Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1881-02-23
A RECOVERED TREASURE.


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 a somewhat in it's blonde, oval
beauty that reminded yon Of the haunted
fawn, or the wild bird stricken down
by the sportsman's shot. She was fair as a
lily, with hair of bright, rippled gold, and
large violet dark eyes-such an one as you
might fancy Saxon Rowenn to have been,
in short.
eyes, but shall soon be home, Neil, 50
don't worry yourself about me, Harry is
asleep see"
AS he SPOKE he glanced toward a velvet
cushioned sofa, where beautiful child of
scarcely 3 summers old lay nesting in the
flushed, lovely sleep of infancy, with his
dark curls thrown back from tho 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 a moment looking down
on the child.
"How pretty he grows. All, Nelly we
have the most precious treasure Heaven
oVel gave W Ills CullClle1l Ill LulS DOy.
Mrs. Tracy's lip quivered-the dewy
shadow crept into her eyes.
"Oh, Henry, If only had my little Ber-
tina, too.''
"Still broodihg 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
above her grave, and counted her growing
years in heaven-but I cannot. She may
be in want-she may be i'll or suffering,
and J. 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 could
only ease this aching at my heart" reiterat-
ed Helen. ''Do not think me ungrateful,
Henry, but indeed I cannot forget my little
lost Bertha"
At this moment Harry sat upon the sofa,
loudly claiming his mothers attention; and
Dr.. Tracy went away with the pleasing re-
collection that Helen was smiling back to
such magnetism like the touch of q childs
hand to soothe the ache Of heart or head:
The flaming crimson belt of the late sun
set glowed sullenly above the leafiess Octo-
Der woods the tall trees that sl<irted the
lonely road on either side seemed to stand
like gaunt sentinels. DR.. 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's
words.
She was widow when he married her,
this fair Saxon beauty-a widow whom the
death of her handsome foreign swindler of
n 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
ciscos 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 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
And that is--'
l.
Paola Petroni never forgot nor forgave
the recoiling movement, the look Of horror
with which the English widow received this
unwelcome proposal
Tou will compel him to give my little
one to me, Henry" the poor young mother
had said on the day that made her for the
second time wife,
But when 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.
Search, inquiry Investigation proved
equally vain, and from that Gay 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 Patroni's foreign life.
1t was one of those strange, inexplicable
romances of real life that we sometimes en-
counter amid the most proseic 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
mot a particularly pleasant spot at this
twilight, soliloquised the doctor, leaning
forward to catch glimpse of single ray
yellow light that streamed from win
dow of cottage a few rods further on
They've lighted their candles, see, and
it's hight time they did, toe"
He sprang from his phaeton, and entered
the cottage without knocking.
1t 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
laths exposed; anda fireplace where a few
damp logs sputtered and smoked, and did
everything but blaze up cheerfully. A hard
featured old crone, who was doing on a
stool by the hearth, started up and began
to curtsey as the doctor entered.
Well, Mrs. Hooper. and how is the pa
tient?"
un.:.4 -. u,,:l.