The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1880-04-30

walked up and down behind her, fixing
the BLANKET. "A great sight nicer pet
than Miss Brownells' monkey" said the
diplomatic Susan.
"What would You have called the baby,
Miss Sophia" asked Susan, after dinner
WIS cleared away and in an interval of
the sewing machine, allowing you had
KEEP it?"
~ don't know, really"
"iou might have named it John, for
your father"
$50 might"
"What II comfort son is, to he sure,
To II person that has grown old!" said the
artful Susan. Queer there isn't boy
i'll the whole family. And / suppose
your sisters husbands would give their
ears for one. John McAlister. A good,
honest name, and that's what it is. How
hopping 'twould make them men if you
did adopt this boy!"
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 Holmes don't you
lose minute-and tell him want - see
him. I'll have papers of adoption made
out this very day, if it can be done. l
take this child for mine, to have and to
hold, for better, for worse, in sickness
and in health. And Won shall wait OH 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 kuees before Miss SOPHIA and the
baby, and kissed first Johnny and then
her mistress, till they all three cried to-
gether.
Susan was quite right i'll her Judgment
Of the way in which this would effect the
brothers-in-law. The news reached be-
fore dark. and, quite beside themselves
with Indignation, they came in person Mt
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 lite than when
she told them the thing was done and
couldn't be helped, and that the child
was hers-no thanks to them on any man
alive! As for Susan, personally, she felt
that, although dc ROH,inc the boy was
Miss Sophia's, yet dc .JactO he was hers.
And if he had been hers, and she hal
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, rs he
came that night, and found Miss Sophia
grooming over her child, while Susan was
busy in the kitchen. "Isn't this new
departure for n bundle of nerves. that
is only hanging by the eyelids, and is
sure that there is nothing to live for
after forty?"
II have something to live for now!"
cried Miss Sophia. Something to wake
up to, To look forward to, always, MI day,
and tomorrow. have found it out at
last. Why didn't you tell me of it be-
fore? 1t should be in your phaima-
copGia. And do you know, doctor, l
forgot al about taking my drops to-day
/ don't know when I've done such Il
thing before. / never once thought of
my aches and ails, I've been too busy.
| haven't had any palpitation to speak
of, my nerves haven't twitched, and am
SO dead tired that know l shall sleep
without any bromides. But want you
to look in all the same every day,
doctor" said Miss Sophia, AZ he went
of, laughing; "for if I'm not sick, the
baby might be!'
And then, Miss Sophia sat there all
alone with her baby, rocking to and fro
in the freight dusk, such pleasant pic
lures began TO slide before her, where
once only gloom had been-the surprise
xt,lA Ill -, IL 30
on her thimble, the rapture over his first
wet and cropping kiss (other' babies wet
and CROPPING kisses she had known, but
they had not been the kisses of her baby.
as this would be- the triumph of his
first word, his first step alone; the sight
that it would be when she had him, Il
winter dove, in her arms, as she tossed
their breakfast to the flock of flashing
and tumbling white pigeons: when she
saw him giving bits of biscuits from his
little fingers to the great shanghai mon
ster, rs tall as he. The coming OH of
winter now, as she thought of it, no
l0nger seemed to her like descent into
the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
Rather was it an ascent into the region
OF the blessed messenger, Il region peo-
pied by the angels of Johnny's sled and
Johnny's skates and Johnny's snowman;
and there would always he somebody to
expect i'll this happy region-somebody
flying in and out, somebody shouting be-
fore you could see his red comforter
round the corner-md that somebody
little Johnny. She already knew the
silver voice i'll which he would repeat
"The Better Land" and could see him
kneelng in his little white nightgown,
with folded hands, over his "Now lay
me down to sleep" All the uproar
Johnny might make would be music;
and, if he set things "by the ears" Su-
san would ask nothing better than to set
them "to rights again.
by andby, too, the young cousins would
be coming, and as Johnny's cousins
they had some charms i'll Miss Sophia's
eyes which they did not possess in them
selves; while Thanksgiving gobblers be-
gan to strut before her, dropping their
drapeIy of gorgeous plumes, and untold
Christmases to shake all their stockings
i'll her face. "What thing it is to have
child in the house when we are
young!" exclaimed Miss Sophia. "What
thing it will be when am old and go
ltilHinR OH Ills bIrOnS drIH up INC DTOdu
aisle of the church on Sundays to the old
McAllister pew!" And she thought Of
Miss Brownell and her monkey with an
ineffable contempt, which soon passed
into pity, however-such pity that she
began to cherish some uniformed idea of
letting johnny go over and play mt Miss
Brownell's, possibly with the monkey
some Saturday afternoon, when he was
old enough to be trusted to the care of a
person Sd ignorant of children as Miss
Brownell. "Susan!" Miss Sophia cried,
as the poor and happy little godmother
brought in an armful of wood for the
hearth, and, having laid it down pro-
ceeded to take lingering look inside the
little blanket that covered the head lying
over Miss Sophia's shoulder" Susan,
this New Years day that has brought
Johnny to you and me is not to be
counted OH our tally, but off of it; not as
one more, but one less. We shall be
getting younger now, instead of older,
with every year that comes. For those
who have Children" said Miss Sophia,
proudly, "ive their youth over again III
them and need never grow old"
Frozen Deer Oh Foot.
A resident of Victoria, British Column
bia, writes: "The whole country north
oe (tl.,,1n,, a., Dnnao ,.x,nx 70 nnyn.nI ,,,.@l,