cricketers, are Revising their ideas s’nce they have seen the British disporting themselves at their national pastime. The cricket ball Is, If anything, harder than the Ameican basetall, and yet the British soldiers are not permitted to wear baseball mittens to minimize the shock. Barelumded, they make creditable catches, going far afield for flies, and their all-round work has roused much admiration among the Yanks. The one thing the Americans cannot see the sense of Is the fact that you can make a long hit and score a run, in cricket, off a baseball foul. Long drives hit backward, fqr behind the batter, are great stuff with the British, and they -practice them continually.

IS OLDEST CLUB IN WORLD

Controversy on Between Olympic of San Francisco and New York Athletic Organization. / Advices to the effect that the New York Athletic club contemplated installing a bronze tablet in Its headquarters designating It as the oldest athletic organization In the country has met with protest at Sam Francisco from the Olympic club, which claims the distinction. While the New York club claims to have organized on September 8, 1868, the Olympians furnish proof that they came into existence on May 1, 1860, and make the additional claim of being the oldest organization of its kind In the world. President William Hurapnrey of the Olympic club has forwarded a communication to the New York Athletic club setting forth toe claim for his organization.

HENDRIX NOW IN SHIP YARDS

Star Right Hand Pitcher With Champion Chicago Cu&s Busily Engaged in Pounding Rivets. Claude Hendrix, star right hand pitcher with the Chicago National league pennant winners, is pounding rivets in a Superior (Wis.) ship yard.

Claude Hendrix.

Manager” 1 Ganzel of the Kansas City team has signed to manage the club next season. Other former big leaguers who are helping Uncle Sam build ships at the same yards are Carl Casblon, Clyde Sawyer, Cy Falkenberg, Chief Leroy, Henri Rondeau and Clayton Perry.

CANT CATCH BASEBALL

American soldiers in Franco recently tried to break the record set at Kelly field, Texas, by catching a baseball tossed from an airplane more than 700 feet above the ground. Tht catch on Kelly field was at a height of 700 feet. The Americans in France failed in their attempt, although more than 150 soldiers tried to catch balls thrown from bn airplane 750 feet and 900 feet above toe ground. Nearly aH the balls Mt the earth without being touched, wMle a few struck waiting mitts bnt bounded Otlt.

SEES NEW GLORY FOR BOXER

Bob Dunbar Bays Heavyweight Fighter Will Be Master Magnet After War—Sport Revived. ' The heavyweight fighter will be the master magnet after the war, Just as he is today In this imitation sort of domestic fighting a small coterie of promoters have been handing out. It is the Surest thing in the world that seme stupendous heavyweight battlers will be developed by the war—big, rawboned lads from the far places of our country, only awaiting the opportunity to demonstrate their punch ability, writes Bob Dunbar in a Boston paper. From millions of primed young fighting men will come a band of real, red-blooded, tight-fisted warriors who will startle 'toe country. All the old-time nation-wide enthusiasm over boxing will burst into flame when these lads meet for their titular bouts, all that old enthusiasm and a lot more. It will be “great” and we’ll like It qll the better because the pot hunting, hippodroming tactics of today will be swept by the deluge of redblooded action.

EXPENSES FOR IDLE CLUBS

While There Will Be No Playing Next i Year, Magnates Must Pay Rent and Other Debt*. No attempt will be made to reopen big league parks next year. Although there will be no major league baseball next year, toe magnates mast keep on paying rent and debts. .The Federal ' league backers have claims of nearly $60,000 that must be settled in 1919. The owners of the Giants will have to pay SBO,OOO for the Polo grounds In rent and taxes, together with overhead charges on toe plant. All of toe other clubs face heavy expenditures. It Is estimated that within the next twelve months the big leagues will hand over nearly $700,000 to their creditors, with nothing coming In at the box office.

ASK FOR 2-YEAR-OLD RACES

Request Made by Thoroughbred Association of United States—Red Cross Fund Paid. The Thoroughbred Horse Breeders* association, with members all over toe United States and Canada, will request the Havana and New Orleans racing associations to announce rapes for two-year-olds after January, 1910, provided they are- assured of sufficient horses of that age to justify arranging such events. President A B. Hancock said that $25,000 of the $40,000 to be. raised by breeders of toe thoroughbreds as their part of the $200,000 pledged by Kentucky racing and breeding interests to the Red Gross has been paid.

HOLED TEE SHOT IS REAL FEAT IN GOLF

Lloyds Say Odds Are 20,000 to 1 Against Trick. Peat Accomplished by Pierre Proa! at Old Seabright Course and Again at Rumaon After Lapse of Seventeen Year*. When Pierre A. Proal made a hole In one at the old Seabright golf course some seventeen years ago he felt that he had accomplished the feat of a lifetime! Since then Proal, playing regularly, season after season, has made thousands of strokes, but not until the other day at Ramson did he manage to coax another'tee shot into the hole. . This happened at the short second hole, only a mashle shot, says a New York dispatch to Indianapolis Star. Proal played Vile after hole with lit- • tie deliberation, but, oddly ei ough, he gathered in two twos during the course of the same round. Every time a one IS recorded the question of odds Is brought up. On one occasion the problem was put up ]tc Lloyds in London, the decision being that the chances were 20,000 to 1 against the feat being accomplished. Had Charles L. Fletcher, who keeps track of practically every rouhd he has ever played, made the sixteenth bole In one at Seabright, nearly a score of years ago and duplicated the performance at the second hole on the Rumson course the other day, it would only have required a question of minutes to glance back over the cards to tell how many chances at possible ones he had had. How many rounds of golf Proal has had during the last seventeen years is of course purely a matter of conjecture. The former Harvard man doesn’t know himself. However, he plays quite regularly and it is reasonable to assume he has averaged a couple of rhunds a week; a good deal more than that in the summer, less in the off season. So to carry the analysis further, 100 rounds a year for seventeen years would make 1,700 rounds. Granting that courses over wMch he played had three short or possible one-shot holes, which’ would be a' fair proposition, Proal would have had 6,100 chances, since he made his first one-spot when a “kid” at Seabright. All of which may not be a very cheerful outlook Jbr the thousands who have not been admitted to the army of “oners,” though it should not be f6rgotten that there Is no hard and fast rule, and that Mstory records an instance where a man made two ones in two successive rounds. j

TEACH BASEBALL TO POILUS

Pitcher Qunkle Will Assist Johnny Evers in Instructing French to Play Ball. Pitcher Gunkle Is going to teach bcseball to the Poilus along with Johnny Evers. Baseball has been a blessing to \

Pitcher Gunkle.

America in developing the spirit of teamwork among us, and now we wHI pass It on to the French, English and Japanese.

ATTENTION PAID TO SPORTS

What Games Have Been Permitted and Encouraged Have Been Helpful in Training. ? 'Borne people are beginning to think that the army is paying a little too much attention to sports, but they are people who are not very sympathetic with sports anyway. The fact of toe matter is that so far as the records that have come to my attention disclose •no American army officer has permitted sports to Interfere with the regular military requirements of training, or otherwise, says a writer in Milwaukee Sentinel. What sports have been permitted and encouraged have been helpful to that purpose. Of course now that prominent baseball players are getting into the army, thy* game has attracted more attention, and there are those who think that it has been given too much prominence. They simply are worrying about something that Is not, and something that ought not to scare tom.

HOME TOWN Helps

TREES ALONG CITY STREETS Work Done by Philadelphia Organisation Might Be Copied to Advantage in Other Places. The Society of little Gardens from the time of its inauguration recognized street tree planting as one of the city’s, most vital needs and its interest in the idea received a tremendous impetus from the clever plan conceived and carried out by Miss Edith Howe in the eariy spring of 1915. Instead of contenting herself with a couple of trees in front of her own door, Miss Howe determined to have the whole block planted in an effective manner. To obtain this end she consulted the Fall-mount park commissioners, who have charge of the trees In the streets of Philadelphia. They were glad to assist her, add sent her an expert who drew up a ground plan of the block, with an estimate of the cost of- planting; and armed with this she invited her neighbors to co-operate with her. Her success was remarkable. Enough money was subscribed not only to plant the trees, but to have them cared for for three years. Some of the officers of Little Gardens, hearing of this well-thought-out plan and its results, determined to try the same methods of a larger scale and endeavor to. have all Spruce and Locust streets and others transformed into avenues. Accordingly letters were written to a number of public-spirited women inviting each to undertake the planting of her own block; and, In reply, 11 agreed to make the experiment. That the effort has not been invariably successful goes without saying. Nevertheless, much' has been accomplished. —October House Beautiful.

STAIRWAY AND FIRE ESCAPE

Ingenious Scheme- by Which Double Object Was Achieved at a Comparatively Small Cost. At the rear of-a frame building that serves as a public meeting bouse for eitizens of a small’ New York town, an outside re-enforced concrete stairway has been built as a Are escape. It consists of more than a score of -»

By Constructing the Outside Stairway of Concrete, a Dependable Fire Escape Was Provided at a Nominal Cost.

steps and a landing of ample size, upheld by heavy supporting walls and supplied with an iron pipe railing. The structure was erected at moderate cost and fills • its purpose quite as 'well as, would conventional steel equipment of less capacity and greater cost. —Popular Mechanics Magazine.

Use Many Materials.

A larger private owneshlp of homes in this country than known in many years is predicted by H. O. Jones, construction engineer, New York city, in an interview published by the Wash-* laptop Post. “There is material for building houses in almost every community,” said Mr Jones, “and it is not a question of style of construction, but the most available. In one of the big plants In Ohio all sorts of houses have been brick, stone, wood, concrete .even iron—-and all are not only but comfortable and durable. Modern engineering has enabled builders to construct houses more rapidly and better than they could a decade ago.”

Bird Bath Worth While.

A bird bath, in the center of the lawn, tempts feathered visitors, and cardinals, robins, woodpeckers, song sparrows, catbirds and mocking birds frequent the garden. Last winter suet, tied to a Chinese elm tree and strewn about the ground, brought a flock of hungry birds, including coveys of quail, 19 being counted many times pacing slowly about and making leisurely breakfasts. —Exchange.

Dwarf Trees.

Dwarf trees are suited to small gardens, they occupy little space, are easily cared for, bear sooner than standard kinds, and they are easily shaped into bushes and pyramids, or can be used in espalier forms, trained on buildings, fences or trellises.

Big Enough Now.

-A fellow threatened to punch me In the head." “That would be too bad.” “Th>nk yon.” “It would hawe a tendency -to increase the swelling.”—-Boston Tratv script.