Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 43, Number 202, 6 July 1918 — Page 14

PAC3 vers

Biewi rf the 4mk Mr. Wise ttn. Wing and her fifteen year oM daughter. Mary, were left la poverty, lira. mac wm set very atroac aad mM not do mud work. besMe her own. Mary was 1m school the stoat of the time and cbuM net bl war another much. Om eveaiac when Mary retwad frost scbssL she leuad her mether Bitting toy the window sewing. This sarprised he very much for she knew there was a money wrm which to hoy anything. Mrs. Wtog noticed the surprised look on her face, hat said nothing. Presently Mary said: Why mother, what are you doing? Where did you get this beautiful material?" "The other day I received a letter from my sister asking tf I could do some sewing for her. I answered -her letter and told her I could, and this is what she has sent me," replied Mrs. Wing, as she showed Mary a pile of materials, Then she pulled a five dollar bill out of her pocket-book and said: "This, she sent me in advance payment and says she will give me the remainder when I finish the sewing." "Mother, this is quite a surprise to me, but I have something to tell you also. You know there have been several contests this winter. Well, there is going to be another. Mr Singleton, who owns the dry goods store at Twelfth and Main streets is going to give a position as assitant bookkeeper to the one who get the highest grade in an arithmetic contest. , I wen the prize at Christmas and that was harder than this, so I am going to try this one. Beside the position, the winner of the first prise will get a blue ribbon to show that he has won it The winner of the second prize will he given a gold ; medal," said Mary very excitedly. "But radnt yo better do something that will bring as money right away? Besides, you may lose the prtae and then you will be out of time, money and all," was the reply. Just then the door bell rang and Mary went to answer 1L It was Mrs. Jones. She. had come to see if Mary could come and help her on Saturday. Mary said she would and Mrs. Jones left. Nothing more was said about the prize far three days. When , Mary returned from school that day she carried a slip of paper with the rules of the contest printed on it After she had shown the paper to her mother, Mrs. Wing said: "Well, I see you are going to trj ' for sure, so in order for you to b more ready for the contest, I wil

give you some problems each eveOItt DIR. "Oh. ail right," said Mary, very mob phased. "1 am so glad you

are going to help me."

Every evening for the neit two weeks Mary could be seen sitting at the table working problems, while he mother looked over them to see tiiat they were correct At last the day for the contest

came.

Mary went to the school house on Saturday morning. Here she saw aix girls and five boys waiting for the contest to begin. At nine o'clock, Mr. Singleton entered the room. He stepped before the jmpils and said: "I suppose you have aH read the rules several times before, but to he sure that you have them well in mind, I will read them againl." Then he took a slip of paper from his pocket and began: "1. No contestant can sit close to each other. "2. Every One must do his or her own work. "3. The winner of contest will be announced the last day of school which is next Friday. "4. The winner will begin work the following Monday. "5 There will be two prizes. A blue ribbon will be awarded to the winner of the first prize, and a gold medal will be awarded to the winner of the second prize. "6 In case the one who gets the

first prise does not prove satisfac

tory the one who gets second prize may take the position. This is decided by Mr. Singleton. "Now, I suppose you know I do not do the grading of these papers, so there is nothing unfair about it. Now if there are no questions, we will begin the problems." Mr. Singleton then passed out the papers that had the- problems on and they began the work. Mary was very anxious to get the prize, go to make sure that hers were correct she worked the hardest ones twice. When every .one had finished, and the papers had been handed m, every one left the building wondering which would get the prize. Mary could hardly wait until Friday came. At last it came, and Mary and her mother went to the school house. - Here they saw the other contestants and their mothers and friends. Kach was, anxious for the name of the winner to be announced. At two o'clock, Mr. Singleton Again stepped forward and said: "It gives me great pleasure to announce .the winner of the prize.

.4.11 the grades were above 90. Of

:ourse you know the papers were jraded by three of the most prom

inent atea of the city. None of( them knew whose paper they were grading. Therefore there was no' cheating te the marking. I wHI now read the names of those that received the highest grades. Miss Agnes Hunt, 99; Miss Mary Wing, 98, and Mr. Howard Jefferson, 96 ViI wilt now present the blue ribbon to Miss Agnes Hunt and the silver, medal to Miss Mary Wing." The girls went to the front of the room and received their prizes, was then dismissed for the year. The next Monday Agnes went to work and Mary did the housework so her mother could get the sewing finished. One evening about a week later, a knock was again heard at the door. Mary went to answer it and was surprised to see Mr. Singleton. He entered and said: . "I haven't long to stay, but I have come on very important business. Miss Hunt, winner of the first prize did not prove satisfactory, and I have dismissed her. Now, according to the rules of the contest you have the right to take her place." Mary was surprised. She did not know what to say, but presently she said: "I am sorry that she did not prove satisfactory, but if you think I will be all right I will be glad to accept the position." "I think you can do it all right, I want you to begin in the morning. The salary is eight dollars per week," replied Mr. Singleton. Just then Mrs. Wing entered the room. "Good evening, Mr. Singleton," said she. "Good evening, Mrs. Wing. I have come te tell Mary that she may have the position." . "Why! What has happened? Where Is Miss Hunt?" said Mrs. Wing, surprised at Mr. Singleton's statements. ' "She did not prove trustworthy, and I dismissed her today." "When do you want Mary to begin?" asked Mrs. Wing. "Iwant her to begin in the morning. Her salary will be eight dollars per week. Well, I must be going," answered Mr. Singleton, as he arose and went tdxard the door. "I will be there in the morning," said Mary. "All right," replied Mr. Singleton. After Mr. Singleton had left, Mary said : "My! I am glad I tried for that position." "Yes, and I am too," replied Mrs. Wing. 'It is generally true that 'Where there is a will there is a way.' " ,

Doing a Bocbardaect In a rmaH city is Praaee, very near the City of Rheims, lived a family consisting of the mother, father and four children, three sons and a daughter. The oldest son, John, and the next son, Robert, were drafted shortly after the war broke out. From that time on the mother began to fail from worrying about them. One day, about nine months later, word was received that John had been killed in one of the great bat-, ties. The shock was so .great to their mother that she could not stand it. Two weeks later she died. The longer the war lasted the closer the bombardment came to thei little home. One afternoon the daughter, Ruth, was working in the house and the father and youngest brother, William, were in the yard when a bomb was dropped near that section. The people all began to run in different directions. When they arrived outside the reach of the shells, Ruth began to look for her father and brother, but they were nowhere to be found. She finally decided that they had either been killed by the shells or by the falling buildings. Now that Ruth was left without a home and as she had not heard from her brother Robert for a long while, she felt very lonely. Each day, there were more and more wounded men being brought in from the field who needed care, so Ruth became a Red Cross nurse. After she joined she spent a short while in school and then was sent to a field hospital. She kept hoping all the time that if Robert was alive she would get to see him again. But many months passed since she had heard anything from him and she gave up hopes of ever hearing from Mm again. One day when she wa-i waiting on one of her patients she heard a soldier who was delerious say "Ruth" over and over again. She went over to his bed, but he kept calling. While she was still there, the doctor came to him and took the bandage off his head. Immediately she recognized her brother Robert She then asked permission of the doctor to be his nurse and she was w:ta him from that time until he was -entirely well. She saw him start off again, to fight while she still stayed with her Red Cross work.

MAKE HAY WHILE THE SUN SHINES, SEEMS AN APPROPRIATE APHORISM FOR 1918.

We are getting accustomed to paying higher railroad fares, but we are not getting resigned to it

JP

THE LOST AODRESS. One sight we were seated around the fire and mother was telling us a story when all at oaeo she was interrupted by a gentle knock at the doer. It sosnded an H it might be some small child who was lost or was in need of something. We all gave our idem of who we thought it was while mother went te the door. All we coold hear of the conversation at the doer was about someone's being tost. We were all on the verge of running te the door when mother appeared, followed by a small child of about eight or nine years of age. The child was crying and her dress was torn and dirty. Her shoes and stockings were so worn they looked as if she could hardly keep tltem oa. Mother gave her a chair and disappeared into the kitchen. When she came back she was carrying a tray filled with food. At the sight of this the child stopped crying and began to eat as if she had had nothing all day. We sat around and watched her with interest After she had finished eating mother took the tray and we began questioning her, asking her name and where she lived. She said: "My name is Jane and don't have any borne at present; (nit I am trying to find this" and she put her hand into her pocket Duly to bring it out empty. "I have iost it" she exclaimed, and began to cry again. "Now I wilt have to go all the way back and find it but I can't remember which way I came." Mether told her to stop crying

and she would see wbat she could

do toward finding it She went into the next room and we could hear her talking over the phone. When she came back she said we would have to wait until morning to find out whether anyone had found it The child began to cry at these words and sobbed, "I cant wait until morning, I must get there tonight for they witl be waiting for me." Mother quieted her and at last coaxed her to stay over night. We went to bed and as mother was undressing Jane she saw something drop upon the floor and as the picked it up she saw that it had an address written upon it. From the other rooms we could hear the child, jumping up and down for joy and saying that she wanted to go right away, but mother told her to wait until morning and she would send some one with her. The next morning mother gave her some other clothing and sent brother with her to search for the house. Upon returning, brother said the people were her aunt and uncle, and that the child's parents had both died and they were taking her to rear. They thanked my brother, and Jane told him she

I would never forget him.

Lucile, Tauer, English I. A PRECIOUS PLANT. Two girls, Mary and Fanny, were going to the nearest town, each bearing on her arm a heavy basket of fruit to sell. Mary fretted and grumbled all the way. but Fanny

'only laughed and joked.

At last Mary lost her patience and said in an angry tone, "How can you laugh so? Your basket is as heavy as mine and you are no stronger. I don't know how it is." "O, it is easy enough to know," said Fanny. "I have a certain little plant that I put under my load. It makes it so light that I hardly feel it" "Indeed," said Mary, "it must be a very precious plant I wish I could lighten my load with it Where does it grow? What do you call it Do tell me." "It grows," said Fanny, "wherever you plant it and give it a chance to take root, and there is no telling the relief it gives. It is named Patience." Contributed by Mary Green, 6t Mary's schooL

WOUU)NT YOV STOP IT TPOV COULD?

Not 09ly let me suggest that you keep the homo fires burning, but that yon also keep the home liars squirming.

HICKS VI LLE Since Lucy Comtossel started saving up cigarette coupons she has been going steady with Jabes 6mi there, who smokes cigarettes regular.

"Wear diamonds and be happy," says a movie actress. Alright, Mary, but wherell I get 'cm?