Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1885-06-13

~ 'I4IJ DA1 IL Iliil,
"How did come to adopt her ." Tv
iear friend, that is about one Of the sill
Heat questions | ever heard tc come
from a man Of your wisdom and com
mon scrSc II was Fate, that's what it
was Personally, / had 10 more 10 do
with Ii than you have this moment.
These things are all ordained and MAJ krl
out for rs, and We can neither avoid nor
alter them. Fatality, do you call the
doctrine? Well, call it what you will
there it IS, and you can't make allvtlill-,
else out Of it
But abont little Nagdalen. | was
coming down Broadway in II great
hurry to catch All uptown stnge b4forc
all those ferry people blocked into it,
when there she sat on curb-stone. the
wind blowing her yellow hair about and
her poor little hands blue with cold,
crying as if her heart would break. |
didn't think the vericst savage could
have helped stopping. to ask her what
the matter was, and | don't call myself
a savage, if / do happen to have my
little crusty Cts now and then. 50
says /:
Child, what's the matter p
"I'm lost ~ said she.
And come to inquire, why, the poor
little elf was fatherIess, motherless,
friendless, in all the wide world OF
course, | took her home, and you ought
to have seen old Hannah, my house
keeper, stare when I walked in with the
yellow-haired baby clinging to the
little finger of my left hand. For she
wasn't more than eight years old, and
small Mt that
81 give you months warning, sir I"
says Hannah. But, bless your soul, she
didn't 60 Maggie took her heart by
storm, as she always has done that of
the rest of the world, and at the month s
end YOU couldn't have hired old Hannah
to leave the child.
Well, sir, she grew up as tall as a
reed, and as pretty as a posy. Isent her
TO Madam Aimard's fashionable French
boarding. school, for | was not going to
have my Maggie a whit behind any
ones else girl, can tell you Ny sister
Simpkins objected. You see, with those
nine daughters of hers, she grudged
every penny of my money that was
spent on any one else.
Your putting silly notions in the
child's head" said She "A girl that
will have her own living to earn, ought
not to mingle with Madam Aimard's
young ladies.
II should like to know why ?" says l.
Because she is in no way their
equal r. said Sister Simpkins.
"Flddlesticks !" says ]. My Maggie
is good and pretty, and if thai don't
constitute equality with any girl alive
I'll own up that We don't live in a repub.
lican country As for earning her own
living. why it's my business to looE
after that. and no one else need trouble
their head abo1t 1t J.
Mrs. Simpkins pursed up her lips anC
looked unutterabIe things, but she die
not dare to say anything more. She
knew OF old that | wasn't TO be disputed
when my will was up. But | sent th'
nine MISS Simpkinses nine coral neck
laces the next Christmas, and that KEEP
the peace for awhile.
When she came home from the board
ing-school, she was prettier than ever
tall, as | said before, with yellow, silk
hair, great shady-looking blue eyes
with lashes that curled up at the ends
and cheeks SIS fresh and pink as | re
member the inside OF two big shells tha
used to stand on my grandfather's bes
room mantel fifty good yeas ago.
So | east about in my mind to fin
some new plan for making the old hous
lively for my little girl. I knew sh
couldn't thrive without her innocen
gayeties, any more than a bird coul'
without free air and sunshine: SO / in
vited company, and made up little i'm
promptu parties and frolics, and bea
my brains for something to keep he