The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1877-12-13
a They won't take me- have no

Joanna surveyed the 1orlorn inquire III
perplexed silence.
/ Can't you give me corner where
can rest?r asked the stranger piteous
, ". 81 will not trouble you for any
thing, except floor to sleep on"
, my mistress never lodges stran.
GERS" said Joanna, but come into the
kitchen-I'll see what / can do
BY the exercise of some diplomacy in
behalf of the ''tramp," as Miss Grey
styled the traveller, Joanna succeeded
in gaining permission for her to sleep
on pallet in the kitchen.
"Give her some supper, joanna
added the mistress. ''No doubt she is
half starved"
: And Joanna went back to the kitchen,
leaving her knitting peacefully by the
small bed where the child slept.
After the tramp" had had her sup
per, and Joanna had prepared her bed
on the floor, she stood up by the fire,
and, looking Joanna in the face with her
large, black eyes, said suddenly:
Whose child is it you had with
you?"
"My mistress's child"
Not her own child?'
"No;" and Joanna shut her lips
tightly, as if to prevent the escape of
further information.
"Do you know whose child she ?''
"No,"
"DiI you find her at your door, one
Christmas morning."
Joanna nodded, looking up in sur
prise and beginning to tremble with
! strange agitation.
"Then l can tell you whose child she
is"
1--WE don't want to know" said Jo-
anna, shortly.
"But l0iu tell you, for you should
know that she is of honest BIRTH
Joanna folded her arms and stood
waiting.
1.-TWO years ago." said the woman,
81 came to America with my mistress,
who was then a young bride, having
married an American gentleman. She
was French and so was l, but we had
been living in England since her parents
died, when she was child My mis-
tress was at school, educating herself
for a governess; but her health gave
way, and she was obliged to give up her
studies. She had no relatives, she was
quite poor, for she was sent to school
by an old lady who had taken a fancy
to her, and had died leaving her a sum
to educate herself with. Well, the gen
tleman had become acquainted with
her case, and took care of her, and
married her in a few weeks after
she left school. We came to this coun-
try about a year afterward. We lived
at a boarding house in Newly DIRK. Soon
after we came over, the gentleman was
obliged to return to England to secure
some property which belonged to him
there. He was to be back as soon as the
trip could be made.
"Well, mistress waited as well as she
could, poor thing. She was quite alone
but for me. When the time he had set
for his return passed by, and he did not
come, she became quite i'll. | don't
know how long we waited-it seemed
like months, ard she grew worse all the
time, till her baby was born. Then she
got another letter from her husband.
He had been delayed by business, but
would come in the next steamer, with
out fail.
- She was getting stronger fast, and
was looking for him hourly, when news
came that the vessel was lost at sea, and
his name was not among the few who |
were saved. She only lived two days. |
She begged me to take care of her baby, |
and died in my arms.
81 had cousin living in Pennsyi- |
vania; l had her address with |
me. took the child and what |
money my mistress had left, and |
went to the place; but she had moved |
West, the people said.
a was a stranger, and nobody would |
employ me. l started on foot to the
nearest seaport; for | thought if could |
only get back to my own country, |
could live and keep the child. | had /.
still enough money left to pay my pas
sage across. But Twas obliged to spend |
some of it, and by the time ] reached /
this village | was so tired and discour-
aged that was ready for almost any |
thing.
81 passed this house in the afternoon |
of that dreary Christmas Eve, and it
looked SO quiet and peaceful that l
thought, What good shelter it might |
be for the poor homeless baby!' After
| had passed down the hill and left the
village away on my right, | looked back |
and saw the white house still looking |
down on me from the hill, and it seemed .
TO draw me back | walked on till |
night, but found no place to stay, and
then made up my mind to come back.
81 reached the foot of the hill little
after midnight, and walked back and
forth with the baby in my arms to keep
warm, until near daylight. 1t soon be-
gan to snow, but wrapped the babe so
snugly in its blankets that it kept warm
all the while in its little basket
where l put it, with a few
things that | intended leaving with it.
After had placed it on the steps, | hid
in the grove of oaks outside the gate,
until saw the smoke curling from your
chimney. Then | crept away, and ,leav-
ing the villageroad, kept in the by-ways
until got some distance into the coun-
try. l met some people moving to an
other State, and they let me 60 with
them"
"And where are you going now?"
asked Joanna, looking in her face.
90 l am going back to my own kindred,
if l can live to res Oh them. l hare
little money, you see, but it is to take me
across the ocean,"
"What was the name of the child's
father?n
His name was Philip Westmore.
" That man :" gasped Joanna. "What
have you done, woman?''
The tramp-woman shrank from joan
mas fierce eyes. "What have l done?"
she repeated vaguely.
"There isn't living SOUL" said Jo-
anna, "who dares to breathe that name
to my mistress. And now-Hush!"
"Joanna!" called her mistress, i'm
peratively.
Obeying the summons, she found Miss
Grey sitting by the fire, with little Emily
in her lap. The hoarse, peculiar cough,
never heard by nurse or mother without
a thrill of alarm, told that Group had
seized its victim.
Run for DR.. Vincent" said Miss