The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1888-03-23

4
last Frank rang the bell, but it was
only to say that he had met the ex-
press train and had waited for the ac-
commodation, but his aunt had not
come.
ut is strange that she has not tele-
graphed. y he said, :" for I never knew
her to break an engagement Then,
as he saw that | felt anxious, he added:
81 presume she has telegraphed, but
now that there is so much trouble be-
tween the rival companies, perhaps
| kilograms are not quite as sure as they
used to be. -
The. evening wore slowly away.
Bridget had gone to bed, and ! was
just fastening the doors for the night,
when there was a ring at the front
door. A lamp post was opposite our
house, and as l peeped through the
side-lights | saw lady standing on
the step. l opened the door, and there
was Charles mother, alone.
''ls Charlie here?n she asked, in a
tired voice.
"No, but it is Charles house, and l
am Alice, and I'm SO glad you have
come and threw my arms around
her neck, and led her in, for / had
really been afraid that something had
happened to her.
"But where is FrankP How did he
miss you?" l asked.
Frank, Frank" she said, absent
| ly. "He is not good son, he never
was. But there. l am speaking as if l
was his mother I'm not his mother, :"
and she laughed lightly and happily.
Charlie is my boy, and you are
Charles wife. l thought Charlie 5
wife had blue eyes, and yours are
brown, but you'll be daughter to me,
won't you, and love me ever so
muchP'
She seemed so tired that 1 suggested
that she should have some tea and 90
to bed. AS we were going upstairs I
SAID: 81 don't see how Frank could
have missed you, for he waited for
both trains"
II wasn't on the train" she said.
"Then it must be that Frank did
not know there was later one,' said
l. 81 am so sorry that you should
have had to come alone, but we will
try to make you forget what a hard
time you have had in getting here
We had agreed that Charlie
mother should not be put in our regu-
lar guest chamber, which was little
apart from the main body of the
house, and whicA might, I fancied, be
a tritle lonesome, but that she should
have a room next our own. There
was door between, and | asked if
should leave it open.
| EYES," she said, "leave all the
doors open, so that if Charlie comes
he will know where am" and she
laughed again, with that same musical,
childlike laugh that l had thought so
pleasant.
l said goodnight and went to my
room, leaving the door ajar. The
presence of this CHEEKY little lady in
the next room took away all my lone
illness. Her light was burning for a
long time, and | remember thinking
it little strange that she should sit
up late when she had seemed so tired.
"But it is more strange" | said to
myself, "that woman so accustomed
to travelling should be tired by a
three hours journey. I hope did not
hurry her off to her room before she
was ready" and then fell asleep.
1t must have been several hours
later that l was aroused by voice
from the next room, and the first gray
light of the autumn morning showed
me Charles mother groaning and
tossing, apparently in great suffering.
Her cheeks were red, and her eyes
sparkled with an unnatural light.
!. Don't you know, Frank was COM
ing in at that door?" she said land
Charlie is not here" and then she
went on raving about Charlie, and
Frank, and many other names that
|
to me, unused to illness as / was that
she was in raging fever. | called
Bridget, and told her she must go fol
the doctor.
"Yes'm," she said, in dazed way:
"but where'l II be after going, mum? "
go to the nearest one, DR.. Brown,
down this street"
ooh, mum, an shure I don't dare
go past the graveyard before light.
The holy Mother herself couldn't KEEP
me from seeing the dead rise in the
gray o the morning.
"Go to Mr. Wilson, then, in the
next house and ask him to go for me, "
| said.
"Oh, mum, but there's the dog,
mum; and l daren't."
This was fear with which could
sympath;ze, for l remembered that the
dog, which was always loosed at night
was really ferocious, and l said, as {
! last resort:
"Then there's nothing to be done
but to go to the asylum, and beg one
of the physicians there to come to us
Ask for DR.. Wilder-he's an old frient
of my husband and tell him tha
Mr.. Dermott's mother has been taken
suddenly i'll. He will come as a favor
to me, am sure"
Luckily, Bridget had not my fear o
the asylum, and would not have mind.
ed whole regiment of lunatics; ant
by the time | had soothed my patient
little, DR.. Wilder was at the door.
IF was up already" he said. "In
deed, had not been in bed, for one O
our patients escaped last evening, ane
we have spent most of the night in tele
graphing, and going to various places
where we thought she might be-
l did not think then that man wht
had been out all night could not b,
very glad to be called out again befor,