The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1880-07-22

and little laugh. "Then I will make
my history short, said she.
ALL life histories are hitched at inter-
walls ON to the infinite. To make a life
story short, therefore, is necessarily to
make it incomplete. Sarah knew this,
but she would not ask Edward to sit Oh
the bureau, so she made her history very
short indeed.
Il know nothing about myself" said
she, Except that was born in hos
pital, brought up in an alms-house, and
support myself by making shirts"
That is noble" said Edward, with
enthusiasm Enthusiasm is volcano of
flowing sympathy.
The only clue have to my parents
Is broken agate, singularly carved, -
continued the young girl
"a broken agatei" stammered Ed
ward, feeling in all his pockets with one
sudden impulse The young girl re-
garded him with astonishment A sud-
den suspicion came into his mind. Sus-
picion is both mother and daughter of
distrust. The world had been hard with
Edward, although he whistled- For a
moment he suspected that Sarah had
been rummaging his room. By some
mysterious instinct she OWNED hi,
thoughts.
'Wait, said she imperiously. Push
ing away impatiently her simple dress,
she disclosed very prettily rounded
but plain gray stocking.
Edward turned, embarrassed and un-
easy, towards the window.
The young girl made movement of
| absolute simplicity. "Do not be
ashamed" she said. ''This is my wooden
leg."
Edward started, and approached her
with tears in his eyes, Sarah, :" he said.
''you are adorable, and II was dom
key"
She smiled a little and gave him her
hand. Then she unscrewed the wooden
leg and from a recess in the top took out
the broken agate II think 1 am your
sister, said she softly, land this you see,
is why clatter on the stairs
1t was an indescribable moment. Full
| of tender love and brotherly respect,
Edward yet could not properly embrace
his sister with a well ground fear of up
setting hei frail chair And she--she
could not rise and throw herself upon his
neck. With the air of one sacrificing at
the altar, he knealt, gently lifted the
wooden supplement of his sisters per-
sonality and screwed it carefully into its
socket. Then both rose, gazed into the
new worlds of each others eyes, and
melted into one figure, sobbing and
smiling.
So when the commonest water-bucket
is upset in the snow and the thin,
solid looking ice across its face is broken.
| pours out the wealth of that wonderous
fluid that runs round the world-bar-
ring the salt.
One thing we can only guess at blind
ly. We do not know why Edwards first
allusion to her infrmity should have
flashed into Sarahs mind the thought
that he was her brother. 1t was, per.
haps, the working of beautiful instinct
"a new sensitiveness-bestow on her
by nature as a compensation for the loss
of her leg. But we may say it was this.
or it was that We do not know.
knowledge is the agreement in con-
sciousness of an object with its
ideal. This being the case, how should
we know? Or how should we know we
know?
Being a sister was a new experience tc
Sarah. But, she reflected after mo-
ment since I have only one wooden
leg l cannot be everbody's sister," II
was the working of the mind of begin.
ner In q new field Perhaps she should
have said, although 1 have wooder
leg" However, her longing for an ac
quaintance returned. Edward" she
said "you must have friends. Make me
acquainted with them"
He made her acquainted with a mar
| named .JOhn yh0sa boir woe vol o,,c
whom she married. John used hel
wooden leg as a medium of reproach anG
reproof, and finally cut her head off ani
threw it out of the window. John was
executed. Edward became a blear-eyet
drunkard, and was killed by an italian
In street fight. The italian took poi