The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1884-02-16
In the Cause Of Sci
enCe.
Flora L. stanhsld.

m6tApIlOf1cnI cAul0lS DhCk 4u5 pa
tience Of Charlotte Brantone, usually
equal to the exigenoies of the occasion,
was exhausted. The twins, as matter
of course, were the cu1prits. They.
however, with the complacency natural
to boys of or thereabouts, were In
different to the tempest of despair which
ragged in their sisters b1east They had
considerably refrained from adding de-
ceit to their guilt, but had confessed,
fully and unreservedly. to rifing the
canary's nest, to tearing jacket, and
losing hat down the well, to eating
the strawberries that were saved for
supper. and to catching their most
faithful hen with fishhook. That fish
hook represented the straw; Charlotte
the camel She could have borne any
thing better than downright cruelty
developed SO early In one of Ter own
blood. She never was q boy.
"And man was here" went on Pop
sey; "a big man" volunteered Wopsey,
the other twin. "And he asked rs about
everything, aud we said our mother
wasn't very wei and our sister was
old maid school ma'am."
Charlotte WINGED. Where had he
picked mp that expression? And had it
come to that?
"You must rot talk to strange men
about mother or me. What did he
want?"
He wanted to see YOU"
"Me?' Visions of tramps. of spying
burglars, only they had nothing to
''burgle," as Popsey had said one day,
came into her mind.
How did he look 2"
He was beautiful" "He was dread
full" said the twins in duet
Further questioning elected these
| facts. He was young; he was old; he
was short; he was tall; he wore spec
tacles; he had a mustache, and was a
| bug-man. In the last and crowning fact
the, boys agreed.
Practice had made Miss Brantome q
tolerable clairvoyant, so far as reading
those two small minds was concerned.
She jumped at the conclusion that some
wandering naturalist chasing an elusive
bug had chanced that way, and gave the
subject no more attention, She had
other things to think of than 'bug-men'
or any men, and the problems of how to
provide new hat for Wopsey and how
to insti1l remorse into the hearts of her
charges drove other thoughts away.
Sitting down on the low doorstep OF
the house that had been home to her for
six and twenty happy years she tried to
reason it out. The sun was yet high,
the days were at their longest. Behind
her flowed the tireless river; in front OF
her, across the prairie, the hills were
green. In the field of rye over the way
cleaned a large white wooden cross
Her grandfather, in whose veins flowed
some of the blue blood of France, had
bought home in this western country
when the remnant of an Indian tribe
had still property to sell. The deed oi
sale provided for the preservation oi
their little burying ground. Here
among the sinking graves Pierre Bran.
tome had built the cross. It had been
renewed several times since then, but
had always seemed the same, and was
ever the patient protector, solemnlJ
holding its white arms out as If to de
fend the moldering sleepers. The
grain grew thick around, but the tin1
village OF the dead was never disturbed
by spade or ploW.
Old Pierre, however, had never pros
pered. Neither did Pierre the younger
and one night when, riding home, hi
horse shied at the sight of the white
cross in the moonlight and threw hin
with his head against stone, he lef
: no legacy but the homestead and deb
to his wife and children. There was
gap of twenty years between Charlott,
and the twin babies, and she really hat
third infant on her hands, for tn
mother was nothing more useful thar
was not feeble-minded exactly, but pain
fully gentle strange and unaccounta
BILE.
Charlotte shouldered her burden
with brave heart. Her French accen
= for grandfather Brantome's blood ha,
never filtered through Canada-brough
her employment in the school in tn
town near by. The loag walks bacl
AID forth kept the roses blooming i
her cheeks, the boys were good-some
, tines-and she being busy, was happy
1t re 1uires leisure to be successful
miserable.
il6 CIOo IJluCu " IIcI GiI0 udt1
martyrdom of private life." And now
, looking at it, her heart grew light. Th
new hat would cost but trife. s,urel
they were more strawberries ripe in th
garden, the canary would lay more egg;
the jacket could be mended, and oil
, Speckle had proved superior to the fish
hook.
But what could the boys be screamin
about?
S "The bug-man! the bug-man" the
were shouting, trotting toward her wit
all their might ON their sandy littl
: feet. 1t was certainly strange. VIII
should stranger call twice? That b
\ shonld come once was not surprising
but twice?
I'VE showed him your photograph
said Popsey, sand he said you didn
look like old maid Bit
s'And he said" went on the other te
rible infant without pause, wasn't "
wished he had and he had such lot
4 bugs he puts them to sleep with med
cine and sticks pins through 'em an
he has gold watch and he let us win
it up and we told him to come agai
some more and here he is
Charlotte was speechless, but in son
:. way she found herself rising to her fe,
to greet q gentleman who was taking c
his hat to her and bowling with graz
which even grandfather Brantome woul
L have approved.
4: Miss Brantome, believe"
: She acquiesced in silence.
!. Il am gathering materials for an hi
10 forial work and was directed to you {,