The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1884-02-29

I y Il!l " WI a - =
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- :. 49, = svll &
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/ e0t.InSse ~ 4 rs
! - 18th 1 - and H. pcinlsd.
ard =! lAssd her ~ - tlisd 8 8
where would yoa gos. / aSksd.
There are no gypsiss near that ycG
could join, and you would soon st6xvs
and die alone; and, besides, how can
you leave poor baby and met Do you
not love rs, Helenore =
.Oh, I do. I dol" she crisd. paaaion-
ately, throwing herself down upon the
floor; "and I do not try 70 hear Tho
cal, I put mine fingers on my carr,
but hear them just the same!"
"Who calls you, Helenorei" I asked.
All things QUITO doors; che birds
and boes and winds. They call me, a.
ways, always: they say, 'Helenore, Hell
enore, come! and must go!" she
cried, springing to her feet and looking
wildly around.
/ feared she was losing her mind, and
was much alarmed about her; we tried
to divert and amuse her in every pos.
sible wav, and for a few days she really
seemed to be more quiet,
But one morning We missed her. The
afternoon previous, q hand organ.grind-
er and woman, evidently his wife, en-
tered our grounds. Helenore went out
to hear them play; and We noticed that
she stood conversing with them some
time afterward.
They had been hanging about the
neighborhood for several days. and some
how we felt sure that she had gone with
them, Our suspicians were confirmed
by farmer living mile or 10 above us
who said he met them Just at dusk, rs
he was returning home from the city-a
man and woman and our Helenorc. He
said he recognized Hclenore at once,
and spoke to her, bnt she made no an
swer.
4 We learned furthermore from her
mother that an organ-grinder and his
wife-old acquaintance of the family
| had been in the vicinity for week
past, and had put up night or two at
her house; and she donbted not that
they were the same persons We had in
mind. She made light of her daughters
disappearance, saying, with q shrug of
her fat shoulders, that ''she would be
back soon enough" and seeming to think
that in any case We were we'll rid Of her.
But we missed her and we mourned
her, and I did not try to fill her place.
My Every latest" as Jack still called
her, seemed to have proved sad fail
ure.
. =
I was lingering in my rose garden in
the twilight of warm September day,
hanging fondly over bed of pet hy-
brids-latest and sweetest of roses
when suddenly missed little Ned from
my side, and looking around for him, I
spied him swinging on the front gate. /
started to 60 toward him, and at that
moment the figure of woman sprang
up, as it were out of the ground near
him, and at the same moment I heard q
glad cry from Ned: "Helenore! Hell
enore!"
It was our Helenorei She caught
him to her breast and flew, swift as the
wind across the lawn to meet me, and,
dropping on her knees, with one arm
still around the bewildered child, she
chung to me desperately, sobbing and
groaning; but not one word did she
speak.
begged her to rise, but she would
not; 80 I sat down there on the damp
grass, and, taking her head in my lap,
soothed her with the old touch Of tho
hand she loved 80 we'll.
At last she heaved long tremulous
sigh and lifted her face to mine.
II can not ask You to forgive" she
murmured humbly; "that would he too
good for Helenore; but come to see
you once more, and to tell you what is
SO heavy here"-pressing her hand on
her heart-'sand then to die"
I led her into the house and drew
from her the history of her experience
since she left us in the spring.
"Were the people with whom you
went away kind to you?" I asked.
"Kindw she cried fercely. ooh, they
were indeed most cruel! True, they
did never hurt me like mine pnoder, but
they have made me so to suffer that I
wish not now to live any more"
"But you liked it at first, did Won
not-the fields and woods and the mu-
sic?"
eyes; like we'll to wander and to he
free; but I learned soon that only chill
dren and birds and squirrels are truly
free-not woman with heart here and
here"-touching her forehead and lay
ing her hand on her heart.
I wondered at her words, but I un-
derstood them later.
"For few days we had ahappy time,
and they were good to me, hut then
trouble came. could not dance when
I was tired, and could not learn to
sing their songs-and they laughed at
my own poor songs; SO they began to
speak only bad words to me and to care
AO1A btaaTteU huU SultoTcu.
1--WE were far away-I know not
where-when we came to large woods,
where many men chopped the trees,
and some wifes and children were there
too, and begged the music man and
woman that I might stay and work for
them and leev in little hut; and I
stayed. They too came back afterward
and worked"
"And were you happy there?"
She clasped her hands tightly over
ger bosom and u W and strange ex-
preston swept over her face that I did
not understand.
Happy, happy" she murmured;
"Oh, yes! listen-I will tell you'll"
Zone chopper was kind to me; he said
beloved me-loved me" she repeated SOL
emily, with tender thrill in her voice
that explained all. "And he was SO kind
to me, as if I had been q queen. It was
he, too, madam, that did teach me to
speak SO well, for he was Yankee man,
she added proudly; "and you see lido
speak much better!"
assented. where il he now?n I