Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1879-02-06

course, always came eff conqueror,
while Susan walked up and down be-
hind her, fixing the blanket. "A great
sight nicer pet than Miss Brownell's
monkey !! said the diplomatic Susan.
sWhat would you have called the
baby, Miss Sophia, asked Susan, al
ter dinner was cleared away and in
an interval of the sewing machine,
following you had KEEP it?'
I don't know, really
You might have named it John,
for your father.
so l might
What comfort a son IL, to be
sure, to person that has grown old L
said the artful Susan. Queer there
isn't boy in the whole family. And
/ suppose your sistess' husbands
would give their ears for one. John
McAllister. A good, honest name.
and that's what it is How hopping
'twonld make them men If you did
adopt this boyr
am ashamed to say that last stroke
did the work
'Susan!' exclaimed Miss Sophia,
you put on your shawl and run right
down to Lawyer Holiness don't
you lose minute-and tell him
want to see him. I'll have papers of
adoption made ont this very day, if it
can be done. I take this child for
mine, to have and TO hold, for better
tor worse, in sickness and in health
And you shall wait on it from this day
out, Susan said Miss Sophia. solemnly.
A promise which Susan knew she
should literally fulfill, and which she
accepted like religious vows, as she
fell on her knees beside Miss Sophia
and the baby, and kissed first Johnny
and then her mistress, till they all
three cried together.
Susan was quite right in her judg-
ment OF the way in which this matter
would affect the brothers-in-law. The
news reached them before dark, and,
quite beside themselves with indigna.
ton, they came in person at once and
sent their wives to protest. And,
small and mean though she knew the
satisfaction was, Miss Sophia was
never better pleased in her life than
when she told them the thing was
done and couldn't be helped, and that
the child was hers-no thanks to them
or any man alive! As for Susan, per.
sonally, she felt that. although de
nomine the boy was Miss Sophia's,
de tdcto he was hers And if he had
been hers, and she had palmed him
off on her mistress, making her own
flesh and blood thus the heir to houses
and lands, her satisfaction, if more
criminal, could not have been more
complete.
well, well!' said the doctor, as he
came in that night, and found Miss
Sophia grooming over her child, while
Susan was busy in the kitchen. ISN'T
this new departure for q shundle of
nerves. that is only hanging by the
eyelids' and is sure that there is moth
ing to live for after forty ?
4 have something to live for now =
cried Miss Sophia. Something to
wake up to. to look forward to, always.
all day and tomorrow. Ihave found
it out at last. Why didn't you tell me
of it before? Il should be in your
pharmacop@ia. And do you know.
Doctor, forgot all about taking nv
drops to-day? don't know when /
have done such thing before. l
never once thought of my aches and
ails, I've been go busy. I haven't had
any paipitation to speak Of. my nerves
haven't twitched, and Tn so dead
tired that I'm sure l shall sleep with
out any bromides. But want you
to look in all the same every day,
Doctor said Miss Sophia, as he went
off, laughing for, if I'm not sick, the
baby may be!
And then, as Miss Sophia sat there
all alone with her baby, rocking to
and fro in the firelit dusk, such pleas
ant pictures began to slide before her,
where once only gloom had BEEN
the surprise when Johnny's first tooth
should CRATE on her thimbie, the rap.
ture over his fret wet and cropping
kiss (other babies wet and CROPPING
kisses she had known, bat they had
not been the kisses other baby, as
this would be J the triumph Of his
first word, his first step alone; the
sight that it would be when she had
him, whittier dove, in her arms, as
she tossed their breakfast to the flock
of flashing and tumbling white pige
ons; when she saw him giving bits of
biscuit from his little fingers to the
great Shanghai monster, as tall as he.
The coming on Of winter now, as she
thought Of it, no longer seemed to her
like descent into the Valley of the
Shadow Of Death Rather was it an
ascent into the region of the blessed
messengers, region peopled by the
angels OF Johnny's sled and Johnny's
skates and Johnny's snowman; and
there would always be somebody to
expect in this happy region-some-
body flying in and out, somebody
shouting before you could see his red
comforter round the corner-and that
| somebody little Johnny. She already
knew the silver voice in which he
would repeat THE Better Land and
| could see him kneeling in his little
| white nightgown, with folded hands
| over his Now / lay me down to
| Sleep All the nproar Johnny might
make would be music; and, If he sets
| things by the ears Susan would ask
| nothing better than to set them sto
rights again. By and by, too, the
young cousins would be coming, and
as Johnny's cousins they had some
charms in Miss Sophia's eyes which
they did not possess in themselves ;
while Thanksgiving gobblers began
to strut before her, dropping their
drapery of gorgeous plumes, and un-
told Christmasses to shake all their
| stockings in her face. what thing
to have child in the house when we
are young.r exclaimed Miss Sophia.
sWhat . thing it will be when I am
old and 60 leaning on his strong arm
up the broad aisle Of the church on
Sundays to the old McAllister pew 7
And she thought of Miss Brownell
and her monkey with an ineffable con-
tempt, which coon passed into pity,
however-such pity that she began to