The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1879-05-01
VOLUME VIII

/ hope that you would help me- seeing
YOU blame me so much. What prOpo-
sition have you to make"
"Your mother" replied Grace,
"washes her hands Of further maternal
responsibility than that required to
keep you fed and housed and warmed.
My mother is too old and rheumatic"
Laws, honey" interrupted Mrs. En-
erson, "you needn't be thinkin' o. me.
There never yet was will but way
/ followed it. There's room In my heart
for the whole bilin' of 'em. And the
baby's boy, too; so much like my own
pore baby Of the long ago that God
wanted. must hare him, dnyhOi0." I"
"But, mother, how can you? You
won't be pestered with hired help. and
you're not able to take care OF yourself,
and further, you must resign the babies
all to me.n
"How can you manage 'em, if / can't,
I'd like to know ?" cried the good crea-
ture, raising her voice to a high minor
pitch, and fairly quivering with intens-
4 ity Of feeling.
"I'm my own master, mother dear.
can buy what want, and sell what
choose, hire whom I please, and 90
where I want to and come when l get
ready. In short, I'm out Of the other
folks harness, and can carry my own
baggage, aud such other as suits me
upon my own shoulders, and no thanks
TO anybody"
"But you'll find all that changed when
you ill your house with these young au-
tocrats, my daughter" wisely COM
mented Captain Emerson.
"NO, l won't, will /, desrie ?" she
asked, turning to Nancy Shaddon, who
sat beside her in embarrassed silence,
Essie standing at her knee, aud one OF
Lillian's motherless infants in her lap.
"pll help you, aud 1 think you are
doing exactly right to keep them to-
gether," said Nancy, blushing painfully
as all eyes were turned upon her.
And so, after great deal of psrley-
ing, aud small talk among the men, and
a great deal Of planning and small talk
among the women, it was settled that
Grace should have her way, as she had
always had it. In little while she be-
came so fully absorbed in her new du-
ties that her life flew by her like the
wind. Very different proved her home
with five little children within its walls
and grounds, from the quiet, orderly re-
treat it had been prior to the advent Of
her deceased sisters flock. Little Es-
sic grew and throve anew in the con-
genial atmosphere Of so many compan-
ions, and Nancy Shaddou, who became
Jactotlni in the house, improved as rap
idly as did the little ones. No one ever
surprised her into betraying the rela-
tionship between herself and Essie.
"When she gets old enough TO fall in
love with somebody, and begins to con-
template matrimony, Well tell her
Time enough theu," Grace would some
times say by way Of gentle admonition
lest the poor girl might, in an un-
guarded moment, betray a fact which
they both felt would prove detrimental
to the child's social position, aud possi-
/ bly, cloud her matrimonial fate, should
IL become the talk Of the neighborhood
The immense business interests that
Grace had inaugurated before the ad
vent Of her sisters children in her house
and heart, were sufficiently eDgrossing
TO have fully occupied far less active
brain than hers. But, woman-like, she
rose TO meet every new emergency, with
fresh zeal aud renewed inspiration. Que
day, year after the children Of John
and Lillian Anders had become Inmates
OF her home, she left the house and rode
over the hill into q gulch TO look after
the work Of erecting a mammoth grist-
mill, which had grown very near com
pletion, aud which she was extremely
anxious 10 have ready for productive in
dustIy by or before the approaching
harvest. Her way ran by bridle-pa
into which her horse turned unbidden.
ON let him go as he likes" she said,
half audibly. "He'll take me down
through the timber, where last met
Alonzo. Poor. miserable fellowl How
dearly he reaped the reward Of his
wickedness! l wish might meet old
Shaddon there once more. I'd like to
tell him all about his daughter"
Thus Eliminating, she rode leisurely
along till, almost unaware, she reached
the very place Of which she had been
deeply thinking. Upon the log above
the spot where old man Shaddon had
avenged his daughters ruin by the
death Of her betrayer, a sated vulture
sat. At the same instant, an odor,
sickening, overpowering, awful, filed
her throat and mouth, and she felt that
she would swoon. Quick as thought
she lashed her frightened horse and
brought him around, in spite Of his re-
luctanee, till the balmy April wind
blew strong in her face between her and
the carcass.
In a moment the horse grew calm.
and she dismounted, the vulture, at her
near approach, slowly raising his wings
and soaring away with hesitaucy, as
though 10th to relinguish a feast TO
WHICH sundry Others Of his kind were
now approaching through the air
Grace drew very near the dead car
cass, protecting her breath with her
long riding veil. The body was that OF
a ataIrart man ewoIlan IN tuyfca ffs