The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-12-24


then she stopped and got her shoulder
under, and rose little by little, and at
last succeeded in standing the great lid
upright what wonderful place it
was inside! Almost big enough for a
playhouse. buI
There were great drawers and little
drawers, and boxes with covers, and
boxes inside these, and places like the
berths she saw in the steamer when she
was taken to bid Susy good-by, and an
open space among them all, with fur
robe, a new fur robe for the sleigh,
folded and lying on the bottom.
Matty had not half exhausted the de-
light of her discoveries when the baby,
who was getting sleepy, and was quite
tired of his rubber doll and rattle, be-
gan to fret. She ran to get him and
brought him out into the hall; and it
occurred TO her that seat on that fur
robe would be capital thing for the
baby while she pursued her pleasure.
And no sooner said than done; she
climbed in herself, lifted the baby over
and set him down; smoothing the fur
and saying Poor pussy to it. ,...
The baby did just as she did, and
patted the fur and said PUSH" and
cuddled down his little sleepy head
upon it and let Matty 90 on opening
this tiny box, and pulling out that tiny
drawer. till all at once the grocer
boy quick ring at the area bell
startled her so that she jumped, and,
hurriedly scrambling out, she hit the
great lid and down it fell and shut fast.
Matty came very near screaming.
But she thought it wouldn't hurt the
baby for minute, if he would keep
still while she opened it again; and she
called out that sister was there, and
listened to hear him cry, but heard
nothing-for the baby had gone fast
asleep on the soft fur, and even the
dropping of the lid had not walked him.
So Matty stopped again to her task of
opening the chest, and tugged and
tugged, and pushed with her shoulders
and pulled with her hands, and wished
with all her heart she had let the chest
alone.
"Oh, he'll be smotheredm she ex-
claimed. Hell be smothered" And
she burst out crying and ran to find her
mother, screaming: 1.-The baby! Oh,
the babyr'
just outside the vestibule her foot
slipped on the frozen dripping from an
icicle overhead, and she fell from top
to bottom of the steps and lay on the
sidewalk senseless.
Mrs. Watrous, who had been kept
much longer than she wished by Cousin
Kate, came running up, only to meet
her husband at the door, hurrying for
the doctor. For he had turned the cor
ner just in season to sec Matty fall and
to pick her up, himself almost turned
to stone with terror. And then Mrs.
Watrous flew into the house, to find one
child unconscious and the other child
gone; and she tainted dead away her
self.
You can imagine what moment it
was for Mr.. Watrous when he came
back with the doctor--his wife coming
out of her swoon only to scream Tor her
baby, and Matty still stunned with the
fall. And this was the happy Christ
mas Eve he had promised himself!
There was nothing broken, the doc
tor said, at last; he only feared con-
cussion of the brain now, but possibly
they might avoid that only Mrs.
Watrous must control herself and bend
all her strength to Matty's recovery;
and then it was evident that Matty
knew what had happened to the baby,
he said, and the sooner Mary could
speak, the sooner they should know,
too. Nobody thought of the chest; no.
body looked at it; nobody saw it.
But while the doctor and Cousin Kate
who had come running over to see
the reception OF the chest, and found it
all forg6tten-were busy with Matty,
Mr.. Watrous had called neighbor,
and had searched the house from roof
to basement, every room, every closet,
even the cellar; and then he had run to
the nearest police-station with the ba-
by's photograph, to call out the force in
a public search.
His wife sat there like statue when
he came back. Cousin Kate was doing
everything she could have done; Tor
wi h this fearful calamity overtaking
both her children at once, Mrs. Wat
rous was so overcome that she could
hardly move; she could only sit still
and feel an unspeakable longing for
Matty to open her sweet eyes, to open
her dear lips, and whisper just one word
about the baby. But no; Matty lay
stone-still.
1t was certainly an awful hour; one
child perhaps dying; the other child
lost; the neighborhood in wild alarm;
the police bringing two lost children to
the door, for whom other parents were
in equal sorrow-and all in the middle
of it the Christmas bells rang out from
the church tower not far away. . ...
Then Matty opened her great dark
ewes wide, as if just waking from u
pleasant nap. 'There's the chimen'
she sad. '.See if the baby will 20
mammal as it all rushed over her, ''the
baby! the chest! the rev chestr' And
she fell back again into the arms of the
doctor, who instantly began TO pour q
cordial down her throat.
In another minute her father had
dashed down stairs and had pressed the
rusty old spring of the great chest, and
tossed up the lid, and there, cuddied
down all rosy and warm. in the white
fur of the robe, lay the baby, as sound
asleep as if he were in his little crib
for the moth holes in the red leather
that was stretched under the open work
top had given him plenty of air to
breathe.
With what an ecstacy his father
canght him and sprang up those stairs,