Wichita eagle., 1888-02-01

| house can be when childish voice that has
made music everywhere is suddenly siienced
| Occasionally begrudged message was sent
| TO those who hungered for news OF little Nan,
and finally there was long silence.
Then there came a time when for three
nights the owls few screeching over NANNY S
cabin: three nights in which her dreams were
haunted by the childs cries, and her super
| stitious soul told something was wrong with
''her baby"
II lowed 1 wouldn't give ole miss de
trubble of 'fusin to let me CO." She said after
wards, in explanation, $50 | jess got up and
reich down my ole shawl en- Wash'n'ton's
razor, dat hid in my bres, en- l started to
my baby"
The next day, when nanny was missing,
| no one could give any explanation of her alb
sence All her husband, Washington, could
| tell was: "We'n come home Todes mawnin,
wild monstrous big, fat possum, my ole
| CONAN wuz gone. low she's DIES a traipsin'
round somewhat or n'er, EMIL be home befo'
sunset. I'll des save dat postum case hits
powerful sattiin' eatin when you'se hongry,
leasways wild tatters to sop in de gravy"
But sunset nor sunrise brought NANNY.
Tired, footssre, half famished, with a pur-
-
toiied 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 of bloodhounds scent
ing fugitive slaves, finding her way by
cautious inquiries, NANNY found herself at
last at little Nannies home.
Was it some occult power that iInpelled her
to go on that journey TO the child. Perhaps
the dullest intelects, now and then, have
flashes of divine intelligence that philosophy
is powerless TO reach or comprehend. Mann
my's dream was true. Little Nan was dead.
Il knowed | wuz too late" she said after
ward. ''Hit wuz borne in on my mind, but
tell a yaller gal dat wuz a sweepin de gallery
| to show me whar little Nan wuz, Ell she done
hit, en- turn EN- all out of de room en- take
her in my arms LAX l use to. Dey say she
done been dead bout an hour, en- dey warnt
nobody wild her but de niggers. Her pa en-
her stepma done gone off somewhat en- lief her
to die by herself"
1t was even So Above the dying child no
kindly face bent but the black one of a house
maid, who pitied her who was 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 conscious
of each others impulses. So when nanny
failed to return ole miss started in search of
her, rightly conjecturing she bad gone TO the
baby she was always longing for. Nanny
had not knelt long with that waxen figure,
Graded as it was wont to be, in her arms,
before the door opened and ole miss stood on
the threshold. A glance showed her mammy's
kneeling figure with the dead baby lying like
broken lily on her breast, and in an instant
she had crossed the room and lifted the frail
burden toward heaven. ''Oh, God, avenge
thine own!" she cried-ole miss who had
never said harsh word to any one in her life!
Presently she touched NANNY gently.
"Come," she said, 1--WE must take her home,"
and SO they passed out toward the carriage
with the dead child, through the crowd of
servants, who fell back affrighted There
was stir; little Mans father had come home
and would have detained them, but from the
set, white face of one woman, and the gleam
ing passionate eyes of the other, he shrank
as if the dead had come back to reproach
him.
+ 4
Years soften all grief, and the time came
when the memory of little Nan ceased to be
a poignant anguish, and was only another
link that bound ole miss and nanny closer
together. Then the war came, and the fever
ISL period of reconstruction, and then life
settled into rounds again on new basis
Nanny still carried the housekeeping
keys and Unc' Washington still drove "de
keeridge." But alas, ono night at church,
when the presiding elder announced ''dat
white gem'man wanted to dress de meet:n'
arter de sermon" Uncle Washington fell a
victim TO the fatal eloquence of the emigra-
ton agent. That glib speaker painted the
delights of Kansas in such glowing colors
that the old mans fancy took fire, and in
spite of all entreaties and brides from the
people who had befriended him all his life,
he resolved to 90 west. In vain was it repre-
sented to him that he and nanny Were too
old to change. Use bleedged to you, boss"
was his invariable answer, ''but / is free to
go en- come, en- I'm gwine to do hit"
It almost broke mammy's heart to part
with ole miss zen de chillen," but she could
not leave her "oie man. to face that undis-
covered country alone, and after the manner
of womankind the world over "she was
bleedged to follow So, one wintry morn
ing, with a goodly store of gold and silver
from her "chillen," with the gay pladS Of
ner Ddildid heoth So'eiiiS Sic''iAiliIo u4iN'Si
bonnet in cheerful contrast to the tears upon
her cheeks, nanny set her face toward that
fair west that has been the beacon to so many
of her race.
Somewhere, as l have said, on the wind
swept fields of Kansas she and Washington
have built a little house where the flowers
she took from her old home bloom kindly in
the alien soil, and if you slould chance to
draw rein before her cabin door cali her not
Dinah-but NANNY once for me.-Elizabeth
II. Gilmer in New Orleans Picayune.