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Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL
Newspaper Page Text
-Tfwr "Mf unfr" "j" 'Jfi'lJ1 So, for nearly a week Cy roved where he llBted. The balmy air, the smiling flowers, the singing birds, lit tle wayside meetings with this and that odd character enchanted him. One dark, lowering morning Cy left a little village on a ten-mile tramp. It had. rained the night before, and at the tavern where he had bought his breakfast he was warned to post pone his journey. "Oh,. I like the rain. It will make me grow," he jubilated. Cy changed his mind, five miles ac complished. He had never encoun tered such a deluge. His clothing was soaked through. At a ford he had gone over his head in the water through a slip, and had barely rescued his precious juggling and musical outfit. The road he was now pursuing was flooded clear over its center. There WC1C UOU5C1UUO iUU CfcUU llUAgl4LUCDk The downpour was incessant and al cold wind had come up that chilled him to the marrow. "I've got to get to shelter some-j where," mused Cy, and finally, upon a slight elevation at a distance, he made out a house. As he neared It he discovered that a surging "brook far over its banks isolated the place on three sides. In front of it was a depression, now a perfect pond. "There's a barn behind the house," he reflected. "Ill ask them to let me camp there until this storm lets up a little." There was a -deep ditch to cross, spanned by a board. The fraihplank snapped in two as Cy balanced on its center. When he managed to get out of the water that had submerged him he noticed on the porch of the house a neat-looking female, staring in con cern at his unpleasant predicament. She beckoned to him urgently. As he neared her the humorous aspect of the situation made his cheery face break into a smile. Then, as he looked upon a sweet-faced women 'of about twenty-five, still In the bloom of her beauty, he lif ted his dripping cap and made his best stage bow. "Miss, I hope I do not trouble you, but if you would let me have shelter in the barn yonder for a spell " "Oh, dear, no! Come right in through the hall to the kitchen, where there is a good, warm fire'3 invited the lady. "Never mind the wet I can mop that up." "Why, it's like heaven and you areJ its angel!" declared Cy, sincerely, as he was greeted by the warm, com fortable air of the kitchen. "We have a gardener here in sum mer and I think you will find some of -J his clothes in the room overhead,"1 explained the lady. "You can dry your own while you wear them." Cjs face wore a constant smile of happiness and contentment as the3 hours of the gloomy day wore on. His kind, hostess provided a cheering1 meal. Then six little children came5 into the kitchen to inspect the1 stranger. Then Cy found out that1 his hostess was a Miss Mercy Wal ters. This was her little home. . Each l one of the children was a cripple. She explained that she had given her life' to care for such homeless and friend- r less waifs. Cnnn P.v TinrJ thfi little ETOUT1 fas cinated. He made them gape as he "ate fire," as he sent a cascade ofr dazzling metal balls into the air, as' he 'swallowed a sword, and finally5 enraptured them with music from his' violin. For three days he, with the others,1 was marooned. The gardener's room ' had been given him. He did all the chores about barn and garden. Of-E ten and often he made Miss Walters1 smile at his quaint, frank heartiness. "I'd like to be a fixture," he said to himself. "And, Miss Mercy, no, I'd better get away before I find it too hard to leave here." He followed vout this resolution a week later. Th"e little ones clung to him and wept at his departure. Miss Walters was strangely fluttered. "If you would stay I could afford to' . i"" -iHimttfrfr.