The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1876-09-30
Ths 3wtlaaa Daily 6lohs.
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 80, 1876.
THE RECOVERED TREASURE
A Good Story.
"Must you go out again, deareslp"

|
forehead and q ar brown eyes, and the
pleasaDtest of smiling mouths; but Helen's
face had somewhat sad expression iu it,
blonde, oval beauty, that reminded you OF
the hunted fawn or the wild bird stricken
down by the sportsman's shot. She was
fair as lily, with hair of bright, rippled
gold, and large, violet-datk eycs-suCh a
one as you might fancy Saxon Rowcna to
| have been, in short.
ayes, but shall soon be home, Nell, 60
don't worry yourself about me. Harry is
asleep, | see.
AS he spoke, he glanced towards a vel
vet-cushioned sofa, where q beautiful child
of scarcely three summers lay nesting in
the flushed, lovely sleep of infancy, with
his dark curls thrown back from the dim
| pied checks and one hand underneath the
head.
YES he has been in the garden all the
| afternoon, and fell asleep almost the min
ute his nurse brought him in"
DR.. Tracy stood moment looking down
upon the child.
"How pretty he grows. All, Nelly, we
have the most precious treasure heaven ever
gave to its children in this boy"
Mrs. Tracys lips qu!vered-the dewy
shadow crept into her eyes.
"Oh, Henry, if only had my little Ber-
| tina, too !"
"Still brooding on your lost one, Helen ?
| My dearest, had hoped that time was heal
ing up that wound in your breast. Is it
wise, is il discreet, thus to forget the bonn
ties heaven has given you in the one gift it
has withdrawn
''If could only be certain that she was
indeed lost, Henry" sobbed the fair-hared
woman. "If / could have planted dajses
above her grave, and counted her growing
years in heaven-but | cannot. She may
be in want she may be i'll or suffering, and
| so powerless to aid her.
There can be no doubt that she is dead,
Helen," soothed the husband. "Were it
otherwise, your brother-in-law would long
since have communicated with you"
'If could only believe it--if | could
only ease this aching heart" reiterated
Helen. "Do not think me ungrateful,
Henry, but indeed l cannot forget my little
lost Bertha"
AT this moment Harry sat up on the So
| ia, loudly claiming his mothers attention (;
| and DR.. Tracy went away with the pleas
| ant recollection that Helen was smiling
! back to her boys smiles. All where was
there ever magnetism like the touch Of a
child's hand to soothe the ache of heart or
head.
The flaming crimson belt Of the late sun
set glowed suddenly above the leaness De-
tober woods the tall trees that skiTted the
lonely road on either side sc med to stand
| like gaunt sentinels. DR.. Tracy buttoned
his oveicoat one or two buttons higher he
drove along the solitary highway, and felt
the raw. piercing chill of the evening air |;
and all the time he was thinking of Hclen's
| words.
| She was widow when he married her,
this fair saxon beauiy--a widow whom the
| etin or fcl handsome foreign swindler Of
| a husband had set free from bondage al
most worse than slavery. Francesca Pet
roni died; but Paolo Petroni, his brother,
lived, dark, designing man. Bertha, their
infant child had teen consigned, by Fran
cescO's desire, t. his brothers. care, during
tire il ness that proved fatal to him. All
| The widows subsequent etfofts to regain
possession of her Ii tie one were futile.
only dear sister-in-law," said the Italian
to her one day, when her appeals and en-
treaties had been most persistent, there is
one way, and but one way, for you to re-
ceive back Bertha"
"And that Is
''To receive me also as your husband y
Paolo Petroni never forgot nor forgave
the recoiling movement, the look of hor-
rOr with which the English widow received
his nnwelcone proposal.
| "Iou will compel him to give my little
one 20 me, Henry" the poor young mother
had said, on the day that made her for the
second time a wife. But when Henry
Tracy, armed with all the force of the law,
went to Milan to demand possession of his
little step-daughter, 10. Paolo Petroni
had utterly disappeared, and Bertha with
him.
Search, inquiry, investigation, proved
equally vain and from that day to this-a
| period of full six yeaIs-nether DR.. Tracy
nor his wife had ever heard one word of
the little Italian infant whose smile had been
tie first CLEAN OF Eight that had fallen
across the troubled tide of poor Helen Pet:
roni's foreign life.
1t was one of those strange, ineXplcable
romances of real life that we sometimes
encounter amid the most prosaic and COM
monplace surroundings, aud supplied DR..
! T,acy with ample materials for thought as
he drove through the wild and desolate part
of the country.
Not a particularly pleasant spot this,
at twilight" sohloquized the doctor, lean
lag forward to eaten glimpsesof single
ray of yellow light that streamed from the
window of a cottage few rods further on.
They've lighted their candles, | see, and
it's high time they did, too"
lie sprung from his phaeton and entered
| the cottage without knocking.
1t presented no very inviting scene. A
ruinous floor, treacherous and uncertain to
| the unwaTy footstep; walls where masses
of plaster had fallen away, leaving the
| rough laths exposed and a fireplace where
| lDUc cpt,ttorq1 an1 gmnlg1I
and did everything but blaze up cheerfully.
A hard featured old crone, who was doz-
ing on u stool by the hearth, started up,
and begun to curtsey as the doctor entered.
swell, Mis-. Hopper, and how is the pa
| tient?"
Quiet, sir-quite quiet
"And the child p
Gas peaceful as a lamb, bless its heart y
Dr. Tracy took up the candle and strobe
| across the room to Il low bedstead IN the
| most distant corner, where human figure
was dimly outlined beneath torn and tat
| tered counterpane. Close beside 1t, with u
shower of fleecy, flaxen ringleis mingled
| with the black, dishevcled locks of the pros
tate woman, nestled a child who looked
up into the doctors eyes as he approached
with innocent, wonde ing looks.
81 give her the drops at four o'clock, "
whined the old woman, land she hain't
made no fuss since. | wouldn't disturb
her, cause there's nothin' go refreshin' for
sick folks as sleep"
"Sleep !" echoed DR.. Tracy, bending to
examine the averted face; "my good soul
| she's dead !"
"Dead !" shrieked the woman, rushing
across the floor-''deedl Come away, child,
| quick"
The little creature slid to the ground with
| a compusure strangely at variance with her
age, and stood alternately cycling her two
companions.
II hope. doctor, you'll see don't lose
nothin' by the expense I've been to-" whined
Mrs. Hooper. "rm a lone wilder woman,
| and
Sand the biggest harry in the country y