Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1885-02-06

window as if she heard her own name
| called If she were sent down town on
an errand, she was unaccountably long
in returning; and, finally, one afternoon
| when she took little Ned for his accus-
toned airing she was gone for hours,
wandering away across the fields, and
bringing him home at dusk lying back
fast asleep in his carriage, with wreath
of violets like halo round his golden
head, and more clutched tightly in his
chubby hands.
She received my surprised reproof in
sullen silence. and I waited in vain for
some account Of her absence.
She grew more and more strange and
restless every day, fretting and chatting
over her light tasks like some Gagged
animal, until finally, I questioned her.
"Helenore," said I kindly, "what is
it that ails you? Tell me, and I will
try to help you
At first she frowned darkly and would
not answer, but when I laid my hand
gently and coaxingly upon her head
/ had noticed she loved 70 have me do
so--she yielded and her tongue was
loosed.
"Oh, madam, do not be angryp she
cried. eve have gypsy blood in us,
mine moder do say-and oh, would be
going !'-stretching out her arms toward
the distant fields with swift and elo-
quent gesture of longing. ooh, let me
go! I must go!'
l was both shocked and disappointed,
and [ told her so, aud tried to reason
with her.
"Where would you go?" I asked.
"There are no gypsies near that you
could join, and you would soon starve
and die alone; and, besides, how can
you leave poor baby and me? Do you
not love us, Helenore?"
"Oh, do, l do" she cried, passion
ately, throwing herself down upon the
floor; and do not try to hear the
call, l put mine fingers on my ears,
but hear them just the same'
"Who calls you, Helenore I asked.
Cali things out-o'-doors; the birds
and boes and winds. They call me, al
ways, always: they say, 'Helenore, Hell
enore, GOMEZ and I must got" she
cried, springing to her feet and looking
wildly around.
/ feared she was losing her mind, and
to divert and amuse her in every pos
! sible way, and for few days she really
| seemed to be more quiet,
But ono morning we missed her. The
afternoon previous, 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 ccnversing with them some
time aftcrward.
They had leen hanging about the
neighborhood for several days. and some
how we felt sure that she had gone with
them, Our suspicinns were confirmed
by farmer living q mile or so above us
who SAID he met them just at dusk, as
he was returning home from the city-+a
| man and woman and our Helenore. He
said he recognized Helenore at once,
and spoke to her, bnt she made no an
| swer.
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 a 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 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.
\ III
was lingering in my rose garden in
the twilight of a warm September day,
hanging fondly over bed Of pet n.y.
when I suddenly missed little Ned from
my side, and looking around for him, l
spied him swinging on the front gate. I
started to 80 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 heard q
glad cry from Ned: "Helenore! Hell
enorev
It was orr Helenore! 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
grooming; but not one word did she
speak.
1 begged her to rise, but she would
not; SO sat down there on the damp
grass, and, taking her head in my lap,
soothed her with the old touch Of the
hand she loved SO 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 be too
good for Helenore; but L come to see
you once more, and to tell you what is
so heavy here''--pressing her hand on
her heart-''and then to die"
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.
''Kind!' she cried fercely. ooh, they
were indeed most cruel! True, they
did never hurt me like mine moder, but
they have made me so to suffer that I
wish not now to live any more"
''But you liked it ct first, did you
not-the fields and woods and the mu-
sic?"
Eyes; like well to wander and to be
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
inv hnr hand on bor boorf
I wondered at her words, but I un-
darstOod them 1atpr