Litchfield enquirer., 1868-08-06
WHOLE NO. 23Ob

Ing 1t fifteen years since we went to Maine ma am. It is sixteen and over; sixteen years to-day since we lost our little Laura sixteen this very day. Can't you re- member ma'am? And we had been in Maine all of three months then.'
 So you have lost one of your chil- dren?' said Mrs. Lapman, with motherly piety.
 Yes: we lost our oldest little girl Mrs. Hawthorn commenced
 Not by death, though proceeded Mir. Hawthorn.
 That is, we didn't see her die. contin- ued the wife, taking up the word before } her husband dropped it.
 And maam will think sometimes that she IS alive yet, interposed the hus- band
 That isn't possible Oh yes! she is dead :: but It would be kind comfort if we could nave found her remains and buried them. Mrs. Hawthorn was crying by this time, and so Was Mrs. Lapman.
 Lost! lost! Did she stray off in the woods, and you never found her?' asked Farmer Lapman, quite ready to cry with the women as quick as he understood why.
 Yes; she went after the COWS one after noon to pasture mile or so through the l HOAAA oLAO lOuoOS hlu we never saw her again, said Mrs. Hawthorn, quietly wiping her eyes. We never found any trace of her. The bars were down, and the COW out of the pasture, and we never saw her again either. The last time saw Laura she came back to kiss me after she had started for the COW. was laying the baby In his cradle, so I didn't look out af- ter her as generally did.
 We had the woods searched day and night for three weeks, and we didn't give up looking for three years interrupted MT. | Hawthorn.
 And, continued his wife, we sent all the way to Vermont where we came from, thinking possibly the COW might have stray ed back to the old place.
 We've thought of Indians, and we've thought Of bears, added the husband, but we never made up our minds to anything.
 lie in my bed O nights on one side. and think one way; then turn over on t'other side and think right the other way
 Poor creature! poor creature! broke out Mir. Lapham, rubbing his eyes with his coat sleeve 'Was the COW red, spotted with white, and did she answer to the name of Daisy?
 Yes! Why? What do you know?' Do you know anything about her?' cried MT. and Mrs. Hawthorn, in startled, breath less burst of words, as undivisible as Chang and Eng.
 Be calm! be calmr replied MT. Lapham, himself as calm as leaf in whirlwind. Don't be excited. Polly, bring the gown and the picture, won't you? But don't get nervous!'
 Polly brought the gown a faded frag- ment, but fresh and familiar after sixteen years to the yearning eyes of the mother; and then she brought a picture which the girl Daisy had painted of the COW in child ish fashion.
 T should know that anywhere. That is the very COW; her right horn did crook just that way; and don't you remember ma'am. that cross shaped white spot on the crea- ture's side?' said Mr. Hawthorn. But the quick heart of the mother had taken fright. So near, and yet, perhaps, so far!
 Is my little Laura living?' she asked trembling and eager.
 Laura! Laura don't know any bodv by that name; but our Daisy is living, or was at nine o'clock this morning when she drove off with her husband to Boxbury. Yes; no longer ago than this morning she sat Tn that self same chair you are sitting In this moment'
 The four people talked in concert with i out regard for pauses or grammar; crying together over the unknown perils and cer- tain snfterlngs of the lonely child in the great wilderness, as she followed the lost COW father away from home till she came into open country on the other side, and laughing in joy and gratitude at the happy ending of their pain.
 Well, we'll, your horse is tired, and I will just clap mine into my old two seated wagon, and we'll visit on the way over to Boxbury,' said Peter, directly starting out to the barn with his tin lantern.
 The road to Boxbury was never so long; and it was never so pleasant, for all the sun had been gone down an hour, and the moon lacked an hour of rising. The talk ing and laughing and crying continued in intermittent quartette till the katydids along the way, quite outdone, held their breaths to listen.
 So they came to the Doctors house, and by the nursery fire they found the Doctor, the Doctors wife and the Doctors baby.
 There, there! you didn't expect us to re- turn your visit so soon now, did you Dai- sy? But your mother here couldn't stand 1t any longer without seeing her little grand baby again. And here are some travellers we fell in with that want to get a place to stay tonight; some people who pretend to think they knew you long be- AOLO we ulO, Sdlu 14dpu6ul, ing and crying in frenzy of excitement i'll which his wife and the travellers" joined
 At first Mrs. Hawthorn, who had un- consciously expected to find the child who kissed her good-by so many evenings oe- fore, felt unsatisfed and half disappointed. But when she took her daughters baby ln her arms she was assured. Yes; this is little Laura! sald sne nolo- ing it fast. 'This is her mouth. and her nose and her chin; and see her eyes, tatn- CT! Don't you see Laura's eyes rlgnt over
 Then she looked from the baby to it's mother. :,
 Sure enough she is Westerway all over.' she said
 sMa'am was Westerwav,' thrust in Mir. Hawthorn.
 And certainly she is perfect picture of my sister Clarissa, as she looked at her age. Oh yes! this is my Laura come back again, she continued weeping and laughing, and folding the baby and her mother to her hungry heart.
 So the dead was alive, and the lost was found.
 Dyspepsia and Scrofula are two hydra headed monsters from which nearly all the ilis that flesh is heir to oricinate. For