Connecticut western news., 1881-06-08

they saw my pleedlng lace ana d1lapl-
 dated garments, of course Nanny had to go off in her usual mysteries.
 "But managed to get the poor little waif picked up and carried to the house, though it was hours and hours before those blue eyes opened. That's the way Hilda came to us.
 "But how did she get there ?'' asked;
 "and where did she come from ?"
 "I don't know. Whether blown here by the wind, or driven before it, who can say ? for no one within fifty miles of this place had ever seen her. As I said before, there was no clothing by which she could be identified, and her poor little body was bruised black and blue. We have one clue alone, but I think 1t is very certain one. A few minutes before the storm, wagon with an emigrant family passed through the Flat. There were man and woman and some children, but no one noticed them particularly, save to see that they were strangers and foreigners. Some said they were Germans, others, Swedes; but as no one understood word they said, the matter remains doubtful.
 "Half mile from the Flat the storm must have struck them, for debris of the wagon and the bodies of the man and woman were. found there crushed under large fallen tree. The remains of two children were pisked up in the woods, not far from the wagon, but so torn and mutilated by the storm as to have hardly the semblance of human beings"
 "Of course, Hilda must have be longed to them," said.
 "Well, after trying to revive Hilda for hours after we took her in, her eyes opened, but they were the most vacant eyes ever saw in human face. She was apparently idiotic, but yet at mo- ments strange gleams of intelligence lighted up her face, though she did not utter word.
 "She puzzled us enough for many days, but though apparently unable to articulate, she evidently heard distinct ly, and when she cried, which was sell dom, it was kind of low weeping, not like dumb person. She never seemed to make an effort to articulate, but she grew fond of us in her dumb way. That is, she was affectionate when the intel ligent look came into her eyes, but grew stolid and indifferent and hardly seemed to know us when the idiotic fit came on. It looked to me ikea perpetual struggle l between mental forces and utter dark | ness of the mind"
 "Of course, you consulted physi- cians ?''
 ."About fifty, first and last. All dis agreed in their diagnosis, but all reached | one decision. They couldn't see why l she didn't speak in her intelligent mo- ments. She must be left to time. But 1 time wouldn't have done much without | Herr Strahl, young musician, who was taken ill at my house on his way to the Flat, where he had been invited to take charge of music class. Ton know Nanny? You know, God bless her! it's enough for any one to be de- pendent on her care and kindness, for her whole motherly soul to go out to them. This young Rudolph Strahl was a poor stranger but tell you, my wife nursed and coddled him as if he had been the President The first day he 1 was able to crawl into the sitting-room, she made gala day. She filled the sit ting-room with flowers and vines, and even trailed one over our poor Gertrude's l piano. She was our niece, you know, and adopted daughter, and she died be- fore she was eighteen. It nearly killed l poor Nanny, and she took up notion that nothing that had belonged to Ger trude should be touched. Her clothes | moldered in the armoires, and her piano | was locked. No one, Nanny said, should | touch the keys on which her darlings | hand had last rested.
 "Wel1, Strahl came tottering feebIy 1 in, leaning on stick, and when he saw the flowers and adornments he called | out Heavenly and all kinds of. Ger man exaggerations but soon his eyes lighted on the piano, and then he saw nothing else.
 "'Ah, my goot frents ? he cried, go- ing to it. Behold what is more dan all de medicines in worlt. My soul is starv- ing; yes, it is reaching out for de 1!
 "Nanny hesitated. You know a mo- tion will hold woman stronger than anything else in the world. But she didn't like, either, to refuse her patients wish, as he stood there with his hollow eyes full of entreaty. So she stammered out
 "'Pd like to have you play, Herr Strahl, but one, hand only has ever touched that instrument, and it lies cold in the grave. My Gertrude was only eighteen when she died.'
 :" Mein goot frent, he said, solemnly, ( do you never think dat your pure eighteen-year-old child, who has taken her place among de angels in heaven, and has learned de blessed harmonies, has forgotten de earth moosic Dat is for us to give language, utterance, to de yearnings for de Infinite, and why would you keep de keys which hold it locked and silent Let me play for you, my goot, blessed frent.'
 "Nanny weakened right of, and | handed him the key and while he was tuning and fixing the instrument she stood at one of the windows and looked | out, though knew she didn't see any