The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-07-21

women as we'll as men, might regain
nv child and imprison its father for the
crime of abduction" she thought. "But
I have no such opportunity. Fred
Douglass thought it very hard that he
should be deprived of his person. am
robbed of my child, which is far dearer
to me than my own person, and there is
no legal redress for me in all this land
of sovereigns."
Morning came, and Madge, as Tom
my, the waiter boy, sought employment
of the dowdy crone who kept the third
rate eboarding-housew where herchild was.
The little Pearl was tear-stained and
neglected. Upon her tender body were
cruel marks of angry fingers, and she
sat apart from the other children, heav-
ing now and then deep, heart-break-
ing sigh.
"Would you like a waiter boy,
MAJ am ?" asked Madge, in a feigned
voice, tremulously.
"Indade, an 1 might be wantin' that
same. What wages would ye be afther?"
"pm not particular. Wages not so
much an object as a situation"
"An' would ye mind lendin' helpin'
hand between whiles wild the childer?"
mot at all, ma'am. Indeed, if you'd
let me mind the children for my board,
ma'am, I'd not care for any particular
wages. want home"
! n IoF Of Jovo - eoi1 hOofoSc
pressing her broad hand to her aching
side, as she spoke, "an' there's gintle-
man from Californy as has brought
little delicate mite of a creetur, which
makes more trouble than ever-with all
the clanin' an bother"
you'll employ me, then ?"
ayes, if ye don't expect wages"
"All right. Where's the soap and
water, and the California baby's clean
clothes ?"
"Bless ye, there amt any clean
clothes"
Madge clasped her baby to her heart,
while it seemed that she would die, so
eager was she to embrace it.
The child was not frightened.
'Tate me to my mamma! ~ she
pleaded, while heaving a heavy sigh that
pierced her mother to the heart.
"Let Tommy be Pearly's mamma.
Won't do?" asked Madge, her voice
husky with emotion.
The child clung to her from that mo-
ment. During the long, hot months
that followed, the disguised mother
drudged for the obstreperous half-dozen
belongings to the overworked crone
with unfagging patience.
George Hanson rarely visited the
child. She shrauk from him always as
though he had been serpent, and he
failed to feel for her a single thought of
affection.
Autumn came, and the child, wholly
unused to the bad air and unwholesome
food the miserable place afforded, grew
sick unto death.
Tommy plead for long time in vain
for its life, by entreating that it be re-
turned to the pure air of the country,
: where it might enjoy the care to which
it had, before its abduction, been ac.
customed.
: George Hanson was ineXorable. 'pl
have you know, Tommy, that that's
n1y child and, if you don't keep a civi
tongue in your head and mind you
own business, I'll have you discharged
. orTll take the brat where you won
e want to follow"
"I beg your pardon, sir; but the
t child's goin' to be awful sick, and you'C
find it heap cheaper to send her t.
= her mother till she gets better. You cal
take her again whenever you please
e you know. She's yours, according t.
: law"
"Tommy's right p' cried the over
s worked crone. "The young un's go
r scarlet fever, I'm sure, and can't keel
s it here with all these children, 70
r they'll get it,"
d az know PEARLS mother" sal,
Tommy, "and I'll promise to go hom
8 with her and see that she's we'll takel
8 care of, and it shan't cost you cent
y Her mother won't mind the expense
And so it was at last arranged
a Madge climbed into the stage with he
}, suffering charge, and did what sh
" could to make her comfortable durin
). the long, hot, and dusty homewar
e ride.
IS "Tommy's" clothes were laid asid
a and her own substituted, her luxuriau
e hair being in part atoned for by a core
net of curls.
n But Pearl was death-stricken. Th
ID power which had served her mother S
Is remarkably in restoring Jason Andrew
n had fled. Madge was paralyzed i
er nerve and brain.
"My Pearl will be far better off wit
ID the angels than anywhere that he
er father may place her," she said, in th
lie calmness of her despair.
Y, The little one cooed with deligt
rt when she recognized the familiar scene
lie and faces in her mothers home. He
pet kitten only seemed to awaken i
d. her momentary remembrance of by
g gone terror, and she turned from it [
oF sbrink oIOear tO har nootharis hOsOn1