The daily gazette., 1879-04-29


posed to buy it..
In her excitement she had walked fur
ther than she knew.
She was far down Broadway, and be-
fore her the Bowling Green, with its
newly-trimmed grass plot and its silvery
fountain.
A little further on the Battery, newly
restored to its pristine glory, and on its
benches some blue-bl0used emigrants,
with round, Dutch faces, and their bare
headed wives with wOOlen petticoats and
little shawls crossed over their bosoms
and knOtted at the waist.
As they stared about them, it struck
the girl that they, fresh from the sea,
might be tempted by the fresh, sweet
rose she held in her hand to spend few
pennies; but when she offered it to them,
she saw they were more prudent.
They only shook their heads solemnly,
and looked away from her.
And this last hope gone, despair seized
upon Millicent.
She sank down upon bench and be-
gan to weep bitterly.
The twilight was deepening.
She was far from home and little Jane.
She was faint with WEAKNESS and hun
ger.
Beyond the present moment all SEEM
ed an utter blank to her.
She covered her face with her hands;
the rose dropped into her lap unheeded.
She cared for it no more.
Fate was so much against her that no
one would even buy beautiful flower
like that of her.
There were steps.
She needed them not.
There were voices.
1t mattered not to her.
Suddenly some one said:
"What a beautiful rosew
And the words caught her ear.
She looked up.
Three or four seafaring men, with bum
dies in their hands were passing by fresh
from the ocean evidently, embrOwned
with the sun and wind, and with the
| ships roll still in their gate.
Sailors were always generous. One of
these would buy the flower.
She held it out.
"But it, please" she whispered family.
"Please buy this rose"
"I'm glad to get it," said stout, elder
ly man, slipping forward. "Whats the
He tossed three or four foreign looking
silver pieces into her lap, and took the
| flower.
Then looking at her very closely, he
spoke again
"What's the trouble, lass? Don't be
afeard to tell me. had little girl of
my own once. She's dead now. Tell
me, can l help youP"
Millicent looked up.
| The mans face was half hidden by
his hat, and he was stouter and grayer
than her father had been, but she fancicd
a likeness.
"You have helped me sir" she said,
"by buying the rose. Thank you very
much. My father was sailor too; and
he was shipwrecked."
"It's sailors fate" said the man..
otis time you were getting home, lass.
This city is no place for young girl to
be out in after night. But just wait. A
sailors orphan has a claim on a sailor,
my poor little Millicent would have been
about you age if she had lived"
"Millicent!" screamed the girl. "Oh,
my name is Millicent. I'm frightened.
l don't know what to think. You look
like him-yOu. I'm Millcent Blair.
My father was Roger Blair. Is it a
dream. 1t can't be true. 1t can't be
father.'
But the next instant he had her i'm his
arms, and she knew the sea had given
him back to her.
Wrecked with the vessel, but not lost,
he had been cast upon a desert Island,
whenee he escaped, after three weary
years, only to find his little home empty.
The widow had left her little cottage
to earn her living in the city, and the
news of her death had been brought back
to her old home by some one who had
been in New York when she died, and
who had either heard or imagined that
he heard that her children were dead
also.
And the newswas told to Roger Blair
by kindly people who believed it thor
oughly, and he had borne it as best he
could, and had sailed the sea again, a
weary, healt-broken man.
| He had not found all his treasures, but
that some were spared was more than he
had ever hoped; and the meeting be-
tween father and daughter was like that
between two arisen from the dead.
| And so the rose bush had done more
for Millicent than she could have dreamt;
and to this day it is the most cherished
treasure in the little home where the old
man lives with his two daughters; and
when, once month, its blossoms fill the
air with their fragrance, they crowd
about it as about the shrine of some
sainted thing, and whisper
"But for this we should still be part
ed"
DArAAunl