Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-05-13

then Ivan Ivanovitch tucked his long trousers
into his thick muddy boots and started on
mis- way
Marianka did not sleep long after
that. She woke up and rubbed her
eyes and stared about, and laughed
aloud to herself as she saw that her husband
had already gone, leaving the door little
ajar, 50 That streak of the early daynght
shone in upon her face. She might as well
get up, too. there was always plenty TO DO.
That was true enough She dressed herself
and said her prayers, and ate her breakfast,
and then. what frstn Well Ivan lvano-
vitch's shirts were there in the corner TO be
washed
So Marianka took up can and walked
through the vegetable patch and the ripe
oats down to the edge of the lake to fetch
some water 1t was very still The hush OF
dawn hing tenderiy, like a silent benedic-
ton, over all the slumbering village the
sornbre lake and the great beautiful front OF
the palace leagues away
Then there came a zephyr that swelled
into a breeze--the breath new drawn OF
another new born day-the twitter of bird,
ripples on the bosom of the lake, and-what
else. Marianka shaded her eyes with one
hand, he dropped the can out OF the other
into the mud. There, indeed, before her
eyes, caught in the long tangle Of the marsh
grasses fioated little bed and on it lay-a
little child.
Marianka laughed aloud joyously, and
then for superstition holds large place in
the mind of the Russian peasant she
screamed and murmured, "Snakharkar'
which means witch.
But still, after all, it was so pretty,
and asleep too, on the brown bosom Of
the lake, the little fat wooden bed with
its warm coverings and linen pillow,
rocking very gently back and forth.
And it had foated-whence? To her very
door; it was, it ever should be hers; she
would this moment raise it, and carry it in
her arms up the hill slope, to the good priests
and ask him if she were not right.
Marianka therefore lifted the child, well
grown one of perhaps 3 or years, and saw
that beneath it Lay small packet of papers
with writing on the label. She could not
read, but she dragged the little bed on shore,
and swiftly carried the child, now wide
awake, and the packet to the priest. On the
way the child cried softly for few moments,
and spoke a few sentences in language
which Marianka could not understand, and
this puzzled her; she did not know that the
children of persons of even a small distinc-
ton in Russia, generally have an English
and French nurse, and thus early acquire
these languages, sometimes before their own.
Marianka ran into the yard, breathiess,
with her burden. The good priest sat under
the porch reading his book of devotlons.
We'll" cried he, "Marianka, good morn
ing. And what is this!" He rose and put
of his spectacles
''Oh, it is a lake baby, it is mine; 1 found
it just now, in the grasses, lying on small
wooden bed, and you, who can read, quick,
let US see what this says. Comet Eli"
He took the packet from her hand and
looked at it a few moments in silence, and
then sighed
"Wellw Marianka cried, "well7'
"Oh, you keep the child, it is yours and I
will put the packet away in safety until it is
grown up"
as that bestF'
eyes"
"And you will baptiza my little one on
Sundayp 10
''Oh, it is likely wei grown child iss
this has been already baptized"
''What shall we call It'll"
"Oh-well, Roxandra, ehr'
every we'll"
"And Ivan Ivanovitch, what will he say"
"Oh, if am pleased he viii be too"
"But it costs, a child does"
eyes, true, but the love was ready first,
you see, and the meat VIII be also.n
Marianka was quite right Ivan Ivano-
witch was as much delighted as his wife; and,
although their neighbors shook their heads
and sighed over the Lake baby's mysterious
talk, its foster father and mother laughed as
they taught it each day some word of their
own language.
Roxandra was fond of the Lake Karka; she
would play on the shore for hours together,
and stick her little white feet in the muddy
waters, and crow, and shout, and splash her.
self like young duck; SO that. as she grew
older, Marianka would sigh sometimes, and
wonder If she could be the veritable child of
the lake, being of mysterious aqueous par
entaGe. But Ivan Ivanovitch nudged his wife
and reared at her whims, and presently built
a rough little raft for the child, in which she
padded herself. up and down | had almost
said, but down" Is wrong Roxandra never
chose to go down the Lake of Karka, but al
ways up, up toward the Palace of Prince
Okanin, and one day she went so far that
Marianka was frightened and screamed to
her from the shore.
But Roxandra heard nothing, and when
she did come home she was silent and lay
among the oats for an hour with her face
turned up to the blue spring sky; she was s
years old then.
And by the time she was 10 she could read;
yes. truly. for the good priest had taught her
this, and many other things, so many, indeed,
that Roxandra was the wonder of the village
OF Oloi, and Ivan and Marianka were very
proud in deed of their child.
She was the only one the priest had so
favored, it was enough for the others that
they could repeat their prayers and sing
few hymns, but in some odd way of her own,
RoXandra. or, as all persisted in calling her.
The Lake Baby" had SO entwined herself
about tie good old priest heart. that ae
treated her, indeed. very differently from the
rest
Often in the early twiiights of tie autumn
and winter the child would sit on the floor
before the hot stove, close to the suffering
oil lamp her book in her hand, while her
foster mother went about the house duties
brs sely.
And she would say: Mother, remember
q different nouse than this"
as, wellP And Marianka would sit
down and prick up her ears.
Nv here was icsn
"How can telIf
But did We DOT live somewhere else. in q
large house, with many people about, say.
mothers"
Not that know"
"N ell. II is strange. fer I am sure that !
remember Il. only wien | try to remember
il better. 1t fades all away Just as the fire
dies Gown in the stove
Never mind Try. What else chr