The Penn's Grove record., 1888-04-28

o. a GyfoI "AsS
"As If she could double and quadruple
AT pleasure the play Of either pupil"
The tan of all the sun in the sky and
all the sheen of the sea was on her skin;
and a melancholy like that of the
sphinx seemed to have turned the face
to stone. She sat in a little hut by the
shore, whose door was open; and she
had a little dead child across her
knees.
OF course W. looked in, and then we
went in.
"You poor childl" l said. "Tell me,
what is thisp What does it meanP
How terrible for you all aloneI Is
there nobody"
"That's just it," she said, in a low,
hollow tone, and as if talking to her
self. Nobody"
1 kneeled down beside her. and
looked at the dead three-year-old baby
Just our Efie's age-puttiny my arm
about the elder one as l did SO.
"You can kiss her if you want to-"
said the child, with a sort OF gasp.
''She was so sweet"
l didn't want to. But I kissed her.
and then l kissed the little mother
holding the dead baby on her knee. She
looked at me again a moment with
those fevered eyes, and then she leaned
forward and rested her head on my
shoulder.
There's nobody kissed me-" she
said family, since the day that wave
tumbled over father and he never came
up. And the baby had fever, and he'd
gone up to town for some medicine,
and l vas looking out for him, and l
saw him and the wave. It's stormed a
week since. OF course it's stormed.
The sun couldn't shine if 1t would.
There's been nobody here. And there's
been nothing to eat. And"
land what are you going to do?" l
i%nterjected.
sim sitting here till 1 die, too.
'Twon't be long. you see," she said
family, looking up and leaning back in
her chair again. "l'm so little it
won't take SO long to starve IS it does
sometimes. l don't feel so bad, you
know, because l shall see them 30 soon
now"
s'Starvel,; 1 cried. "My dear child
What do you think Of such a thing
for?"
"There's nothing in the house to
eat. - she replied in dull tone. "There
hasn't been this two days. What
| else shall l dor And 1 amin glad
of it. It's the only way 1 can have my
| dear people agalnl'' she said with alittle
| dry sob. .And of course God meant
| that I should, or he would have sent
/ something. 1 couldn't leave the baby"
HE has sent something's l said.
| crying myself. she has sent my hus-
band and me. You shall 60 home with
us." And l took the poor baby and
laid 1t on the bed, and while the other
child looked at me with half-bewildered
eyes. 1 proceeded to unpack Jul
lunch basket and light the spirit lamp
for Ralph and ! had strolled down
the beach for an old-time picnic by
ourselves-and to heat some milk and
water, which I made her drink. SITS
too late for the baby" she said, hold
ing 1t of a moment. 1 sat beside her
and in q little time made her drink
some more. And then as she seemed
falling asleep l went to the door, where
Ralph waited for a whispered consulta.
tlOn aO0uC tno DaDy.
mo, no." she said quickly, all alive
again. "Baby can be buried where his
father was. In the middle of a wave.
| We can row out there in a boat-the
boat came ashore, you knew. Baby
would like that best" She said then
quickly: ''She might, you know, she
| might sink and find her fathers arms
he loved her so."
| How wlzened and old and prefer
! natural she looked as she was saying
this In her thin and feeble voiceI But,
of course, we could not think of any
such burial as she proposed, and the
baby had a little funeral that outraged
none of the proprietles. And as no one
IN the region roundabout knew any
thing more about the children and
their father than that they had come
there and had lived some months in
that lonesome hut out of sight of any
but the sea-gulls. When we went
away, which was in a couple of days
we took the little, lean, brown creature
home with us.
"For what else is there to do?"
said.
ttI don't know as there Is anything
said Ralph, obviously. "And the little
wretch relies on us 80 much that
don't suppose we can put her off intt
any Institution, as Aunt Juliet sug'
gests."
Mot would not do. Don't yot
see the child Is full of a certain sort of
refinement and strange localities
Didn't you see her rocking Efie in thu
twilight? Ellie takes the place in som
fashion of that baby of hers. She sing
the sweet old English ballads that
can't imagine where she picked up,
And did you notice how careful SHIT
WAS to make up the little parcel to TAKE
with herP What do you suppose there
was in itp Something she called hel
mothers wedding lines, and a little
bundle Of letters, and an old photo
graph OF her father, and a ring, just a
plain gold one, that his father CAV
him when he was a boy, and that he
used for her mothers wedding ring
and the mother died, poor young thing
and thou Uara M mar ha aold ayary