Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1886-06-25
Volume XLIII.---No. Q.
ties tired little face and anxious blue

~sS~~A-A--Ss
ties tired little face and anxious blue
eyes.
For while there was breathless,
blissful confusion Of kisses and sobs
and tender half: uttered words Us Ma
bel with eyes and lips and fingers as
sured herself that her boy was safe
and sound as when he had been taken
from her. All! surely there ara mo-
ments of this sad world whose Joy
Heaven itself cannot surpass, and no
angels song will ever thrill Mabel's
heart with more perfect rapture than
did the weary content IN Trottie's lit
tie 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, aDd as she spoke she turn
ed as if to 60, but Mabels voice stop
ped her.
"Why did you bring him back to
me ?" she asked, holding her boy tight
| ly to her breast; passionate wonder
that any woman having once possessed
him could give him up again overcom'
ing all her shrinking horror.
"Him pretty boy, but not mine,"
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 own imperfect
glish, she told them what had hap
pened.
On her return to their camp the day
that she had first seen Trottie she had
told her husband that he reminded
her of their dead boy, and her husband,
believing that the child would COM
fort her, had gone to the fort the next
morning, wirhou. saying anything to
her of his purpose, AMI had managed
to get Trottie under his blanket when
when he was playing quite alone on
the parade ground, and had persuaded
the child, who was as little afraid of
an Indian as Of . white man. that if
he would keep quiet he would take
him to see wonderful sight. In this
way, after having thrown Trottie's fez
down the bluff to avert suspicion, they
had passed the sentry without diff
Guilty. When he brought the boy to
her and she tried to make him under
stand that neither she nor Trottie
would be happy together he had or
dered 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, having reached
hiding place he thought safely dis
tsnt, he left her to hunt some game,
she seized her opportunity, and TAX
ing Trottie on her back, set out across
the prairie.
Short as she made her story, Trot-
tie, tired out with 80 many griefs and
joys, vas fast asleep on his mothers
breast but when the Indian paused
and turned again in her swift, silent
fashion to leave the room, Mabel arose
and came toward her with him in her
arms.
"God bless you, good woman % she
said softly. Then, with all her voice
shaken with tender joy and the man
ner of one who would fain share it, if
she could, with the other desolate mo-
ther, to whom no one would ever
bring her child on this side of Heaven:
"See how happy he looks. You may
kiss him he will not awake"
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 and kind of rewards, she
would take nothing.
"Me want nothing white mother
Can give" she answered gravely, as
she had answered Mabel on the day
she had first seen her. And then
waving her hand toward the prairie,
"Me 60 back to him out there. Him
very good man to me-"
And so she left them.