The Red Cloud chief., 1879-07-31
LITTLE SAM.

III any people ever deserved "a mucl
money rs they knew how To take car,
of, popular verdict declared IL 10 be tn,
Deans; and nobody grudged them eithe
their money or their loveliest of homes
In one of the city suburbs where pave
ments and lamps had not yet stretched
where the country ways were overhun!
with elms and beeches, and every nous,
was set in Ia ms and gardens, stood thi
home of theirs-an old stone mansion
with bays and balconies overgrown will
Virginia creeper and wistaria who's,
stems had intertwisted themselves will
the masonry at every c~revice, and wer,
as stout and strong as ropes-ropes her,
and there stretched "a tightly that they
sang in the wind like .folian harps
Within the house the hall was laid in old
tiles, and covered with rugs, the noise
less and beautiful drawing-rooms and
library were filled with inherited treas.
ures, and, TO say nothing of sleeping
rooms and nursery, the play-room was
; a fairy place, and nothing less. Ii was
the only room in the house that Mrs.
Dean had changed when she came in "a
reign; but she had arranged this grea,
sunny place to please her own fancy,
and not that of her husbands ancestors.
On the wall she had a paper hung, con
trary TO the canons of art, she was
told, but delightful To the eyes Of her
boys and girls, where on a skyey
background blush-roses climbed all
yer a gilded t%rellis, birds built
their nests and tilted on the spray, and
nhflIran, =, f,.,1 ,..r...l -, ,- -. IL.
~garlands. The floor wore a thick felt
that allowed no tumbles 10 hurt the
tuTnbler, and that deadened every noise;
and for the remainder, there was no
continuance to amuse children that
the mother had not amassed ip that
room. There was the big white rock
ing-horse nearly a. large as her own
ponies, call saddled, all bridled, all fit
for Il fight" there was the mimic nine
pin alley, the baga;elle tables, the phil
osophical apparatus and the telescope,
with which Mr.. Dean used TO perform
for the children, and give them
glimpses of the fairy tales of science"
when the other fairy tales palled, and of
worlds beyond when the pleasures of
their W were not enough. And then
there were the walking and the talking
dolls, with q multitude of other me-
chanical toys, and there were parallel
bars, and, yes. a low flying trapeze. A
happy little sci of savageS :hey were
that had the freedom Of this delightful
room when the days spelling and null
tiplying were over. There were Robin
and Matte, the twins, and Ned: there
were the two orphan cousins that had
t,,,, alIal 20 L.. ,,,,lo-. -
usually more OF less of the ncighbors'
babies; and there was Cyrus, the
pet and darling of them all, a fair
faced, blue-eyed little fellow, with his
long yellow curls floating over his shout
ders-almost too lovely, it seemed to
that household, for common flesh and
blood. A p~recocious little creature too,
for his four years, full of mischief. his
old nurse said, as n nut is of meat, and
full of sweetness too. Singing about
the house from dawn till dark, kissing
the dog, which felt him a peculiar
charge, worrying the cat, feeding the
birds, vanishing the chairs with the
mucilage, decorating the wall with his
fingers dipped i'm the ink bottle, break
ing the precious flower from the stem
for some unwelcome guest, knowing no
difference between eryan;S and mas
tiers, and having kisses for all, ALWAYS
serious and always loving in the midst
of his p~reoccupation and mischief, the
little fellow was the ideal of home and
Of the region round about. One night
as they all sat in the play-room by a
fire (t being rainy outside), when the
games had failed any longer to amuse,
,u.h npa rooffnd cnn.n n-- ar~.oI-
learned; and while thus engaged. it
was found that Cyrus had been printing
on the bit of a black board, in uucouth
but very recognizable character, the let
tiers of the alphabet; and when the
Others had said their say, he came and
stood by his mothers knee, and repeat
ed the Better Land" in his sweet, Sc
rious voice and baby patois.
As Mrs. Dean went through the play
room, later, with a candle in her hand.
those characters upon the blackboard
flared up like the handwriting on the
wall, and made her SILVER, as she after
ward remembered, she knew not why.
She passed through into the nurseries,
and saw her little people all gently
sleeping there; but somehow her heart
seemed TO linger the longest round
Cyrus, as he Law with the coverings toss
ed 10 the winds, and his yellow curls
streaming round his face in its ROSY
slumber like a nimbus.
The next night that little bed was va
cant, and bands of men were searching
the country far and wide for Cyrus; the
father rode, half frantic, from one place
10 another; the mother, after the first,
staid Al home and wrung her hands, the
other children clinging dumb and awe
struck TO her skirts. The boy had been
stolen.
Only these that clasp their own ba-
bies, and think of what might befall the
darlings in some such dreadful unknown,
a realize the agony that night and
day brought TO those parents for weeks
and months. 1t is idle to tell of that
grief, of the efforts hat were made, of
the fortune that was spent, of the use
lessness of it all. The picture of the
little head on its pillow hat last night
hung constantly before the mothers
eyes; all his charming little savings were
in her mind; she could see him tearing
up bits of paper as he leaned out of the
windows, and, as each n softly foated
away repeating the lines about the death
song of the swan-"F~oating down by
her'se'f TO die" she remembered the
absorbed way in which be would look
up, declaring, g buzhy now" the in
souciance with which, when she remon-
strated upon his naughtiness, he babe
her to stake it eazhy;" his ~"volerble
papers," in short, all the things in
which he had been Just one trife more
charming than the other &hildren-the
other children who would n>pt one
OF that child's playthipgs out Of siE>.
and would not even suffer the little un-
conth characters upon the blackbos-dl
to be wiped out.