, 1888-07-24

everything she saw.
Dot was thinking, thinking, thinking
one day as they sat down to rest after a
long tramp, in the shadow of a gigantic
bowlder, when she was suddenly as.
sailed by:
Look, Dot, there comth a boati
Wonder whoth in it7 1 thaw two men,
anyhow, and they're coming thrait
thith way, thee2"
Coming this way2 1 shall go on,
Barbara, you may follow when you have
watched the boat come in" and she left
the child standing beside the great rock,
her big brown eyes fast fixed upon the
incoming shalop.
Nearer and nearer, and the little
painted shell, riding like some fairy ship
over the now placid waters, came swiftly
landward. When the keel grated in the
sand Barbara, with eyes like stars, ran
excitedly down to the shores edge, and
in n most undignifed fashion caught the
coat tails of one of the now landed gen
tlemen with the cry Of 80, Thcott-
Thcotti''
Barbara Barbara God bless you'll
Where did you spring from7"
From that rockl" which information
somewhat startled him as he looked at
the huge bowlder, at least twenty feet
high.
"Oh, not from the thummit, Thcotti''
with a burst of laughter. Doth jutht
gone up to the hotel-oh, Thcott, let me
whithper t~homething to you'll" and
Scott's ears were made happy by just
five little words that rushed up into his
brain like some strange, intoxicating
melody; ''Dotth dying for you, Thcottl'
"How do you know, Chickie?" hug
ging her close in his gladness.
Cant l thee? But you muthn't let
her know you're here-not all at wunth
Doth very weaki''
'.Is she, indeed2 I'm very sorry. I'll
ask my wife to come with me when you
have told her-she'n like Dot;'' and he
looked down into two big brown wells,
whose liquid treasures were OVERLOOKING
and running to waste all over the little
linen frock; and Obi such a look, far
down under their trimming surfaces
a look of outraged confidence and indig-
nan look that made Scott
gather her up into his strong arms and
kiss the tears away, with a meek petition
for forgiveness-that he was only hibbing
and sunshine chased shadow from our
little heroine's eyes.
Then the child began plotting to get
them together-for Barbara felt, young
as she was, that Dot would never volun-
tarily see Scott again.
That afternoon, when all f'the world"
at the hotel was taking its siesta Dot and
Barbara lay talking; the latter rafting
ahead and keeping wonderfully away
from the subject at heart, the former re-
plying at intervals and not hearing the
twaddle at all. Suddenly Barbara sprang
up from Dots side, seized her pen and
paper, and scratch, scratch, scratch filed
the room for fully ten minutes.
"Oh, Dot, get up, pleathe; 1 can't
copy thith at all-won't you juth write
the name of thith thong for mep'
Poor Dot wrote neatly and prettily in
her fine Italian hand, these words in the
center of q cream tinted sheet of note
paper:
"Come to me, darling, or I diel"
"What a sentimental songi'' said Dot,
the obedient.
"Yeth 1t ithl' and Barbara grabbed
the paper and lay down by Dot until she
was sure her sister was lost in slumber;
then the small opossum was up and off
like a flash to Scott.
And he2 He took the written words
as a condemned man might take a mes
sage straight from heaven-he kissed
Barbara and the letter by turns, and the
tears Of joy he could not restrain fell
upon the note paper and the yellow bangs
indiscriminately.
"Dot 18th taking her 't~he-ethtar,' ath
papa callth it. Now you wait till juth
before thupper, and I'll thee that Dot
18th all ready to rethieve you-and you
promith never to go off again or THAN
the door,"
That evening the sunset was glorious;
like jewels from the Orient heaped in a
golden platter the little cloudlets blushed
and famed, yellow and crimson and
ruby red.
Dot, dressed like the wrath of some
fashionable Undine, came out upon the
balcony to enjoy it all-that is, to enjoy
it as well as she could without her lost
Hildbrandt. She looked until her eyes
could no longer bear the splendor, then
turned her glance backward.
Suddenly she deserted a figure that
strangely, sweetly familiar,
despite the blur the sun had made before
her eyes. The figure came nearer, the
mists cleared from before her longing
eyes, and Dot could not tell for one in
t~oxicating instant whether or not she
in heaven when she saw Scott,
radiant faced, smiling up into her very
eyesl
He stood at last beneath her balcony.
Groups of people were standing by, and
for this reason alone he did not follow
the irresistible impulse that made him
wish to shout aloud his great love for her
and his excessive joy at seeing her again.
When she could no longer gaze like a
veritable Juliet, silently down into his
very eyes and read the unutterable ten
derness that fills their glorious depths,
when her Romeo vanished from her sight
and disappeared within the door be-
meath her balcony, she dragged herself
heavily back into her roo and fell into
a white heap upon the floor.
But when consciousness came glim-
mering back she lay limp and passive in
Scott's strong arms, heard Barbara's tri-
umphant cry, 'Oh, Doti oh, Thcott,
arn't you happy now9" and saw papa
standing over her with his handkerchief
s~uspiciously neal his eyes, although he
kept blowing his nose with great zeal.
And my note neverjreached you, my
poor, broken llyr'
mo, Scott, never"