St. Paul daily globe., 1889-02-09

mary S tolQef mlnlStfaG1OIlS anu IOY-
ing sympathy were not without their
effect, even upon Josephine. When
the twins were six months old, the
mother was able to walk about the
house. Her strength was now sufficient
to warrant her being moved, and to
justify Mrs. COttrell in begging her to
leave the desolate little house and to
bring her babies to San Jose. Her
home was large enough for them all,
she pleaded. The babies could be
happy with grandmamma, and jose
phiIe, by her presence, would bless
them all. Mr.. Cottrell's letters urged
the same plea.
But to Josephine, who had in her
girlhoOd refused to accept his home as
her kingdom, the thought of now max
ing it the asylum not only of herself,
but for her three children, was immeas
urably more bitter than death. If
death could but have taken her when
her hirelings fought to save her from
his grasp! Why could she not now
have the one boon that alone was of
value in her sight? Why could not de-
life?
Death comes not when he is most
longed for. Josephine had to live-had
to live an invalid, incapable of her own
support. OF the two alternatives which
lay before her. she chose Will CottrelPs
charity in her home. She could not re-
ceive it in his, already shelter for her
mother. She almost lost her mother
love, in rejecting that her babies were
also the gamblers: that for his children
she must receive aims.
She grew miserly in dispensing the
regular inStallments her sister sent.
She boarded the money so carefully
that she could soon refuse part, and
wrote that so large an allowance was
not needed. The little nurse, unframed,
untidy, incompetent, she retained as
her sole servant. Upon this girl fell
such cooking, laundry work, cleaning
and nursery duties as were not left un-
done. Josephine's complaint precluded
her attempting any housewOrk. She
could do some OF the sewing the babies
required.
The babies of the rich and the babies
of the pOOr-a great gulf separates
them. Those, like Dives. are clothed
in fine linen; these, like Lazarus, in
rags, and are seldom clean.
Thus ten years passed. Josephine
had lived in poverty because too proud
to receive aims sufficient to keep her in
ease. The children had thriven. 1t is
a common saying that the children of
the poor grow like weeds. Lena was
now large enough to make her influence
felt in keeping tidy house. The boys
were sturdy little fellows, who would
soon be able to work. About this time
a noted specialist in JOsephine's peculiar
complaint moved to Menlo Park. For
the sake of having treatment from him
she sold her piano, the one thing out OF
her past to which she had clung. and
which she still retained. The great
skill of the specialist in year wrought
wonders for her. She grew almost her
old. strong SELF. Now her one desire
was to get away from the locality where
where she might work. She offered the
sheep ranch for sale. Her brOther-in-
law was the purchaser. He paid her a
good price for property which could
scarcely have been disposed of else
where as a gift. But this Josephine
was too inexperienced to know. She
did know that she now had sufficient
money to take her family away from
the ranch from Menlo Park--from San
Jose-from California-away where no
rumors of her past could follow--out of
the world. In some lonely spot, remote
from any who had ever heard the name
of Josephine de ZaldO. she and her
children might live. if they conld, or
otherwise might die.
The place she sought did not lie at the
ends of the earth. To reach it required
shorter journey. She found claim
on a treeless. trackless,- tenantless
prairie in North Dakota. Here little
provenents made. This claim she
bought as relinquishment-she bought
it for song. The reInOteness from
any railroad, and its distance of ten
miles from the nearest settlement,
would have made even song a high
price to most people. But it suited
Josephine. She filed on the land as q
homestead. She bought some second
hand farm machiney, horse and buck
board and a cow. She furnished the
house with the barest necessities of fur
niture. Sne still had tiny sum to de-
posit in the little bank of the village.
The twins were now nearly thirteen
years old. Living on farm did not
seem impossible. She would in due
course make final proof on the land.
She would here bring up her children
to a vlrtuous, it toilsOme life. AT her
death she might even bequeath them a
valuable property, into which in future
1t was now that she redeemed her prom
Use of claiming my assistance whenever
it could be of value. She wrote asking
me TO make some investigation as to her
legal hold upon Dakota claim while
separated, but not divorced, from her
husband.
Although keeping myself informed as
to Josephine's welfare, had spared her
the humiliation OF visiting her at the
sheep ranch. l had seen her but once
since her wedding day. / now wrote to
her that was about starting on trip
to the National park. and wished to see
something of Dakota; and that before
my return, unless she forbade, / would
visit her claim and inform her as to her
legal rights.
l saw her there. Sixteen years had
elapsed since Josephine de Zaldo had
chosen to become the bride OF Alden
I.add. The proud young beauty, at the
altar, had been a memorable sight.
Years afterW ard. the deserted wife made
picture as striking, and as impossible
to forget. She was still under forty,
still a young woman. But her wealth
of hair, scarcely less abundant than of
old, was white as the driven SHOW. Her
dark eyes, unchanged except for the
soflened expression that sorrow brings,
shone in superb beauty under her.
snowy crown. They were still two un-
fathomable wells in which man could
lose his soul. Her cheek was tinged by
faint rose-the merest whisper of her
grlish bloom. The form was still erect
and queenly. This descendant of the
Zaldo race could break but could not
bend. The bitterness had left her face.
Peace had settled in its stead. She had
been made perfect through suffering.
She seemed like noble ship, at anchor
in the haven. No storms from the great
deep could reach her there.
never saw her again. The noble
ship, even in the harbor. was not safe
from storms. In the next one that
struck her she went down.
Drairic GrnS IL, North Dakota that fall