Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1888-05-24

d
marriage knit themselves with renewed
strength aud the sanctity of grief and
motherlessness set the child aDart as
something almost holy. Under this fos.
terinS care, little Nan grew apace, and
her chhdlsh hands were fast effacing the
scars OF the wounds her mother had dealt,
when, one day-mammy never remem-
bered it without a shudder little Nan.
MES father came and demanded her.
lie was going to be married again, and
he wanted her. II was all legally and
technically just. Little Nannie's mother
had no right, in the eyes of the law to
give her away; it WAS horrible to think
of the delicate child being torn from the
tender hearts that loved her and given
over TO this cold, repellant man, sullen
and leYengful, who had never seen her
since NANNY had taken her from her
| dead mothers breast. Who could love
her like nanny and ole miss, who loved
In her the living aud the deadY Ole
master swore by the God he worshiped no
man should rob him twice of his darlings,
but he was powerless TO stay the day when
! little Nan should be taken away, for her
| father was inexorable and tore away
with smile the clinging baby fingers
/ that nanny covered with PASSIONATE
| kisses.
The three who had loved her so stood
on the doorstep until the carriage had
disappeared from sight, and the last cry
of the child was lost in the singing of the
birds, and then ole master turned and
went into the house, bent as he had not
been by all his threesoore years. Ole
miss bowed her face in her hands and
sobbed aloud, but nanny cursed hiln.
She had savage blood in her veins, and
the fury of lionness torn from her cubs
possessed her.
After that the house was lonely as only
house can be when the childish voice
that has made music everywhere is sud
denly silenced. Occasionally a begrudg-
ed message was sent TO those who hung
cred for news of little Nan, aNd finally
there was a long silence.
Then there came time when for three
nights the owls few screeching over nam
my's cabin; three nights in which her
dreams wers haunted by the child's cries,
and her superstisious soul told her some
thing was wrong with her baby"
Il lowed | wouldn't give ole miss de
trouble Of 'fusin' to let me co." she said
afterwards, in explanation. $50 | Jess 20
up and fetch down my ole shawl and
Washn'ton's razor, dat | did in my dress,
en- started to my baby
The next day, when nanny was miss
ing, no one could give any explanation
of her absence. All her husband, Wash
ington, could tell was "Wen / come
home des mawnin' wild a mOnstrous big,
fat possum, my Gle CONAN was gone.
l low she's des trapsin' round some
whar or n'er, en- II be home befo' sun
set. I'll des save dat pOssum, case hits
pUw'ful sattishu' eatin' when you's hong
ry, leaspay wild tattors to sop in the
gravy"
But sunset nor sunrise brought nam
my. Tired, footsore, half famished, with
a purpose, presentimeut that grew as she
toiled on, she made her way toward the
child. Sleeping in dark thickets, more
than once walking knee deep in running
water TO throw off the pursuit or blood
hounds scanting fugitive slaves, finding
her way by cautious inquiries, nanny
found herself at last at little Nannies
home.
Was it some occult power that impelled
her TO go on that journey TO the child.
Perhaps the duilest intellects, nov and
then, have flashed of divine intelligence
that philosophy is powerless to reach or
comprehend. Manmy's dream was true.
Little Nan was dead,
IL knowed [ wu5 too late" she said
afterward. "Hit wuz borne IN my mind,
but 1 tell yaller gal dat wuz a sweepin
de gallery TO show NE Whar little Nan wuz,
en- she done hit, en- l turn EN- all out of de
room en- take her in my arms lax l used
to. Day say she done been dead about q
hour, en- day warn't nobody wild her but de
niggers. Her pa en- her stepma had gone
off some whar en- left her TO die by
herself"
1t was even so. Above the dying child
no kindly face bent but the black one of
q housemaid who pitied her who has an
alien in her fathers house.
Perhaps no two hearts can live as closely
together as mammy's and ole miss did
for so many years without becoming con
sciosus of each others impulses. So
when nanny failed to return, ole miss
started in search of her, rightly conjec-
turing she had gone to the baby she had
been longing for. Nanny had not knelt
long with the waxen figure, Graded, az it
was won't to be, in her arms, before the
the door opened and ole miss stood on
the threshold. A glance showed her nam.
my's kneeling egure with the dead baby
lying like broken lllyon her breast, and
in an instant she had crossed the room
and lifted the frail burden to Heaven.
ooh God, avenge thy own" she cried
ole miss who had never said harsh word
to any one in her life!
Presently she touched nanny geAtly.
Come" she said: we must take her
home,' and so they passed out towards
the carriage with the dead child, through
the crowd Of servants, who fell back
afrightened. There was stir; little
Mans father had come nome and " ould
have detained them, but from the set
white lace of one woman and the CLEAN
ing, passionate eyes of the other he
shrank as if the dead had come back to
reproaoh him.
Years soften all grief, and the time
came when the memory of little Nan
ceased to be poignant anguish, and was
only another link that bound old Mrs
and nanny closer together. Then the
war came, and the feyerish period of re.
construction, and then life settled into
rounds again on a new basis. Nanny
still carried the housekeeping KEYS, a. I'd