People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1893 — Faith Carson's NEW YEAR. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Faith Carson's NEW YEAR.

•£r‘||f HjER town was *■ fjTj I named Cramp MyllflwW W'U Hollow and her *QS| 1 HSfc v h ? uso '™ s a trZfcjM MMr tiny house. 1r I — Jg * The great barn i*'*W I Iff near it would " have held a half-dozen such houses. Faith lived with her father and mother, who were farmers and came

(from an old stock of farmers, a fact of which they used to boast. “Farmers are the most independent 'critter?* livin’,’’ Mr. Carson would frequently say. i “1 don’t see as they are any more independent than other folks,” Faith .would reply. “Seems to me we have to work for all We want, and then we don’t always get it” “Of course we can’t naterally expect to git things without we work for 'em." “Farmer Carsqn emphasized the word “work.” Work,' according^to his mind, meant labor among fields and vegetation. “Work tftrtong a few bibs an’ tuckers don’t amount to muph,” he continued, with a sidewise glance at Faith, who was buisly washing the supper dishes; *’l mean real work that keeps a man at it arly an’ late.” Faith flushed. The “bib and tucker” shaft had struck home. She knew he was thinking of Oscar Blake, a dry goods clerk. She replied with more spirit than deference. “I suppose store work does fail some times, and potatoes give out once in awhile!” This time her arrow found its mark, for hadn’t Mr. Carsorfs potato crop failed this year? All the while Faith knew that it really was not so much “city store work” to which her father objected as it was to the clerk, who two years ago had passed a summer vacation among the hills surrounding Cramp Hollow, and who had formed an acquaintance with Faith, much to Mr. Carson’s'objection. He was afraid Faith’s head would be turned by new-fangled notions and she would want to leave the old farm. Oscar Blake was not a dude. He was simply a good, straightforward fellow, who, by merest chance, had the opportunity given him to go to the country. He did not even choose the place. He was sent there by an old city resident, prho, in his early boyhood, bad lived them

A clerk, who was Oscar’s chum, had been ill a long time, and, as they were friends in their poverty, Oscar had tended him devotedly, and this, in addition to his clerical duties, had nearly prostrated him. By some fortunate discovery the chum had turned out to be a nephew to Oscar’s rich employer, and he, to show his gratitude, sent him off to recuperate, with a promise of promotion when he returned. Oscar found the woods and fields charming, and Faith Carson he pronounced more than charming—angelic was the word most frequently in his thought. But Mr. Carson guarded Faith very jealously and suspiciously, and when he wasn’t guarding her, her mother was, which was all perfectly right and proper, only it didn’t give the lovers half a chance to be comfortable. All know what becomes of girls who are cautioned against falling in love with particular somebodies; they generally go straight off and do it And Faith was no exception to the rule. Although Oscar did not find opportunity to “tell his love,” yet it did not seem to “prey upon his cheek,” for it grew plumper, fresher and browner every day. Never a chance could he get to see Faith alone. The day approached when he must leave. He had written a note to Faith, pouring out his love in it, and asked her if he “might com 3 to claim her as his wife the next New Year’s day—for her to send him just one word after he was gone if he might.” After it was written the foolish boy didn’t know what to do with it. He could not even get a chance to put it in her hand, and as for sending it to the village post office, that plan would never do, as Mr. Carson would be sure to get the letter first At last a strange bit of fortune favored him. He was passing through the kitchen and Mrs. Carson, who was particularly good-natured that day, was showing him some of the old-fashioned belongings of the old house. Among other things she opened the door of the old-fashioned brick oven, long since relegated to the past in favor of a “range.” Its capacious mouth looked large enough to swallow almost anything, and as she turned away to make a remark about something else Oscar quickly slipped his letter inside and shut the door hurriedly, with a bang which must liavo made the ashes fly inside. In his excitement he forgot that the oven had not been opened for several years, and probably would not be opened for years again. As he passed out he glanced mysteriously from Faith to the oven door, a look which she failed to interpret, as she did not happen to see him placa the letter there. The day of parting came. The autumn

r passed and no word carhe from Oscar to cheer Faith. “He has forgotten me,” she sighed softly, but she remembered at parting he had whispered: “New Year’s.” Would he come then? The day came and ended and he did not come. “Then he did not mean that,” and she reproved herself for thinking so. All this time Mr. Carson’s mind was partly on his potato prop failure and partly on Oscar. “It’s kinder strange we hain’t heerd from him or of him sence he went away,” said Mr. Carson, taking it for granted that Faith would know “him” meant Oscar, and forgetting that he had emphatically declared “there should be no letter writing or any sich nonsense.” “Arter all, he appeared to enjoy oldfashioned things. I ’member how curious he looked into the old brick oven.” Faith remembered it, too. Soon afterward Mr. Carson left the room. With a curiosity born of sentimentality she felt as if she wanted to look into the old oven. She walked leisurely toward it and opened the rusty, creaking door. There was the fateful missive. She took up the letter mechanically, wondering what it coild be. It was addressed to herself and scaled. In her excitement she closed the door with a bang which startled Mr. Carson, who was reentering the room. Faith’s face was white and she was breathing hard and fast. She felt as if she held a message from the dead. “What have you got there, Faith?” he asked. “I don’t know, father. I just looked in the oven, as Oscar did, and 1 found this letter there. It is directed to me.” Mr. Carson approached her and looked at it through hastily adjusted spectacles. “Sho! Sure enough! Bead it now!” Faith read it, but to herself; then hanoed it to her father with flushed cheeks. Mr. Carson read it slowly,

then placed it in Faith’s hands without saying a word. “Yon see, now, father, if he could have told me about it it would have been all right I suppose he thought I would find it soon, and now :t is over two, years. It is too late Sow," and here h%r voice grew pitifully Weak and trembling: “but 1 shall write likn at his old address, just once, though I may never hear from him agaie-. Perhaps this is what he meant by whispering ‘New Year’s.’” Faith took her letter and went siowly to her room. Mr. Carson lookvi after her with a sigh. “So—that’s what’s been the matter with her, an’ I’ve ben a-doctoria’ of her with sarsaparilla an’ other arbsl Guess they won’t cure her. I might as well let things take their course!'’ Faith wrote Oscar a dainty little letter, telling him of finding his at that late day, and simply salfi: “I would have written you if I had found it sooner.” Oscar was not at the old place. Her letter wandered from place to place, forwarded by Uncle Sam’s faithful postal clerks, until it reached him one happy day in the midst of rising fortune. It found him still free, except for ties of love for Faith. Only four mort days and the new year would be here! He started hurriedly for Cramp Hollow and walked into the old kitchen from a blinding snowstorm. He glanced for an instant toward Faith, sitting by the fire a'hd leaning her head wearily against that old oven door; then marched resolutely toward the surprised old farmer an&d said: “Mr. Carson, 1 have coma for Faith!” Mrs. Carson dropped her knitting work, Mr. Carson dropped his newspaper and said in a broken voice: “Then I have faith to believe you wttl get her.” And he did the very next day, which was New Year’s day.—Chicago News.

“I HAVE COME FOR FAITH.”