The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-06-02

BlEuGs Huu ny noCkSy 3, SlIy IL SFc1
felt to moved to do something that /
had no business to do, it was them sixty
seconds we stopped to leave that angel
all alone In them woods. One look
from her would a took me off n that
train in a jiffY, an the apples and news
papers might q gone to Jericho but what
I'd seen her safe to where she was
bound, though wherever gentle, timid
young thing like her could wish to go in
them lovely woods, two hundred miles
from her home, was mOre'n / could
make out. Hows'ever, railroad trains
amt no ways sentimental, sir. and 1t
don't make no kind Of difference to the
Company what becomes or what don't
become of the passengers, he-un's or
she-un's, after they're set down, longs
they've paid their fare. Aud 80 we
dashed on, Ieavn' her standin' there,
poor thing, an the dead leaves falling
all around her, and she not Winding
them, but looking straight up the, track
! and into The sun, going d0wh iii tie red
haze at the end OF It.
"That were the first time | saw her,
and it were the last, an Ofen an ofen
I've thought it over since then, and
though | never heard a word of inquiry
nor ncthin'. still it's my opinion as
something awful wrong happened near
along that time, An I've never took
the ring off'n my finger since
FRAGMENT H.-TOLD IN THE FARMHOUSE
81 loved him so! OH did love him
sol" u,,oh
! Them was her very words, sir, when
she never changed 'em nor said nOthln
else the whole time but them there.
| Not q sign nor breath OF q name
| lust him And she continually agoing
over it, and over it, and over it, till
made one skeery like to hear 1t, poor
thing.
such night, too, as it was when my
man-that's my husband, mean, sir,
and il a rainin' and BLOWN and dark as
a ink-bottle. He found her O'rds night,
ne said, when he was on the road home
here, which be had been over with a
| load of oats, sir, to the bark peelers
camp, fifteen miles if it's foot. She
was wandering along the road, he said,
and didn't know - here she was gOin' 1t
seemed, nor how she got there, though
she like as not got off one or the trains
at the shanty near there, though they
never stop, but that we'll never know, L
suppose, in this world; ana 80 ne
brought her home with him on that
to me.
"She was quite gone then, out Of her
head. it being nv belief that she dldn' t
know me from herself then, nor never
after, poor, poor dear, an SO young:
"a man never can see q thing till it's
poked right into his eyes and hOllered
into both ears; excuse me, sir, but no
more he can't, and my man he lleVed
that poor creature was drunk or crazy.
Drunk! All, sir, think il the man who
was The wicked cause OF that poor, for
saken child being mindless wandereI
, that night. could only ha' seen her as
seen her, when I took her into my 'GWr
. room and put her into my own bed, he
would have took the shortest way Out oil
, the world that he sent her out or IN
misery and darkness, and far from hel
,, own. She was lady born, as could be
, easy seen by her hands, the prettlest !
ever saw SO white and slender, though
with nothing ca them but this little hail
ring. as you say you've seen the mate TO-
and made of two kinds-one Of 'em heI
; own, / know, being the color Of gold
+ almost, and the other-Oh, / can't
; bear to think of what the creature that
wore that lock Of hair will have to an
sWer for some day. And all her clothes
! which in spite Of the mud and draggle.
ment, could see was of the finest and
delicatest; there was no name or marx
, of any sort on any. If she had dropped
! out of the clouds she couldn't a been
l more unbeknown, by any sign or token
anywhere about her.
"Well, sir, watched her through it
; all, and cared for her like one Of my
, own-which ] am grandmother, sir
= and was then, though not looking it, ]
! dessay, being married very young
, She never knew it, though. She never
= got her reason at all, and not even the
' little babes cry it was a girl and looked
. no more like her than I did-not even
: it's cry as came from strong pair o
lungs, | insure you-cOuld seem. &c
, bring anything back to her, but just
! that one moan, so mOurnful and weary
like, while she kept turning her great
> blue ewes this way and that, lOOkin and
, lookin', though with no meaning in
> them at all, just that awful wild stare
, as If she was seeing straight through
:, the wall and hundred miles away.
! And so a-tossing and turning and never
; resting, but all through the night till
morning, and still through the day till
+ night again, and never changing, only
: getting weaker and weaker, she never
left off twisting her hands and crying
I loved him SO! Oh, did love him
SOL
"The little babe was just a week and
r one day old when she said it for the last
time in the world, and she had never
seen tito know it.
1--WE buried her out under that old
, beech, and not knowing what else to
4 put on it, we just wrote on the board,
as you can see for yourself, the date oil
when she came and them words of hers.
land the little one?' That's her in
the garden out there, seven years old
this month. She'll bear our name and
never know as long as I'm alive-nOr
after I'm gone, I hope-but what it's
her own by right.
Eyes; it's a queer and very sad story,
sir, that's so-an awful story, and II
makes me feel very sober when [ think
of it, as [ often do when I'm alone,
and / never 60 into that room when I'm
alone in the dark-we've never used it
sim seven years aeo-but what I seem
to hear that poor, dear child's heart