, 1884-02-10

tho girl TO wear at the weddin' was lynn
with It's bright ribbons over a chair, waitin'
fer the finishin' teches. I rolled it up in q
bundle an give 1t a spiteful fling into a cor
ner. Poor Mahaly give a little cry as II
she d been struck ap' staggered acrost the
floor. an took the dress up as tenderly as II
1t Ind been a hvin' thing.
my poor little Cicely.' she said, Poor
child poor grill" Then I knowed that I'd
better keep my mouth shet if 1 hadn't any
good to say o Cicely Doolittle.
an a little more n a year from that, I was
with my folks on my way west; an Mahaly
Doolittle was with us. Father he'd got n
western fever, an was all fer takin' up
homestead land in Kansas or Nebraska
"Mahaly had tried to live on alone at her
place, but couldn't. She'd no heart to see to
things like shs once had, an / think that she
got older that oath OF May than in any ten
years O. her life. Tho drawn, panied look
never quite left her face; there was an ever
lastin' culver bout her lips, an the pink flush
never came back to her chooks- II didn't
take long for the silver to come into her hair.
ave never heerd a word o. Cicely, an
David, an never mentioned 'em, no more'n
II they'd never been born-which / wish they
hadn't
u was years younger n Mahaly, but as I'd
been with her in her worst trouble, it seemed
to kind o bind me to her; an my father an
mother had knowed her folks all their days,
she used to say that we seemed like her own
kin. So when father talked bout movin'
west, Mnhaly said she wanted to go, too. Shs
said she longod to 90 ~away-the further the
better.
$50 she sold of her place an things, 'ceptin'
what she made free gifts Of to some Of the
hands thntd lived for years with her. She'd
no kin nearer n forty-second cousins, any
how.
"A blazin' June day found US out on tho
Kansas plains Father'd' got the Colorado
fever by this time, an was goin' on there.
Hundreds o. people were westward bound
then. The wide. ~forlorn, plains were dotted
with long trains O. white covered wagona.
Thai juno day bout tucksred Us all our
There wasn't a breath O. wind. The gray
dust lay thick on the few parchei leaves of
grass by the roadside. 1t was terriblel
Just fore rundown we campei near q little
stream we had been glad to find.
"Our hired man had taken the fagged-out
horses OF a little piece to picket 'em in a
place where there seemed to be a little mora
grass than there was by our wagon.
There was IN old, covered, shackslied,
clap-trap Of a wagon with a broken wheel,
near this little patch o green, AM a sad lookin',
~ "a fCdf OpA IlAll lACd WIFI u pltCo VI
rope to a wheel Of the wagon. A bony COW
was picketo1 on the grass.
"When Sam, our man, came back, be said:
~ reckon them folks over there's got
'nough o. the west. I'm hinkin' the next
homestead they take up IL DO up there;' an
he pointed his hand to tho sky. They say
they come u here in Aprile, an haint seen q
well day since. You know it rained the hull
o. Aprile, an a cold rain at that. They're in
a mighty hard row O. stumps, 1 take It, Poor
devisl The woman's down sick, in the purity
nigh empty old wagon, on an old straw tick.
She g got chills an fever; an the man g half
dead, but tryin' to crawl round an fry a bit
O. bacon. l think it s ev'ry bite they've got
to cat. No wonder that the poor cuss says
that ho s had nothin' but lard luck for a
year back. The wust Of it, they've got a
baby, too.
"All tho time Sam was talkin', mother was
packin' n basket O. %vittles; for we had q
plenty, an good, too. Mahaly an mo took
the basket, an went over to the old wagon.
We heerd the feeble cry of q sickly baby
fore we reached the wagon Poor little
thingl That was the last cry 1t made fore
its little sickly life went out
"'Poor child! Poor little thingr Mahaly
said. an stepped on faster.
@The front curtain O. the wagon was open.
l elm up on tho tongue, an looked In. No
mortal human can know how / felt, when I
saw David Bnscom on his knees In the bot
tom O. that wagon, tryin' to give Cioely n
sip o. black coffee out o. an old tin cupl
"Mahaly was climbin' up on the other zido
O. me. l pushed her back.
@'Mahaly Doolittle! l cried, for the Lords
sake. como awayl come awayl Don't look
into that wagon; don't, don'tr
~ tried TO hold her, but she broke away
In another minnit she saw all I had seen.
Al run back to our wagon, and told my
news. In a little while mother an me went
over to David's wagon. He was not there,
but Mahaly was sitting with poor Cicely'a
white facs on her breast. Their arms were
round each other. and Mahaly's cheek was
pressed close to Cicoly's. The little baby girl
had gone to the Ono that gathers tho young
lambs in His bosom
~ "a said a Thousand times that l never.
never would forgive Cicely Doolittle under
any circumstances. Poor child Ny hull
heart was full o pity an forgiveness when l
saw her there in Mahaly's arms, with the life
nearly gone from her sickly, suf'rin' body.
She was 50 poor an pale an pitiful lookin'.
Not a bit o. the beautiful girlish
bloom loft, an the child-like beauty all
gone from the young face. But tho old
pleadin' look was In the blu eyes, an the
purity hair had lost none O. its beauty. She
put out her hand TO me as l knelt beside her,
but drew it away to stroke Mahaly's bowed
head.
"Purty soon David came into the wagon,
the wretchedest lookin' mortal, I reckon,
that ever suffered penance fer his sins.
His wife's hands graspod his: she tried to
speak, but could not; an so, with her eyes
rovin' from Mahaly to David, Cicely died.
"When mornin' come, DaviI Bascom had
gone. an from that day to this I never hssrd
tell O. him. Him / mover did forgive.
ave buried Cicely an the baby close to
tho runnin' stream, under the only tree fer
miles round. Next day we started on with
Mahaly layin' weak an pallid on a bed in
the wagon. She hadn't spoken a word since
we left hor with the tears fallin' on Cicely's
dead face, an heerd her cry o. mortal agony
then. But at noon she motioned ms toward
hsr an whispered:
'"Go back, 60 back. Put me BY Cioelyir
An next day we laid her there, with a look
OF peace on her face such as never could have
come to it in this world-a look that comes
only to those who arc at their death made
perfect in holinossl"
Society vents
bradford Start