Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-07-16
AN ADOPTED CHILD.

''She's such little thing, Simpson-and so | thin and scrawuy"
 "SheM grow, mem"
 l "And her eyes are so big and-child, don't stare at me like thatl She is very dirty, l Simpson"
 1 Shell wash, mem"
 ! "Well, take her away and do the best you ! can with her. I'm afraid she won't turn out to be as pretty as thought she would when l I looked at her in the home. One can never | tell about that kind of children"
 Mrs. Lee turned away with sigh as the housekeeper left the room
 "I don't know but shall be sorry took her." she thought. eff my own little Elsie had only been spared to me what a beautiful, good little child she would have been by this time!"
 Two long years had passed since that cruel day when the now nursemaid burst into the room where sat the startled mother, crying,
 'Shes gone! I've lost herl" and ending with a burst of hysterical tears. Oh, what hours of vain and agonized search followed. The little baby daughter left alone in her car riace for a moment while the careless maid entered a store to ask the price of some coveted article, had disappeared, nor could ono clew to her whereabouts be discovered from that time.
 
 in some way met an early death became fixed in the minds of the parents, and they finally ceased to regard her as lost and mourned for her as one dead.
 Another year passed, and then fell the sec | end overwhelming blow of tho death of her
 husband, and after year of loneliness, being l comparatively wealthy, Mrs. Lee decided to | adopt into her home some little friendless
 waif instead of the daughter who would | fN,-t hnr AaNli mir
 "She's come, mother" she said, as the door
 oponed and an elderly lady entered the 1 room.
 | "I don't believe she will be pretty after all and do so dislike honlely children of that
 class Her eyes are too large-out of all pro | portion-and her nose is % much too small" "
 "My dear," said her mother smiling,
 "when you were her age you were nearly all
 eyes, and you had scarcely any nosc at all to
 speak of. l was somctintcsIfIald you would
 never be presentable." She smiled with
 "And, my dear," she continued, more l rravely ''remember you have adopted her
 now for your own, and have, perhaps, the
 making or marring of her life ill your hands You must be patient with her and allow for
 the difference in blood"
 At this moment Mrs Simpson entered, hold
 ing the child by the hand. Both ladies ut ! III. from the bath, the straying locks caught
 with a blue ribbon and twined into golden curls, and the uniform of the home ex-
 changed for a dainty dress of white, made l the child almost unrecognizable. She slipped | her hand from Simpsons and crossed the l room with little, stately tread. "ls co my l mamma g' she asked with sweet shyness, | looking up at Mrs. Lee from under her long 1 lashes. "S'all me love oor'
 Jt.--- .S..~~
 ing back involuntarily; then, seeing the , 1 hurt. disappointed look on the little one's l face, she added "I will love you, yes, if you | are a good child but you must not call me
 mamma call me 'auntie.' I can't help it, 3 | mother" she said excitedly, answering the look of disapproval, ''I can't give her Elsie's place-nor Elsies name, as you suggested. l We can call her Mabel after you, if you 3 like You know we were sorry we had not l named Elsie after you" |" she added, apologet-
 ically.
 l During this speech the child had been look l ing piteously from one to the other. Den t where is my mother?" she asked.
 "Come in here dear" said the elderly l lady "Be good little girl and you will s find a mamma, sometime" and she gathered s the little waif close in her motherly arms
 "Den me wait" murmured the little one !, | and in a few minutes was fast asleep in her !, new home.
 y "Whatever am to do with her, motheri s Of all things detest an untruthful child!" D "You are too harsh with her, my dear. A
 frightened child will tell lie nine cases out v of ten where the truth would have done bet J. ter I used to think should never be able y to break your brother of that very habit
 though be is now a deacon in the church and l. one of the mest pious men know" @ "But she deceives me, mother, and the h l other day missed that little coral pin oi
 mine, and when asked her for 1t she denie6 d all knowledge of 1t with the utmost inno e cence, and then found it shut close in hol It little hand One can't teach child honol
 and honesty when they have common blooG & in their veins. believe thoroughly in hered F. itary virtue and the refinement of an un d broken line of noble ancestry" Mrs. Let is raises her head proudly, conscious of tha
 same noble line of ancestors for herself.
 "You can't help plum trees bearing
 plums, mother; neither can you help thu is natural vices of the lower classes from ap a- bearing in one of their own, however mucl -e of an exception she may be in the matter O IT looks," she finished.
 ,e Her mother smiled, then looked grave n "I do not by any means hold that the cir B. cumstance of birth is responsible for ou y- little ones faults, Augusta" she said "L
 fact, your great grandfather was a notoriou to -swindler, my dear, though, to be sure, h Id reformed and lived Christian life for man, ,e years before he died. Because e man 1 Id noble in name, he is not necessarily noble il 7. nature as we'll. There are lords in hovel st and louts in palaces. Remember the child a constant associations my dear, and do nc ,g expect three months-or, possibly, even thre ae years-to entirely eradicate the training i
 vice she has already received" W "Well, mother, I will give her anothe
 trial" replied the daughter reluctantly e "though had almost made up my mind t
 send her back and let her take her chance 'i' with the rest. If she gives me any proof
 that Is, that she will improve in time" CT Little feet battered through the hall; httl st hands fumbled at the door. IS 'Me's tum," she announced, stopping o ID the threshold. With the wonderful intuitio
 of childhood, she scented danger of som ed kind and retreated to Mrs Tauntons chair
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