The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1877-02-17
The Baby in the Brown Cottage

A small brown cottage stood on the road.
side, opposite an old mill. From the d ,oI
you could the great wheel slowly turning.
The m llers family lived in the brown COT
tage. Shall tell YOU how many were in
this faml y? just tnre
There was no mother IN the miller's brown
cottage ealy two little girls and baby.
One month ago the mothers earthly hle
failed, and Fl ckered, as you have seen the
light OF a lsmp whit the oil was consumed.
Then it went out, aud there were tears an1
grief IN the brown cottage.
As for the mother, sorrow and sickues,
had made both heart and body weak. Fol
long time before SIZE died, great shsuo 4
rested ou her life-a shadow that grew
darker day by day. But she was LOVING anc
holy, and, in HIS own good time, the LoI
clused her teaIful eyes in this lower world
that He might op, them in heaven. And
80 she went t. dwell with angels.
"Where was the baby's ia her?" hear
asked. "Did he not love and care for it
and for bis two little girls slso9"
said that shadow rested on the poor
mt theirs heart-a shadow that grew darker
every day. Such shadows rest On many
hearts. The miller had once been the kind
est OF husbands and the tenderest of fathers.
What had changed bimr Drink you know
too we'll what tnat means.
Once he took a glass of beer only now
and then not that IL made him feel any
better, but really worse, for it produced q
heaviness of head and limbs that was very
unpleasant while 1t lasted. Sometimes q
headache was the consequences. But 9TH
ers drank beer, and he joined in the useless
and unsafe custom.
After while, this unwholesome stuff so
changed the healthy, natural state Of his
stomach, that it began to crave the bitter
and stimulating dIaught, Then he drank
oftener; which, of course only made it
worse-increasing the unhealthy condition,
and likewise craving thirst that could new
er be satisiied-no, not even with beer and
so at times whiskey, gin, aud brandy we're
taken. These lead to ruin, by quicker
way than ale or beer; because they are
more fiery, and burn with fiercer flame.
You can understand now why shadow
had rested on the mother of these children,
and why it had grown darker every day.
The baby was year old. Hester or
Hetty, as she was called, had just passed
her tenth birthday and Mary was seven.
SO young, and molheress.
At first thought, 1t seems as if 1t would
have been better for them to be fatherless
also. But God knows what is best alway g.
His tender care was over these little ones,
and over their father, too.
Now that baby was one of the lovelIest
things alive-so sweet and pure 80 gentle,
and yet so full of lnfantile joy and so win
ming in all his ways that none could help
loving him.
This neighbor and that offered 10 take
him when bis mother died but Hetty, who
had seemed to grow into a woman all at
once, said, "No, no l can't part from
baby"
Then a lady who had no children took
the half-drnnken, wretched father aside,
and talked to him until he consented to let
her have the baby and bring him up as her
own. She wanted to carry him right of,
but the miller said "No, not until to- NOR
row
Better let me take him now," urged the
lady.
For Hetty's sake the miller repeated his
"No." He knew how great was her love
for the baby, and there was was enough of
tenderness lett in his heart to keep him
from adding this to her grief on the day of
her moIheT's burial.
Now it happened that Heity, unknown 10
her father and the woman, had heard what
passed between them. At first she was al
most beside herself with pam. 1t was as
much as her heart could bear to lose her
mother, aud she felt that tn take baby also
would, as she said afterward, 'just kill
her,"
The funeral over. all the neighbors went
home, except two, more terder-hearted and
plying than the rest. II seemed cruel to
them TO turn their backs upon these two
little giIls and the sweet baby left mother
lesa.
One of them had been very dear friend
of the miller's wife, and she grieved for her
loss az that of dear sister.
Taking Hetty by the hand, and leading
her into her mothers room, now 80 still and
desolate, she shut the door, aud putting her
arms about the child. burst into tears, and
wept over her for long time before she
could get calm enough to speak.
~ want to talk with you. Heity," she
said at length as she sat down and COM
posed herself. The blindipg tears dried
out of Hetly's eyes, and she fixed them
wishfully on the woman's face.
"What are YOU going 10 dol" All that
was the hardest of all questions TO answer.
Hel,y's eyes rested for little while on
the woman's face, and then dropped 70 the