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. talk that day at the EY * he realized he could not.tell the story strange, so hard to a : t, that some- how I cannot unders AHEM Merry watched her keenly. He was throttling a temptation to tell every- thing that had conie between him and the sunshine of existence. = He felt sure of the girl's sympathy ; he knew she would understand, He had begun to realize his own dependent nature. First there had been his mother, then for years he had leaned upon Enoch's strength and friendship. When he was left alone it was outer darkness, Every fiber of his being longed not so much for redress as for understanding and sympathy. "Miss Doréas, 1 will begin at the day when I left-you and--" Suddenly | of Emoch's disloyalty to her." "Miss . Dorcas, T need your help--terribly." | eve after our| 8p : 'whisper, He returned to h by the blaze. There was another lon silence. was the first to break it,' % £ FLEA "Ben it it were against your incli- nations, would you do something to make some one very happy, some one who' believes in you--who cares a great deal for you and about your fu- re: «ie : Merry spoke gently. "Miss Dorcas I'm afraid you are mistaken. Theres nobody in the world to care." She rose to her feet and, leaning on the mantel, glanced down at him with eyes from which embarrassment had suddenly fled. ' * "One person cares very much, do. 1 have set my heart on your suc cess. You have a great future--won't you work for it 7 Besides, 1 am self- +"I am ready to help you in any way I can," she answered quietly. She knew he was nerving himself to a con- fesslon, and she understood what an ordeal it was to the man. She crossed the room and laid a paper before him, pointing. to the bold headlines stretched across the top of the page. The words fairly leaped at Merry, TREMENDOUS SURPRISE Iinoch Wentworth the Coming Drama- tist, He read on down through the col-! umn. Fellow journalists had banded together to give Enoch a royal intro- ue . Merry's name was not men- tioned, though there was frequent ref- erence to a famous star, who had the leading part in consideration. Oswald was referred to as a newcomer in the ranks of New York managers, His layjsh production of Wentworth's drama was described in figures ap- proaching prodigality, Merry read it through to the last sentence, then the paper fell to the floor and he buried his face in his hands. While Dorcas watched, her heart ached for him. It was hard to hold in check the soothing touch she would have given to a woman or to a child. {Oh !" ghe said in a piteous whisper, "it was such a mistake." He did not answer or lift his head from his hands, " "I pleaded with Enoch. I told him it was all wrong, terribly wrong, for him as well as for you ; that when you returned he must set thing straight. I told him it was not even collabora- ish." Her eyes shone with eagerness. "I want to play 'Cordelia' Mr, Os- wald hag offered me the part. I have studied it. I could play it to-morrow if you would be my teacher." | Merry turned with a quick gesture as if to push temptation away from him" "Don't!" He cried. "Ah, Miss Dorcas, don't go into stage life!" "I shall go into it sooner or later." She spoke with a quiet determination. "I feel sure I can play 'Cordelia ;' be- sides, it would be so much easjer to make a beginning with Epoch and Mr. Oswald and-you." Merry rose and paced for a few minutes about the room, then turned to-the window and gazed out at the deserted city. The sleet of midnight had changed to a raging storm. The wind drove the snow in sudden flur- ries, piling it in drifts across the square. ; "Miss Dorcas," he said; "come here." The girl crossed the room. "Why, she cried, "it is a fearful night 1" "Yes.| It's a fearful night for the homeless. Do you know where I might have found shelter to-night if it had not been for you? Perhaps there's a hallway somewhere that I| could have slipped into, and for an hour or two the police would have left me undisturbed. I might have found an empty bench on a ferryboat, or-- the Bowery missions are open; only before one can make up his mind to seek a lodging there, they are filled to suffication." Dorcas shivered. "If I had known during these weeks |enough. When it can be done, la, Shale by It a the fire and bent to warm his fingers mention it ter long the subject ' begun to discover a strangel temper in Enoch. There when he stood upon the Heigl triumphant anticipation, then * } intervals when everything and every- body were at odds. © 0 "What did you think of changing "It 1s not ," Oswald spoke thoughtfully,' "What I have in min is elaboration. You have made 'Cor: delia' a loyal, tender w { mother ought to be more 'a foil to' her. She is cruel now, vafn, selfish! and deceitful but--she is not we lieve in choosing' an' actress hotas something in common with the role she is to play. Character comes out every time, even in acting; Don't you agree with me 2" ; E aR "To a certain extent." "Of course, in cagés of downri genius it is different. There is Merry. If we accept tragedy, I believe he could portray any character from gay- est comedy to intense emotion. I pre- dict for your siste¥'s 'Cordelia' a suc Wh cess that will stir New York to enthu- slasm, but she could never play any- thing but a sweet, true-hearted woman. No matter how hard she tried, she would fail in the part of a false, un- scrupulous adventuress. Do you see what I am driving at 7?" 3 "I think I do." "When you read your play to me and 'John Esterbrook's' wife took shape before my eyes, Zilla Paget came to my memery.- I asked you then to reserve the part for her, because, if I can judge human nature, she is the woman's prototype." " Miss Paget must be a flend incar- nate if 'Mrs. Esterbrook' is not ba enough-for her." : "I'm not'as merciless as that" Let me {ell you what I judge her by. Sea- son after season she was cast in Lon- don companies for women: of the lower type or of bad morals. Sometimes she was a coldsblooded, scheming adven- turess, or a creature so cruel, so less and unwomanly that she seemed a defamation of the sex. Miss Paget. was méiking a name for herself when an idiotic manager cast her as a sweet, refined, home-loving woman. 'I never sat through such a pitiful failure. She played it for two nights, then she was thrown aside. She had a long run of ime, on such a the field always oa To There { m are several drains running across the. field, bub at quite a distance apart. | en I mowed the field I received an object lesson. A few rods on each side: of the tile drains there was a fine, thick crop, but farther away, the alfalfa' was badly winteér-killed and hardly worth cutting. had been thoroughly under-drained it would easily have yielded two loads per acre. As it was it barely went a load to the acre and almost all of tha came from over the tile drains. We intended to put' two fields in oabs this year. There were both good fields and of similar soil. One is well underdrained, the other has no drains in it. The drained field was fit early, worked up nicely, and was one of the first sown in the vicinity, The other field was wet and stayed wet until it got too late for oats, so wa decided to plow it and plant it in corn." The weather ls Difficulties of War Preparations nolds, University Farm, GUNS ON SNOWCLAD PEAKS in Mountain Regions. Vin A description of the difficulties which have been overcome by the Ital- | ians<on that part of the front where the fighting takes place on mountain peaks' coated with al given by a correspondent don Daily Mail. i ebernal snow is of the Lon- The villages in the lower ground. be- to the and dry. We were finis! an er corn field and by the Sine oe ready to plow this field it was too hard and remained so until it was too te for corn. | lack of of a crop, So in Now, were | comfort. In their streets are swarms instance tile drainage meant the loss These are just a few of many similar personal experiences in this line. I may be wrong in making hind the front have been aroused from: their accustomed appearance of sleepy. of soldiers on their way to the fron! or back from it for a holiday. Thous- ands are camping out in the meigh- borhood of the villages or billeted on the inhabitants. Constant streams of motor vehicles ramble through the villages on their way up the steep road, bearing animunition, food and |de gi HH gy Epipgs is i g gf g 8 | he sat at cards, gave sandwich to the world. He was for long an ardent admir- er of Mme, Melba, and it has been said that the singer could have been the Countess of Sandwich if she had so sired. = The Earl never married. tion; it was wholly and distinctly in| hard luck. Managers forgot how ré:|SUch a general assertion, but from | supplies of all sorts to the batberies, «window. y "Miss Dorcas," he did not turn to} your play,yours alone--" "Collaboraion ?" repeated Merry, perplexedly, raising her eyes. "He told me everything," cried the girl hurriedly. She was trying to save that anybody cared--or believed me--perhaps I should not have gone so far down the hill. I did not dare even to hope that you thought of me again." him the full confession of his down- fall, She did not wish to listen to it. "Everything "" repeated Merry in- credulously. -"Yes, everything. Oh" if you had come back only two or tree days ago things would have been differest." "He rose abruptly and crossed to the look at her, "what was the worst! thought you had of me when Enoch told you--what happened 2" The. girl paused for a minute before she 'answered. "I'thought you were-- "weak: "Weak "" The man repeated the word as if trying to comprehend. its aping. : "You should not have allowed Enoch to stand as the author. of your play, no matter' what the circumstances were. He, is not happy over it to-day. ! His nature seems to have changed. ! Hie Js sot easy to live with even. Oh, I'with it had never happened." : "Merry walted in silence. ""Phings must come right, i éven if this de has been told" She pointed at' waited quietly. 'When' he looked; up the paper which: lay. at her' feet! "There is one Way. You can play the convict so "wonderfully | that people | must realize' that you yourself created ! the part." ; hare never play thé convict." voice was slow and resolute. cried ' Dorcas, "who can? 'thought your heart was 'set | 'Little Mother.' " "Andrew," sald the girl, "I care so much that I cannot tell you. Some queer strain in my nature makes me happiest when I have some one to care for. Girls at the convent used to come to me in all sorts of difficulties ; the ones I loved best were the ones who needed me most. They called me "Little Mother,"" repeated Merry ; then he laughed huskily. If the girl had known men she would have seen absolute famine for love, for sympathy and human understanding in the eyes that were bent upon her. - "I take back what 1 said a few min- utes ago, Miss Dorcas, about the stage being no 'place for you. Women like you'are needed there." ' "Thank you," she said with a happy smile. "Won't you come back ? Such an' opportunity ' is waiting for you. Besides, I could never play 'Cordelia with 'anyone but you, and you must be my teacher" iid Merry did not answer immediately: Dorcas had grown accustomed to:the long pauses in their conversation and: 'thelr eyes met--his pleaded with her; during one speechless moment for all his shortcomings, for shirked respon- sibilities and failures. io "Mis Dorcas," he said, "when a man has lost hope, ambition, his faith in human nature and everything that akon ifs worih While, I neha one 'down into the depths and still Has the in, is markably she had played bad woman, The failure as a good woman was laid up against her," : "1. thought she had a tremendous succes last winter." (To Be Continued). em gems HOW COINS WEAR OUT. Loss of Weight That Occurs Is Doubt- less Caused by Abrasion. In the latest report of the British mint, Siz Thomas K. Rose, a well- known metallurgical expert, calls at- tention to the effect of grease derived from the sweat of the fingers; or from | other sources, in accelerating the wear of "evins, which is usually attributed entirély to abrasion, Sir Thomas says that the fatty acids of the grease have a 'corrosive 'action upon: the: metal Copper in particular, even if present only in small quantity as an alloy for gold or silver, is converted into. an oleate, stearate, or other salt, Haagen Smit. of the Utrecht 'mint, found by analysis that the dirt on a bronze coin contained thirty-six per ¢ent. of cop- 'per in'the 'form: of powdered. . coni- pounds iof the fatty acids. 'When the coin id-handled the dirt is in part; de- tached, and the coin undergoes a loss of weight. , Gold or silver is not read- | 'ily 'converted into salts, but removing the copper léaves the' easily ats' tacked metals in a spongy form that 'offers little resistance to abrasion. In new coins the rapid loss of weight that. occurs is | abrasion, but 'have 'he my personal experiences tile-drain- age means at least one-third better Crops, or an increase in production of 38 per cent. Now by a recent law in Ontario a farmer without sufficient funds can, 1 believe; borrow up to $1,000 from the township for the pur- pose of tile drainage, and be charged interest on it in his assessment, to- gether with his other drainage taxes, at the rate of '6 per cent: If he can | trenches and dugouts on the peaks. The. road over which these vehicles travel was before the war a mere hill path--now the military engineers have transformed - it into a modern road "graded, metalled and carried by cunningly devised spirals and turns three-quarters of the way up the mountains," e correspondent says: invest this money per .cent.," and _-: How stables have been signed with the. object cows comfortable in winber may have been all ri but conditions are in' the dairy industry, ami it is' becom- ing quite as neces stable comfort in The practice only |." Cow Comfort In Sumter. summer. of milking in at 'a profit of 83 - pay 6 per_ cent. for ib what better investment could he desire? © 'Why is he 'so slow to: avail | himself of this golden 'opportunity ?7-- Reginald J ukes, in Farmer's Advocate. genersl ris steel 1 keeping A ght in the past, rapidly changing sary to, proide for | as in winter, : in the barn is and' will beedime more ¥o ag the use of the milking' maching in | 'creases. Instead of throwing green: the pasture fence "It is anotable piece of milita engineering, but. it'{s not merely that. It will serve as an artery of eom- merée when it is no longer needed for the passage of guns and army service ages. Share is nothing tempor- Ary or makeshift about. it; - Rocks have been blasted to leave a passage for it and solid bridges of stone and thrown across rivers. : side eat ridges, it was necessary fo or, being on Fite i ; of ; for the to get their guns as high as could, r Some years ago in protest against the among women of wearing their hats at luncheon he ordered his servants to wear their hats while serving the meal. ; > With the death of tHe Ear] an f..a- erican woman, formerly Miss Alberta Sturges, daughter of the late William Sturges, becomes Countess of 'Sand. wich. = Her husband, the new Earl, is George Charles Mo; , & nephew of the late holder of the title, a CS = - gs be The cynic is a man who thinks everything he doesn't possibly be \ approve can't In- 1871 the population was 1 'lions, and by '1910 it had rise most 65 millions. . |