The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1881-02-17
A RECOyERED TREASURE.
Must you go out again, dearest?"

RECOVERED TREASURE.
Must you go out again, dearest?"
Helen Tracy's wistful blue eyes were lift
ed to her husbands face as he came into
the sitting room with his overcoat on. He
was a tall stately looking man, with high
forehead and clear brown eyes and the
pleasantest of smiling mouths, but Helen S
face had somewhat in its blonde, oval
beauty that reminded yon of the haunted
fawn, or the wild bird stricken down
by tho sportsman's shot, She was fair us a
lily, with hair Of bright, rippled gold, and
hrge violet dark eyes-such an one as you
might fancy Saxon Rowena to have been,
in short.
eyes, but shall soon be home, Neil, SO
don't worry yourself about me, Harry is
asleep see."
As he spoke he glanced toward velvet
cushioned sofa, where beautiful child of
scarcely summers old lay nesting in the
flushed, lovely sleep of infancy, with his
clark curls thrown back from the dimpled
cheeks, and one hand underneath the head.
Eyes; he has been in the garden all the
afternoon, and fell asleep almost the mo-
ment his nurse brought him in"
DR.. Tracy stood moment looking down
GLOW pretty he grows. All, Nelly We
have the most precious treasure Heaven
ever gave to his children in this boy"
Mrs. Tracys lip quivered-the dewy
shadow crept into her eyes,.
"Oh, Henry. if I only had my little Ber-
tina, too!'
"Still brooding on your lost one, Helen?
My dearest, had hoped that time was heal
ing up that wound in your heart Is it
wise, is it discreet thus to forget the boun-
ties Heaven has given you in the one gift
He has withdraw"
IF could only be certain that she was
indeed lost, Henry, sobbed the fair haired
woman IF could have planted daisies
years in heaven-but I cannot. She may
be in want-she may be ill or suffering,
and so powerless to aid her.
There can be no doubt that she is dead,
Helen," soothed the husband. Were it
otherwise your brother law would long
since have communicated with you"
IF could only believe tiff I could
only ease this aching at my heart, reiterat-
ed Helen. ''Do not think me ungrateful,
Henry, but indeed cannot forget my little
lost Bertha"
At this moment Harry sat upon the sofa,
loudly claiming his mothers attention; and
DIR. Tracy went away with the pleasing re-
collection that Helen was smiling back to
her boys smiles. All! where was there ever
such magnetism like the touch Of child's
hand to soothe the ache of heart or head?
The flaming crimson belt of the late sun
set glowed sullenly above the leafess Octo-
Der woods; the tall trees that skirted the
lonely road on either side seemed to stand
like gaunt sentinels. DIR. Tracy buttoned
his overcoat one or two buttons higher as he
drove along the solitary highway, and felt
the raw piercing chill of the evening air;
and all the time he was thinking of Helen
words. !,
She was a widow when he married her,
this fair Saxon beauty-a widow whom the
death of her handsome foreign swindler Of
a husband had set free from bondage al
most worse than slavery. Francisco Petroni
died; but Paola Petroni, his brother, lived,
a dark, designing man. Bertha, their in
FAINT child, had been consigned, by Fran
cisco's desire, to his brothers care, during
the illness that proved fatal to him. All the
widows subsequent efforts to regain pos
session of her little one were futile.
my dear sister in law" said the Italian
to her one day, when her appeals and en-
treaties had been most persistent, ''There
is one way, and but one way for you to re-
ceive back Bertha" 80 !.
And that is '~ .~, 90 80
$50 receive me also-as your husband!'
Paola Petroni never forgot nor forgaye
the recoiling movement, the look of horror
with which the English widow received this
unwelcome proposal. ~ WHY i9 =
you will compel him to give amy little
one to me; Henry" the poor young mother
had said, on the day that made her for the
second time wife.
R11f uban Henry Tracy armed with all the
the force of law, went to Milan to demand
possession of his little STEP daughter, 10!
Paola Petroni had utterly disappeared, and
Bertha with him. ,@' ,'s~ '' >sa"
Search, inquiry, investigation proved
equally vain, and from that day to this-a
period Of six full years-neither DR.. Tracy
nor his wife had ever heard one word of
the little italian infant whose smile had been
the first CLEAN of light that had fallen across
the tide of poor Helen Patronis foreign life.
It was one Of those strange; inexplicable
romancos of real life that we sometimes en-
counter amid the most prosaic and COM
monplace surroundings, and supplied DR..
Tracy with ample materials for thought as
he drove through the wild and desolate
part of the country.
''Not particularly pleasant spot at this
twilight" soiloquised the doctor, leaning
forward to catch a glimpse of a single ray
fyellow light that streamed from a win
:'They've lighted their candles, see, and
it's hight time they did, too"
He sprang from his phaeton, and entered
the cottage without knocking. .- ~. lie s.,>
It presented no very inviting scene. A
ruinous floor, treacherous and uncertain to
the unwary footstep; walls where masses Of
plaster had fallen away leaving the rough