Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1883-10-28


as her adopted daughter. procured
governess for her. had a complete
outfit OF suitable clothes prepared.
and. above all. took unwearied pains
10 teach her all the little things in.
dispensable TO place hes on a level
with the girls she would meet when
she went TO school.
Meantime society wondered. II
saw little Of Miss Buckingham. She
seemed always busy. yet she never
had looked so happy or so beautiful
as then.
As for Nora, it seemed to her that
she had reached heaven, can you
wonder
Nora soon learned the ways and
manners of q lady. She seemed TO
be instinctively delicate and LADY
like. She was pretty too. when her
face grew plump and the hungry
look went out Of her eyes.
Miss Buckingham, though on the
sharp lookout, never discovered a
vice in her. Whatever NAV have
been her original faults, she seemed
u have shed them with her rags, and
the great gratitude she felt for her
oenefactor overwhelmed everything
She seemed TO live but 10 do some
thing for Miss Buckingham.
That lady began to feel that virtue
is It's own reward. Not all the plea
sure she had found in taking the very
cream of life had given her so much.
happiness as this one poor child.
Almost without knowing it. she went
outless. and her life gradually shaped
itself into something like loving
mothers life.
To Nora. life was like a dream-a
dream of heaven. at that. Always
warm, always fed, always safe from
rougbness. surrounded by things so
beautiful she scarcely dared to touch
them every want attended 10 before
it was felt 1t was too wonderful to
seem true. In dreams she would
often return 10 the desolate shantv,
where the winds blew through the
cracks, and the rickety old stove was
no better fed than her mother and
herself. She would feel her fathers
blows, and wake to find herself in
her snug, warm bed, in her dainty
room next to Miss Buckingham's.
Five years rolled away. Miss
Buckingham grew to love this Child
of poverty very much. and to be
grieved that she showed none of the
Joy of youth. For Nora walked
around as though in dream. She
was always anxious to please, always
but never gay. The tragedy
of life had taken too deep a hold of
her. She was too subdued. She
never spoke loud. She never slam
med door, she never laughed.
Nora" said Miss Buckingham
one day, after studying her face some
time in silence, why are you not
like other young girls ?"
why, am l unlike Them" asked
Nora, looking up from the book she
was reading.
You're not bit like any young
girl | ever saw" said Miss Bucking-
ham you're too sober, you never
laugh and play"
Il don't know how to play" said
Nora in low tone, II never did"
Poor child. "said Miss Bucking-1
ham, her eyes filling with tears. you
never had any childhood. ] wanted
to give you one, but you were too
old when l took you. Why, you're
a regular old woman"
Am ! ?" said Nora with a smile.
Il don't know what I'll do to
you." Miss Buckingham went on.
:" I'd like to make you over"
II wish you could" said Nora
earnestly. Il try to be like other
girls, but somehow | can't. / seem
always to have q sort of weight on
my heart"
Mora, isn't there something you
would like that ! haven't done for
you? Haven't you wish:"
ooh !" cried Nora, II can't wish
for anything, you make me too
happy, but "she hesitated, and
tears began to fall FAST can't for
get ray old life, it comes back to me
10 my dreams. it is always before me.
don't want to tell you. but / must.
| can't help thinking about the many
miserable girls. such as was, living
in horrid shanties. starved, frozen,
beaten, wretched."
Then you have a wishi?" said
Miss Buckingham softly.
"Oh ii seems so ungrateful !"
Nora sobbed. "Such poor return
for the life you have given me! /
have tried to forget. l cant tell wha.
Is right for me to do. ! am sorry
said anything"
mo, Nora" said Miss Buckiag
ham promptly. "You should tell
me all your wishes and feelings. If
they are wrong, l can help you out.
grow them, il right she hesitated
:" why. I must help you"
Nora fell ON her knees with the
most impulsive movement Miss Buck
ingham had ever seen.
"Oh ! / do believe you are an
angel" ,
Buckingham, smiling. but I've set
out TO make you happy. and II find
whims and notions in your head. !
suppose I'll have TO follow them out.
But seriously, dear child, / must say
have had little uneasy feeling Of
responsibility In my heart ever since
I've had yon. And since ] have en-.
lirely won the reputation Of eccen-
Iricity in the world. there's nothing
10 hinder my being % odd as ] please.
That's the one great comfort OF single
by the way, and now let
me hear your plans.
- have no plans. have only
longings to do something tor them.