The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-11-27
The banker gave low, sobbing sigh.

g | cannot look up Helen, he answer
ed, with passionate tremer in his voice
"only down, down at the grave that is
open before men'
Mrs. Preble continued to stroke his fore
head softly, while she lifted her pale face
to the sunlight streaming into the apart
ment.
"Look up, Morton-always look upr'
she again enioined upon the invalid
During all these fourteen years of agony
| have not once doubted either the good
ness OF the justice of Heaven. BLESSED are
they that mourn; for they shall be comfort
ed l believe that we shall yet rejoice
more keenly than we have mourned, and
that we shall come to glorious day of joy
beyond all this long night of sorrowr'
The face of the invalid lighted up with
an answering glow, and he murmured:
"Glorious faith. My wife, you are i'll
deed blessed comforter. Perhaps, after
all, you are right!''
A knock resounded on side-door at this
.juncture, and the next moment DR.. Hutton,
the family physician, for whom Mrs. Preblc
had sent, entered the room.
He was an old man, portly in figure, with
white hair and beard, but with fresh and
ruddy complication, pair of shrewd blue
eyes, and with an exhuberant boyishness of
manner that sat we'll upon him. He had
kind heart and a clear head. He approach
ed the sofa, after greeting the husband and
wife, and lifted the thin restless hand of
the invalid, feeling his pulse.
"Quite high fever,' he said after
brief pause. "Worrying again, eh, Mr..
Preble? You are wearing yourself out
Medicine will do you no good so long as
your mind is in its present condition. 1
must give you an opiate-''
Not now, DOCTOR" interposed the
banker. II cannot-must not-sleep to-
day! | need to be broad awake now, for
cannot tell at any moment what the next
may bring forth. | am looking for the cul-
mination Of all my years of anguish-for
the browning agony of the whole. Per-
haps even now-Ah, what was that -
lie started up wildly, and then, as the
| sound that had disturbed him was not re-
peated. he sank back again on his cushions,
pallid and painting.
The doctor looked at Mrs. Preble with
an anxious, questioning glance.
sit is the anniversary she replied to
his unspokcn inquiry the anniversary of
Gus loss
"Ah, yes" said the doctor. Il remem-
ber.''
eyes, it's another of those terrible
days. cried the banker, in hollow wills
per. ''Sit down, doctor, and will tell you
the whole story. l can think of nothing
else to-day, and am almost wild with APP
prehension and anxiety. Sit down.
DR.. Hutton drew up n chair and seated
himself, his face expressing the double soil
citude of a friend and physician.
"You knew lis fourteen years ago, doc
tor said Mr.. Preble. eve lived then
where we do now, in cottage on the site
of this great mansion. There were but
the three of us-IIelen and |, and our three
year old Jesse. And it was fourteen years
to-day that our little Jesse was stolen from
u.s.
81 remember IT, said the doctor softly.
- Y ct might she not have been lost, Mr..
Preble? She went out to play in the gar
den, if remember rightly, and was never
seen by you again. She might have stray
ed away
$50 we thought for whole year, doc
tor interrupted the banker. whenever
dreamed that she had been stolen. We
searched everywhere for her, and offered
immense rewards for her recovery. l en-
ployed detectives, but all to no purpose
When our little Jessie ran down the steps
into that tlower-garden,' and he pointed
to the front of the house, ''as if the earth
had opened and swallowed her up. we
never saw her again
"She must have found the gate open and
wandered out suggested DR.. Hutton.-
'sShe might have strolled down to the
waters and been drowned
The banker fixed his burning eyes upon
the physicians face, and whispered:
81 said we never saw the poor child
again. / did not say we had not heard Of
her. She was lost on the 9th of August,
1854. For year we thought her dead
But on the anniversary of our loss we re-
ceived written message concerning her"
{" A messager' cried DR.. Hutton, start
ing. t.E
"a mere scrawl-a single line in hand
evidently disguised said the banker
"Here it is
lie produced dingy scrap of paper from
drawer in the table, and held it up to the
view of the physician, who read as fol-
lows:
august 9 1865. Jessie, la, la! Jessie"
DR.. Hutton looked, with puzzled air,
from the scrap of paper, which he turned
over, to the countcnance of the banker.
81 can make nothing of this" he de-
clarcd. sit is merely q date, with the
name Of your lost daughter. 1t tells me
nothing.
"Nor did it us, at first" said Mr.. Preble.
''Then that name and that date, with the
demon laugh connecting them, set us to
thinking. A whole year we agonized over
the dreadful problem, and then we received
another message, which you shall see."
He thrust another piece of paper, identi
cal in shape and appearance with the first,
before the gaze of DR.. Hutton, who read it
aloud
"August 8, 1856. Your Jessie still Ices
The physician started, rs if electrified.
"Ah. this is somethicg definite-some
thing decisive" he muttered. cit con-
WINGED you that your daughter was still
living"
eyes, DOCTOR" said Mr.. Preble, "and
every anniversary of that day has brought
us some message. The disappearance of
the child, mysterious as it is, does not seem
to me half so strange as that the villain
who took her away could contrive to COM
municate with us every year since, and al
ways on a particular day-the anniversary
of that on which she was stolcn-without