IDLE HOUR STORIES

BY
EUGENIA DUNLAP POTTS

Author of
"The Song of Lancaster,"
"A Kentucky Girl in Dixie,"
"Short Mountain Trail,"
"Stories for Children,"
"The Housekeepers' Olio,"
and "Home Talks."

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR

PRESS OF
J.L. RICHARDSON & CO.
LEXINGTON, KY.
1909

DEDICATED

To the memory of my beloved and only son,
George Dunlap Potts, whose young
eyes watched with affectionate
interest the weaving of
these fancies.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
A Thrilling Experience 1
A Cluster of Ripe Fruit 12
The Ghost at Crestdale 25
Her Christmas Gift 40
In a Pullman Car 48
In Old Kentucky 58
His Gratitude 71
The Singer's Christmas 82
Turning the Tables 88
How She Helped Him 97
The Iron Box 106
The Girl Farmers 125
Proving a Heart 135
Hezekiah's Wooing 152
A Summer Daisy 159
Treesa 169
My First Jury Case 178
Three Visits 187
An Easter Dawn 202
In the Mammoth Cave 215

POEMS

A REVERIE 239
THE MISER AND THE ANGEL 241
REST 243
THE CHANGED CROSS 244

A Thrilling Experience

MIGHT vs. RIGHT

It is some years since I was station-master, telegraph-operator, baggage-agent and ticket seller at a little village near some valuable oil wells.

The station-house was a little distance from the unpretentious thoroughfare that had grown up in a day, and my duties were so arduous that I had scarcely leisure for a weekly flitting to a certain mansion on the hill where dwelt Ellen Morris, my promised wife. In fact, it was with the hope of lessening the distance between us that I had under taken these quadruple duties.

The day was gloomy, and towards the afternoon ominous rolls of thunder portended a storm.

Colonel Holloway, the well-known treasurer of the oil company, had been in the village several days. About one o'clock he came hurriedly into the office with a package, which he laid upon my desk, saying:

"Take care of that, Bowen, till to-morrow. I am going up the road."

The commission was not an unusual one, and my safe was one of Marvin's best. I counted the money, which footed up into the thousands, placed it in the official envelope, affixed the seals, and deposited it in the safe. As I turned away from the lock, a voice at the door said:

"Say, mister, can you tell me the way to the