The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-12-31
Ia Charming STORY,
GFrom Godey's Lady's Book.l
THE CHILD OF THE PRAIRIE.
CHAPTER VI.
By META VICTORIA FULLER.

city of twenty thousand inhabitants
and on either side were gardens gorgeous
with cultivated flowers, tree-shadowed
avenues, fine mansions and a costly fash
ionable church. Beyond was the prairie
upon which he had picked up the stray
waif which had since become the ''light
of his eyes," the delight of his exist
ence-something to love, to plan for, tc
make happy. That prairie waved with
wild grass and unnamed blossoms no
longer it was chequered with fields OF
green corn and wheat juss gilded with
the June sun and railroad passed in
a straight shining line across its bosom.
While he fingered and looked, the iron
horse came shrieking and painting along
it, ia place of the majestic wild steeds
which once swept in their might through
the long and rustling grass.
Thoughts of the past aud present
stirred strange tender emotions n
Hugh's breast. He remembered the little
creature he had held so closely to him
as he rode over the hills; he remember
ed the tragic fate of her mother, that
beautiful woman, who, alone of all the
women in the world, had bowed down
his heart, and whose weakness or whose
falseness had poisoned all of his exist
ence for the last twenty years.
Thinking of all this, he hurried on,
eager to greet his longforsaken little
Myrtle-for little she still seemed to
him. He knew her better in memory
than in present reality. He had left
the coach upon the hill, that he might
have better opportunity of observing
the changes in the town. AS he passed
along the handsome street, he saw Mrs.
Denison's door plate on larger build
ing than she occupied when he left, for
her school had grown with the city.
He rang, and was shown into receiv-
ipg. room, where ne sent his name to Mrs.
Dennison and his daughter.
lie sat waiting in inpatient joy, ca.
ger to see his child again, when the door
opened. and she glided in. He arose to
his feet instinctively, but the words
he was to have spoken were unsaid.
It was all in vain that Myrtle had
kept telling him in her letters how much
she had grown, and that she was quite
a young lady, and all that. To be sure,
he had entertained faint idea of her
having put up some of her curls and
heightened her frocks little, and that
perhaps she would be little awkward
in her transition state from pretty en-
broidered pantalettes to dignified long
dresses. But this Myrtle THE word
"daughter " died in his heart, and an
other word leaped up. It was as if the
vision of his early manhood-that glo
rious vision which had invested life with
such a brightness. only to vanish and
leave it more dark and prosaic than be-
fore-again lived and breathed before
him. Here was the same slender and
rounded form, elate with health and an
unconscious grace, the same brown hair
falling in shadowy masses touched with
gold, the same fair face, the same eyes
beaming their luminous sweetness upon
him. g
"Myrtle !" he murmured.
=. She hesitated moment, as if won
dering why he did not open his arms
to receive her, and then flew to him, and
flung his arms about his neck.
Father dear father!" she sobbed,
with little burst of joyful tears; and
then she kissed his cheeks a dozen times,
and leaned her head on his shoulder,
laughing and wiping away the sparkling
drops from her eyes.
' Father, indeed !'' thought Hugh to
himself, as those soft lips showered their
kisses upon him. "Thank Heaven,
though, I am not your father %
care you not glad to see your little
girl ?" asked Myrtle, suddenly, grieved
at the silence with which he received
her caresses. "Oh, papa, you have for
gotten your Myrtle l''
He yearned to take her to his heart,
and kiss her with the passionate love
which was struggling in his heart; but
he felt that it would not be parental
kiss, and so he gave her none. He knew
that her girlish timidity would shrink
from so sudden an expression of feel
ing, could she be conscious of its nature,
and his perceptions of truth were too
delicate to permit him to deceive her
But oh, what a sweet hope had lowered
into beauty in his soul Hugh Fielding
forgot that he was forty-eight years OF
age. He was as strong, as handsome, as
full of life as ever, and he forgot that
he was growing old. He did not ask
himself if he was the ideal of a young
girls lover. The surprise was too sud.
den, too overpoweriDg-he did not as
yet even question his own emotions.
"No, MYRTLE" he said, "I have not