Daily Yellowstone journal., 1890-08-21
hal had n reputation for brightness

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porch. She did not want any supper.
How could she eat with that lump in
her throat! She sat looking out into
the pleasant June evening desolately.
But a spark of interest came into her
eyes suddenly. The square hole in the
side of the barn which marked the po-
sition of Topsy's stall, and from which
her trim little head wa usually poking
itself-it was empty.
Waiting for a time in the expectation
Of seeing the head Hluldah went into
the kitr'Iaa and 10 the nail where hung
the barn key, and then out 10 the barn.
Yes, Topsy's stall was empty and SO
was Dan's-Dan being the old sorrel
her Uncle Robert always drove.
Where was T'oTny' Her Uncle Robert
never drove ToIsy, Besides Dan was
gone. And he never lent her. What
had become of her!
Huldah was in a tremble. Topsy-
II ii lad been anything but Topsy!
Had she been stolen! Had she got
loose and run away The door had
been locked, but there was the big
back door into the barnyard, Some
thing had happened while she had been
numbering upstairs. What would her
Uncle Robert say-dol
Huldah WAS pale and panicstricken.
Oh, dear. what should she do!
Hardly knowing what she was doing
she hurried out into theroad, and bend
ing low studied the hoof prints in the
dust.
All tending westward were half OBJ
liberated; those tigning east. or in the
direction Of Walicly, were fresh, and
lIuldah mechanically walked eastward.
To what end: If Topsy had broken
her halter ana frisked up the road HUI
dab thought she might overtake her.
If she had been stolen and ridden away
at a foaming trot-
But iluldah could not have SAT still;
she could not have waited. Doing
something was better than doing moth
ing. She might find some trace of her.
Her anxiety LEFT her no choice. She
went brcathlessly tramping on up the
dusty road.
She thought she had been unhappy
before, but now she was miserable.
She was confused. too, in her misery.
She had gone a quarter of a mile be-
fore it occurred TO her that she had left
the house unlocked. as well as the
barn.
But What were the spoons or the
butter dish compared with Topsyl Oh.
dear!
She was glad it was getting dark;
nobody would recognize her. But even
so, people stared at the ~hurrying, bare
headed girl and wondered.
Once or twic she mustered courage
to ask if Topsy had been seen, but no
body had seen her,
She felt like a tramp, and she sup
posed she BOXED like one. Was she
going To cry again. She would not.
But if any other calamity had befallen
her than losing Topsy-anything! And
it was her fault, her negligence.
Once she thought she saw her crop.
ping the grass by the roadside, and her
heart bounded; b. ; it was only a
peaceful red COW.
At the next half mile stone she was
sure she saw Topsy ahead of her, with
the thief on her back, but it was Hiram
White on his old rackabones with a
bag Of grist.
She was getting tired at last. She
had raced along in such a frightened
heat thst She had not thought of dis
tancc.
But where was she! Why, almost to
BcntUn's cOners-almost two miles.
And houses were scarce here.
lIuidnh glanced around her fearfully.
How dark it was getting!
Still she pressed ON. The thought
that il was Topsy she was searching for
spurred her.
But She was growing weak. Her
anxiety and her long tramp and her
nervous fears here on this lonely road
were more than she had bargained for.
She found herself trembling.
Poor Huldah! her faithful. grieved
little heart swelled with despair.
She peered ahead. Nothing and no
body to be seen; no Topsy.
A light cleaned from a house far
ahead in a ghostly way, and an owl
hooted away of In the woods.
oh. what was thati IL was only a
friendly stray cat rubbing against her,
but Il was too much for Huldah in her
strained state.
She recoiled in fright and gasped,
and then sitting down on a smooth,
fiat stone near by tried to smile
strove to rally her scattering senses
and quietly tainted away.
She was not on the stone when she
came to herself. Joe Brockway was
on the stone, and she was in Joe's arms.
She remembered it all in a minute,
and was Indignantly ashamed of her
self. She sat up suddenly and rigidly
and stared. Yes, Joe was holding her,
and her Uncle Robert was kneeling be-
side her, with his ford face wbitcncd