The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1875-02-05
DOT.
/ Christmas story.

AAAS AFNIA 4tN hbS ObH4S4 NA4ASb1hA
name, and cannot tell you if her sur
name was Smith or Jones. It is an un-
solved mystery how, in a home where
love never entered, where fond titles
were never heard, a name so like low
ing abbreyiation was ever given to the
child.
She was not one of the little ones
who, climbing upon a mothers lap in q
cosey nursery, have pet titles showered
upon them who, kneeling beside a
mothers knee, lisp baby prayers, and
are lifted into warm cribs, and folded
to sleep in softest of blankets who,
waking rosy and happy, find the choice
seiectlons=of toy-shops awaiting their
destruction from baby fingers.
Dots nursery was cellar with stone
walls and an earthen floor, and If her
mother ever lifted her. it was to bestow
upon hershrinking body a blow her
CRIB was aSdirty blanket in o corner,
where she crept alone and if she ever
heard her.Creator's name, it was in a
curse, nOtsaprayer.
Her father and mother, tall and
strong, w0xked part of the week to OBJ
tam the means of being drunk the rest,
and had no other pleasure in common
bnt. that Of kekings cutting and abus-
ing Dot. ~'.s"s - = - -
She washye years old, with the stat
ure of q child of two, and so thin that
iteeemed. q wonder her bones did not
fan apart with no more flesh to bind
them together. Out of a tangle of dull,
dust colored hair peeped q tiny white
face, with sunken cheeks. pinched lips.
and eyes that were like owls, they
looked SO unnaturany large and round.
In winter her fingers and toes were
covered with great red chilblains, and
all the yea round she carried upon her
poor little. back the marks of cruel
blows.
Her ideaof home was that it was a
horrible place, from which it was COM
parative happiness to escape into the
Streets place where powerful vi
up whenever she found warm corner
behind the stove, and tossed her by her
poor little sticks of arms into far-of
cold corners, or cuffed her and turned
her into the streets; where a reeling,
swearing man lifted her on his great
foot to toss her poor little aching bones
across the 6oor, where she would lie In
a corner trying to suppress her sobs.
lest the noise should attract notice and
a consequent fresh abuse.
Her highest idea of comfort was GEN.
tered in a-ereat brewery at the corner
of the wretched street where she lived,
and where she could sometimes creep
into a warm spot, or feel in the gut
ter outside the rush of the hot
refuse that swept by, and whose sweet
smelling steam envel0peds f her IN
warmth. - ssfa s2sa IS ~
She was lying upon the curb-stone,
feeling and inhaling this steam, one
Christmas Eve, when Miss Mary Rus
sell, one of The teachers IN q large Mis-
sion SundaE School, hurrying past the
loS IN crAEE &xR~a naQrlv
stumbled over the PROSTATE little figure.
It was a clear, starlight evening, early
yet, though after slamp1ight, but very
cold; and the LADY, stQpbed, saickened
with the sight of this as6za -shlxefing IA
scant calico dress, aragged cloak and
hood. barefooted, gamd with thin
white face, which was all distorted by
"CRild cniId r she said, 'swhas are
you doing here p
swered, scramblingp3 80 her feet. 1t
reels good, and I'm cold
"Cold IsshouId think so. Where
Is your homer" 0ea -
"Mammy's mad cos pop he's On q
spree and ant got no money. sahe
waAsped me- twice, and 4 ant nao 2
bite to-day, 30 I sneaked out to warm
me here. I often comes, but 4 don't
w no narms - tttS ..zs4. ~
"Will you come with me where you
can have some food and clothes
Dot was willing enough. and put
nand like birds claw into Miss Rus
seirs 1t was Christmas Eve, rs have
salo' and the teachers Of, the Sunday
scnooi were preparing tree and treat
OF nice things to eat for the little ones
enoer their charge. It wasF no novelty
70 see any of them entering, with little
ragged children but Dots face was so
tIueIeriy wan and white that several of
sh she other ladies gathered around her as
sne entered the long room.
found her shivering on curb
stone, Miss Russell explained, and
Sne has evidently escaped from the
cttueltles ct.e OF drunken parents. We must
u,oene and feed her tonight, and to-
no morrow row L will see if she is case for
What is your name, dear 2" asked
Ine tle t oi the teachers, gently removing
1ne tattered cloak.
Dot Please ma'am, don't take that
% NJ III freeze to death If You do. "
We want to put some warmer clothes
on you, Dot" was the reply |: and the
n'sle one was tenderly lifted in notherly
80 - + 4