Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1885-01-07
JOHNS DAUGHTER,

"You will care for my child. You will
not let my little one suffer ?"
My old friend and college chum, John
Harmon, said this as he wrung my hand.
1 repeated my promise that in my own
home-nest, where there was a nursery
full of little ones, Susie Harmon should
hold daughters place.
We were standing on the wharf wait
ing for the signal that it was time for my
friend to step aboard an outgoing Cali
4ornia steamer. He had lost his wife
within the year, and soon after was beg
CARED by fire that totally destroyed
the cotton mills in which he had held
the position of superintendent for ten
years. With his home desolate, his
purse empty, he resolved, as many q
man had before him, to seek his fortune
IN the modern FL Dorado and dig for
gold in her mines.
The only drawback to this scheme was
the difficulty of taking his 3-year-old
daughter, who had been in the care of
hired nurses since her mother died. [
who shared every thought of Johns
mind, talked with my wife and found
her eagerly willing to take care of the
little one.
81 am sure I loved Mary as well as
you love john" she said, "and there is
no one can have stronger claim upon
the child than we have"
So, sure of her cordial welcome in our
n ursery, made john the offer of a
home for his little one, and it was &C.
cepted as lovingly as it was offered.
This care removed. my friend fastened
his preparations for departure, and I
accompanied him to New York and saw
him off.
The next morning I returned home
TO find Susie almost inconsolable, crying
perpetual y for papa to come to Susie"
Ny wife was distracted at the failure
10 comfort this childish sorrow, and our
own three children looked On wonder
ingly at
Naughty Susie, who cried, and
cried, after mamma told her to be quiet "
fortunately Susie was accustomed to
see me. to snuggle in my arms when I
talked to John, to associate me with
her father, and she allowed me to COM
fort her. In time this violent grief
wore away, and the child became very
happy in our care. My business, that
Of hardware merchant, being very
prosperous, we did not feel the addition
81 expense of the child's support bur-
den; and as the years wore by she was
RS dear to us as our own little ones.
But che understood always that she
was not our child, but had dear father
who loved her fondly, and was away
from her only to make fortune for her
As soon as she was old enough she had
Aer fathers letters read to her and hel
first efforts at penmanship were letters
TO Papa"
John wrote often for ten years, re
counting his varying success, sometimes
sending money to buy presents fol-
Susie. He was winning fortune slowly
got at the mines, where his health
x3roke down, but in the employ of Sa1
Francisco merchant and some specula
GIons in real estate.
He was not rich man, he wrote ate,
an absence of ten years, but prosperins
when he proposed paying us visit
He wrote hopefully of seeing his child
perhaps of taking her home with him
setting no definite time, but leading us tt
expect soon to see him. Then his letter
ceased, and he did not come. wrot,
again and again. Susie wrote. N
answer came to either one or the other
We did not know the name of his EN-
ployer, and after nearly two years mor'
passed we sadly thought he must b,
dead.
It might have seemed to many I'm
natural for Susie to grieve so deeply al
she did for father almost unknown tc
her in reality, but she was girl of most
sensitive feelings, with tender, loving
heart, and we had always kept hel
fathers name before her, striving to win
him a place in her fondest affection