Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-17
NATHAN'S BABY.
How It Found His Heart and Led
Him Into a Better Way.

- AAoO x wv w
He was a bachelor. There are many
kinds. We have all, l think, seen more
than one type. Dickens in fiction has
given us many varieties. There are
those whom we remember and love.
The lovely old Chceryblc Brothers; the
school-girlish and ''lively' describe
them best. But Nathan was not one of
these. He was of a kind much better
known.
Twenty years before the date of this
little history, a man in the thirticS, he
had appeared in one of our New En-
gland hill-towns, and bought one of the
finest farms in the region, and there
lived with his different housc-keepers.
His previous history was unknown, and
after years had passed it ceased to be
IA matter of question. A tall, gaunt
man. with awkward, shambling gait,
iron-gray hair, smooth-shaven face,
eyes hard, blue and cold as the sea
Hooks in winter, and a mouth that
seemed to open and shut like a clasp
knife.
I People forgot his nan or did
not care to Use it. His name in the
mouths of villagers had always simply
been Nathan" or when they spoke to
him "Mr. Nathan" Whether he knew or
cared for this want of respect, l do not
know. His name was Nathan Odell.
He was a hard worker. a scientific
1armer, who studied and did things
differently from those around him. He
had little as need be to do with his
kind, On Sundays when the church
bells were ringing. he wandered Oft
with dog and gun, among the hills. or
sat under the trees, by the side of the
beautiful river, and read books like the
works of Voltaire or Tom Paine.
! His %ncighbors knew he was rich;
dhcy knew he must be. He had stead
lily prospered, and added field to field,
but none of his money cver found its
way to those in need. He might have
been called a just man, and yet he
'"ground the faces of the poor" An
ard, goddess life was his, and there
seemed little hope of change, until at
length Il change came.
A railroad collision in the night time!
"A fearful scene of terror, confusion and
death; where men with white faces
hurried to and fro; and Nathan, Ian
tern in hand bent over one OF the love-
lest girl-bab:es that even opened it's
%pansy-bluc eyes on this mortal earth.
Unhurt, it winked sleepily in the light
of the lantern, opened its eyes wider
and parted its rosebud of a mouth into
a little smile, reached up its mite of a
hand to clasp with baby %tcnacity the
only thing available, Nathan's hard,
brown fore-tinger, and then-absurd
baby! at such a time! IN such a place
laughed aloud Il clear, baby laugh!
Nobody ever saw before the look that
came over the mans face as that baby
smiled up into it. Timidly and awk-
wardly, yet with cagerncss, he took the
little creature into his arms, then ris-
ing to his feet strobe rapidly toward
home, his light burden carried easily
as the strong carry such, the lantern
swaying in the darkness, and he re-
CARELESS of the groans of the dying on
either hand. 1t was nine o'clock when
he burst open the door of the kitchen,
and said with suppressed excitement to
the house-keeper, who had been DOING
over a dying fire:
81 found it at the railroad. Milk,
Martha, and sugar! You know how to
feed Il baby"
Too astonishcd at first to move, the
woman stood with wide open mouth,
till, used to obey, after a minute given
to wonder, she hustled around in a be-
wildered fashion, and then, with Ma
than's help, fed the eager baby who
seemed to laugh as easily as other ba-
bies Cry.
When satisfied, she put her little
fuzzy head down on Nathan's arm, shut
her cyel!ds and softly fell asleep. He
sent the housekeeper to bed, and then
for three long hours sat and watched
her, no. daring to stir; the curious,
moved expression still on his face. At
twelve o'clock he went softly and laid
her in his own bed, and lay down be-
side her, not touching her again.
For the next three days he neglected
his work a little, and tried, in his conf
cal fashion, to father and mother his
baby, hearing nothing OF the outside
world, till the morning of the third
day, just as the farm-hands were sit
ting down to breakfast in the wide
Kitchen, the Chairman of the Board OF
Selectmen, a fussy little old man. was
see coming up the walk. Nathan,
with his usual lnhospitality, met him al
the door, and looked at him in Il for:
bidding way.
.Ahem!' began the old man, hest.
tatingly-''We 'er-Mr. Nathan, wrote
to the town specified in the papers
found on the dead body of the young
woman to whom the baby belonged,
and we 'er-do not find that she had
any friends in that town-in fact, VIC
'er-do not find hat she had any any
where. up to this time-of 'er-I mean,
as far as we have inguired-so we Ter
concluded not tn make 'er any more in.
quiries, and put her unto the aims
house"