Connecticut western news., 1885-04-15
THE OLD BACHELOR.

LII OnD DdOnGAO1bs
 "How did come to adopt her ?" My dear friend, that is about one of the sil- Hest questions I ever heard to come from man of your wisdom and com mon sense It was Fate, that's what it wagl Personally, Ihad no more to do with 1t than you have this moment. These things are all ordained and marked out for us, and we can neither avoid nor alter them. Fatality, do you call the doctrine? We'll, call it what you will there it is, and you. can't make anything else out of iti .sa.f
 But about little Magdalen. I was coming down Broadway in great hurry to catch an uptown stage before all those ferry people blocked into it, when there she sat on curb-stone, the wind blowing her yellow hair abont and her poor little hands blue with cold, crying as if her heart would break. I didn't think the veriest savage could have helped stopping to ask her what the matter was, and I don't call myself a savage, if do happen to have my little crusty fits now and then. So says I:
 "Child, what's the matter? P
 ''I'm lost !" said she. .-. And come to inquire, why, the poor little elf was fatherless, motherless, friendless. in all the wide world! Of course, I took her home, and you ought to have seen old Hannah, my house. keeper, stare when walked in with the yellow-haired baby chnging to the little finger of my left hand. For she wasn't more than eight years old, and small at that
 sI give you amonih's warning, sir [" says Hannah. But, bless your soul, she didn't go. Maggie took her heart by; storm, as she always has done that of the rest of the world, and at the montb's end you couldn't have hired old Hannah to leave the child. s. -. We'll, sir, she grew up as tall as 8 reed, and as pretty as posy. l sent her to Madam Aimard's fashionable French boarding. school, for was not going to have my Maggie whit behind any one's else girl, can tell you. My 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. tA girl that will have her own living to earn, ought not to mingIe with Madam Aimard's young ladies" ..
 ''I should like to know why ?" says I.
 Because she is in no way their equal P said Sister Simpkins. s
 "Flddlesticks P says I. "My Maggie is good and pretty, and if that don't constitute equality with any girl alive, I'll own up that we don't live in repub- lican country As for earning her own living, why it's my business to look after that, and no one else need trouble their head about it l"
 Mrs. Simpkins pursed up her Lips and looked unutterable things, but she did not dare to say anything more. She knew of old that I wasn't to be disputed when my will was up. But sent the nine Miss Simpkinses nine coral neck laces the next Christmas, and that kept the peace for awhile.
 When she came home from the board. ing-school, she was prettier than ever tall, as said before, with yellow, silky hair, great shady looking blue eyes, with lashes that curled up at the ends, and cheeks as fresh and pink as I re. member the inside of two big shells that used to stand on my grandfather's best room mantei Raty good years ago.
 Sol cast about in my mind to find some new plan for making the old house lively for my little girl. I knew she couldn't thrive without her innocent gayeties, any more than 8 bird could 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 hel amused. And I believe I succeeded too, for her step was as light as { feather, and you could hear her sing al over the house, when she thought sht was alone.
 And one day old Hannah came in, dusting chairs, and prying about fo finger-marks on the paint in her odd near-sighted way.
 ''Mr. Pelham," says she, rubbing away at a door-knob that was as brigh before ss hands could make it, "wha would you say if we were to have a wed ding in the old house?''
 IA wedding P Tdropped my pen st that it made big round blot on the pa per, and stared. "Why, you're not go ing to be married, Hannah, after al these years?"
 s'Do I look like it ?'' sniffed Hannah contemptuously-and, to tell the truth she didn't very much. "No. indeed sir; I hope I.know my place better thal that. It's Miss Maggie I'm thinkinl of. sir"
 I sat as if had been stricken with paralytic shock. Maggie to be married Strange that I had never thought c