Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-01-23

The next day, when nanny was missing,
no one could give any explanation of her abb
sence. All her husband, Washington, could
tell was: oven come home Todes mawnin,
wild a monstrous big, fat postum, my ole
'ooman wuz gone 1 low she's des traipsin'
round somewhat or n'er, emil be home befo'
sunset. Ill des save dat postum case hits
powerful sattifin eatin' when you'se hongry,
leasways wild tatters to sop in de gravy"
But sunset nor sunrise brought nanny.
Tired, footsore, half famished, with pur-
pose and presentment that grew as she
toiled 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 Nannie's home.
Was it some occult power that impelled her
10 go on that journey to the child Perhaps
the dullest intellects, 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.
81 knowed wuz too late" she said after.
ward. 'Hit wuz borne in on my mind, but
tell yaller gal dat wuz a sweepin de gallery
TO show me whar little Nan wuz en- she done
hit, en- turn EN- all out Of de room en- take
her in my arms lax i 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- lef her
to die by herself"
1t was even so. Above the dying child nc
kindly face bent but the black one of a house
maid, who p!tied her who was an alien in her
fathers house.
Perhaps no two hearts can live as closely
together as mammys 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 had gone to the
baby she was always longing for. Nanny
had not knelt long with that waXen figure,
Graded as it was won't 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
a 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 lifel
Presently she touched nanny gently.
"Come,n she said, tive must take her home"
and so they passed out toward the carriage
with the dead child through the crowd Of
servants, who fell back dffrighted. There
was a stir; little Mans father had come home
and would have detained them, but from the
set, white face of one woman, and the CLEAN,
ing, passionate eyes of the other, he shrank
as if the dead had come back to reproach
him.
Years soften all grief, and the time came
when the memory of little Nan ceased to be-
poignant anguish, and was only another
Iinl lntI 1ln mis- nd Dp
together. Then the war came, and the fever
ish period Of reconstruction, and then life
settled into rounds again on a new basis.
Nanny still carried the housekeeping
keys, and Unc' Washington still drove ''de
keeridge.n But alas, one night at church,
when the presiding elder announced dat Il
white gem'mau wanted to dress de meetin'
arter de scrmon,n Uncle Washington fell
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 go west. In vain was it repre-
sented to him that he and nanny were too
olu 70 change Use bleedged to you, boss"
was his invariaUl5 onnvyer, ''but is free to
go en- come, en- I'm gwine to do hit"
1t almost broke mammy's heart to part
with ole miss zen de chillen," but she could
not leave her 'Oe man. to face that undis-
covered country alone, and after the manner
of wonankind the world over ''she was
bleedged to follow" So, one wintry morn
ing, with goodly store of gold and silver
from her 'chilen" with the gay plaids of
her bandana head covering cleaning under
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 little house where the flowers
she took from her old home bloom kindly in
the alien soil, and if you should chance to
draw rein before her cabin door call her not
Dinah--but nanny once for me.-Elizabeth
N. Gilmer in New Orleans Picayune.