New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1886-06-02
ing day when Mabel rose suddenly
from her knees. LISTEN she said,

ing day when Mabel rose suddenly
from her knees. "Listen!" she said,
sharply.
There were hurried steps coming
across the parade, and it flashed
through her heart that no one hurrles
to tell bad news. The door was push
ed open by soldier, for once too eager
to remember ceremony. 4'The squaw
has brought him back" he cried.
Yes she had brought him back; for
there she stood in the doorway, hol-
low-eyed, and dust-stained with her
long tramp over the prairie, while out
from her blanket, where she had car
ried him pappoose fashion, looked
Trottie's tired little face and anxious
blue eyes.
For a while there was q breathless,
blissful confusion of kisses and sobs
and tender half-uttered words, as
Mabel with eyes and lips and fingers
assured herself that her boy was safe
and sound as when he had been taken
from her.. All! surely there are mo-
ments of this sad world whose Joy
heaven itself can not surpass, and no
angels song will ever thrill Mabel's
heart with more perfect rapture than
did the weary content in Trottie's
little voice as he tucked his head down
close under her cheek and murmured:
"Trottie does love his own. mamma
more dan tongue can tell.'
Pretty boy happy now," said the
Indian woman abruptly, yet with a
certain grave satisfaction in her harsh
tones. They were the first words she
had uttered, as she stood silent and
dry. eyed among all those happy, tear
full women, and as she spoke she turn
ed as if to 90, but Mabel's voice stop
ped her.
"Why did you bring him back to
me?" she asked, hol ing her boy tight
ly to her breast-a passionate wonder
that any woman having once possess.
ed him could give him up again over
coming all her shrinking horror.
"Him pretty boy, but not NINE"
the Indian answered. And then, lay
ing one hand on her breast, "Me not
| want white mother to feel ache here,
like me feel; so me bring her boy back
to her."
"But why did you take him, then?"
cried one OF the ladies, eagerly.
"Me not take him." she replied; and
very briefly, in her imperfect English,
she told them what had happened.
| On her return to their camp the
day that she had first seen Trottie,
she had told her husband that he re-
minded her of their dead boy, and her
husband, believing that the child would
comfort her, had gone to the fort the
next morning, without saying any
thing to her of his purpose, and had
managed to get Trottie under his
blanket when he was playing quite
alone on the parade. and had per-,
suaded the child, who was as, little
afraid OF an Indian as of a white man,
that if he would keep quite quiet he
would take him to see a very wonder.
ful sight. In this way, after having:
thrown Trottie's fez down the bluff to
avert suspicion, they had passed the.
sentry without difficulty. When: he
brought the boy to her, and she tried
to make him understand that neither
she nor Trottie would be happy to-.
gether, he had ordered her to be silent,
! forbidding her to return the child to-
the fort. The camp had been broken
up at once, and through all their march
that night he had kept such strict
watch of her that she could not carry
out her plan of escape. But when, hav-.
ing reached a hiding place he thought
safely distant, he left her, to hunt
some game, she seized her opportuni-
! ty, and taking Trottie on her back set
out across the prairie.
Short as she made her story, Trot
tie, tired out with so many griefs and
joys, was fast asleep on his mothers
breast; but when the Indian paused
and turned again in her swift, silent
fashion to leave the room, Mabel rose
and came toward her with him in her
| arms.
"God bless you, you good womanp''
she said, softly. Then with all her
voice shaken with tender Joy, and
the manner OF one who would fain
share it if she could, with this other
desolate mother, to whom no. one
would ever bring her child again on
this side heaven: 'See how happy he
looks. You may kiss him; he will not
wake"
X x
They kept her a few hours; they
made her. rest and eat little: But
when Tom Heriot, in the first Joy OF
his return, would have bestowed upon
her all sorts of kind rewards, she would
take nothing.
''Me want nothing white mothercan
! give" she answered, gravely, as she
had answered Mabel on the day that
had first seen her. And then waving
her hand toward the prairie: "Me go
back to him out there. Him very
good man to me.''
And so she left them.-Nellia Mac
kubin in Harper's Weekly.
Westinghouse Mbdesty.
| There is a story told OF Washing: