Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1890-12-11

physicians 6dY1c6 cOnScient10uSlY, but
he had become such a monomaniac that
each walk always led him and his two
daughters by DOrothes's home. One
day, as they were passing, they heard q
faint cry within the cabin, a cry so faint
and yet so peculiar that the three
stopped, and Achsah said:
HPapa, did you hear the kitty?"
The father looked at his daughter, and
seeing in her face the signs Of her pecul-
lar nervous fits, turned and fastened
home with her. All day long she lay
PROSTATE upon her couch, the minister
kneeling by her side and praying.
When 1t became known that child
had been born to Egbert and Dorothea,
the minister lost no time in relating the
circumstances Of Achsah's illness, and
before evening all the gossips in the VII
lage had made excuses to call upon the
young mother and see the baby that cried
like q cat. Children came to the win
dow, looked in and then ran away as
from haunted place
After few days Dorothea's insanity
returned, and 1T was thought best to re-
move the child from her. a month
passed, during which she lay upon her
bed, uttering the vagaries which came to
her beclouded mind. At last her memory
and her reason returned, and she asked
for her babe as If It had been absent but
an hour. This was toward evening,
and, after receiving the child into her
arms, she lay for an hour in deep silence,
as If absorbed In thought; but not mo-
tiOn was made she did not see, and at
times, when the babe gave utterance to
/ O low cry, the mother would raise her
/ self upon her elbow and gaze upon 1t
with painful intensity. She refused
i all offers Of food, and now and then, as
the twilight deepened, hummed q drowsy
tune in the babes ears or whispered to
| it in sweet and soothing words
After q time the babe fell asleep and
Egbert sat down by the open door. The
twilight passed into evening. The wind
began to moan dismally through the for
est, and the rain began to patter on the
| cabin roof.
The moaning changed to wailing and
then to roaring, and the wind swept the
increasing rain against the window.
| The day was done and q wet, wild night
had set in. Egbert sat for while and
listened to the dreary music, then barred
the door, and leaning back in his chair,
fell asleep.
The brief period of Dorothea's sanity
had passed away and the cloud upon her
mind began to settle with the falling of
the night. The roaring wind, the sweep
ing rain, the beating upon the roof and
the child at her side, became, all alike,
creatures of her imagination. Looking
upward, through the mist, she saw her
mother and was a child again herself.
The sound of the wind and the rain
passed away; but, as she gazed, the
vision faded and, instead Of the peace
appeared the child, which to her
distorted imagination, seemed to
rise, as did those other phantoms
months before, merely to hide from her
the one face she wished to see. She
| changed her position on the bed, but the
infant still appeared. She tried to
brush away the face with her hand, but
could not reach it.
She could now hear the roaring Of the
wind again and see the warning branches
of the trees outside the cabin window.
The wind and the rain and the trees
| spoke to her. They were real. They
would help her. Had not all her life
been passed in intercourse with them,
and had not her father taught her their
| secrets?
All else were mere phantoms. She
was a child again, and this was her
| fathers cabinl What was that strange
man doing in the great chair by the
| table, and whose was this babe which
was lying by her side? Her past life
| was almost wholly a blank, but blank
| blotted by the faint recollection of life
long persecution. What could the child
| be but some evil sprite left to worry herr
And the wind and the rain told her to
kill it.
Once more she looked upward, but
could see nothing but baby face above
her in the mist. She turned her head
upon the pillow and saw the little sleeper
by her side. She watched it for mo-
ment and then, as a serpent creeps
| through the bushes in search Of its prey,
she passed her hand slowly over the
child. As she did so, the wind seemed tC
die away and the rain ceased to fall upon
the roof
She paused, and low moan came
| through the tree-tops in the forest. Il
came like a moan from that blot in hel
| past life, a moan grief-burdened and
| growing faint with despair.
1t strengthened her purpose and she
touched the baby hand. 1t clasped her
fingers convulsively, which caused her tC
look intently upon the little face. i
was the same which, few moments be
fore had appeared in the mist above her
Still, with faint dawning Of intelh
gence, and perhaps of maternal feeling
she paused to wonder if 1t might not be
a real child. But at that moment the
babe awakened and gave a faint or!
which, even to the mother, seemed like
the cry of a cat.
There was no more Doubt The child
belonged to the evil one who was still
pursuing her.
A fresh gust of wind came up with it!
long sough gathered from the depth O.
the woods, and her brain was influenced
by it. Again her hand, which had beer
withdrawn when the baby's finger
clutched it, was stretched out and thi
time touched the infants head. He
eyes were burning with excitement, Blu
with nerves steady and hand firm a
iron, she passed her fingers down thu
little sleeper's face to its throat and fel
the warm beating from its heart.
Ali fine wild night II was, and tn
wind came roaring and wailing through
the dashing rain, and beneath the darl
storm cloud. A roll of thunder and GU
| in the forest q tree had been shiYerei