Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-05-11

rainy outside, when the games had failed
any longer to amuse, each one recitcd
some verse already learned; and while
thus engaged, it was found that Cyrus
had been printing on the bit Of black
board, in uncouth but very recognizable
characters, the letters of the alphabet;
and when the others had said their say, he
came and stood by his mothers knee, and
repeated the "Better Land" in his sweet,
serious voice and baby patois.
AS Mrs. Dean went through the play
room, later, with candle in her hand,
thoses characters upon the blackboard
flared up like the handwriting on the wall
and made her shiver, as she afterward re.
membered, 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 lay
with the coverings tossed to the winds,
and his yellow curls streaming round his
face in its rosy slumber like a Minus.
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
to another; the mother, after the first,
stayed at home and wrung her hands, the
other children clinging dumb and awe
struck to her skirt. The boy had been
stolen.
Only those that clasp their own babies,
and think Of what might befall the dar-
lings in some such dreadful unknown, can
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 that were made, of the for
tune that was spent, of the uselessness of
it all. The picture of the little head on
its pillow that last night hung constantly
before the mothers eyes; all his charm
ing little sayings were in her mind; she
could see him tearing up bits of paper as
he leaned out Of the window, and as each
one softly foated away, repeating the
lines about the death-song of the swan
"Fwoating down by he'se'f to die she
remembered the absorbed way in which
he would look up, declaring, 81 buzhy
now;' the insauciance with which, when
she demonstrated upon his naughtiness,
he babe her to stake it eazhy;;" his ssvol-
erble papers, IN short, all the things in
which he had been just one trifle more
charming than the other children-the
other children who would not put one of
that child's playthings out of sight, and
would not even suffer the little uncouth
characters upon the blackboard to be wiped
out.
But one year followed another, and
another followed that, and although Mr.
Dean had agents every where throughout
the country, and was constantly on the
| alert himself, no word came of his little
son. Yet anything seemed better than he
should be growing up in the hands OF
those vile enough to abduct him. Nc
reason for the stealing had ever appeared
no message or messenger from the wretch.
es had ever made any overture to the
father for ransom. Sometimes his
mother feared that she could no longer
control her reason; her health was break
ing down: and she could hardly allow
the other children out of her sight. She
knew we'll that it would be better for he1
if she could go about among people; il
she could visit the poor; if she could
loose her own sorrows in trying to assuage
that of the others. But it seemed to hel
that sight of the trouble Of others would
but aggravate her own trouble. Nor hao
she anything to give in charity; she fell
that every dollar must be saved for spend
ing in search of her little one; she was
ready and eager to sell her great white
diamonds, each one Of which was a small
fortune, and all the family plate, the &C
emulation of generations, that had uset
to delight the children with its great ring
ing vibrations before the butler put i
away after any more stately banquet thar
usual. What she would have partet
with everything and have gone to live il
a garnet at hard labor, there is nc
need of saying, if that would have giver
her back her boy again. She knew
what it was to live in a garnet, too, for il
the beginning she had gone with her hus
band and certain members of the polio,
though scores and scores of garrets anc
cellars in the black heart of the city. Onl,
one of them all, though, she remembered
in particular, it made her shudder so
there was an old crone with siniste
laugh, smoking the stump of pipe there
there were some children asleep in hud
die of rags on the floor; the officers hac
shaken them, one and all, but they wer
none Of hers. The place was not NOR
filthy and squalid, not more loathsome t,
the senses and oppressive to the soul
than others she had seen but it seemed
to make her heart stand still as she en-
tered, and she had not spoken Il dozel
words with the old hag before she tainted
After that her husband was reluctant t,
have her continue such visits.
But the visit made, perhaps, no NOR
impression on her than it made on tn
jewellers of that den. The day ssthe pref
ty lady came with the cop'' was day il
the calendar of those children, who
doubtless, were all thieves after thei
kind. They remembered it, perhaps, tn
more particularly, too, because, when tn
callers had been gone little while, ole
Hannah, the crone aforesaid, knocked tn
ashes out Of her pipe, lifted the loos
board in the floor, and took Sam out O
his bed there-a bed in which most o
them had slept, and to which fresh al
came from chimney fue, and then Their
had been smothered cutlery, for it look
ed as though Sam was dead. But i
turned out that Sam was still alive, afte
all; he was only sounder asleep thar
usual. He slept almost all the time, a
they used to wish they might; instead o
being sent out on their BEATS dark lit
tie creature, with closely shaved head
and with vacant stare in his stupid eye
whenever he opened them. Sam ha6
been whipped two or three times by ole
Hannah because he didn't answer to hi
name when he was awake. He answered
to it now. But, on the whole, they hadn'
seen so much of Sam since he came, TO-
they were out, each on his own lay, mos
Of the time, at different hours of the day
and night.