Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-06-28
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an interest in the child that bore her

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kme, she earnestly entreated her nephew
10 let her have charge of Winifred in
, New York, where she could have the
benefit of treatment by specialists and at
the same time receive the best instruc-
tion.
The colonel acknowledged the wisdom
OF this plan, but he was loath TO send
Winifred away from him just yet; and
while he was still pondering this neccs-
sary step Christmas came round again.
To Missy this Christmas was grievous
disappointment. She had cherished the
hope that Nicholas would return at this
season, and when the day came and
passed without him she was in state of
almost frenzied distress.
Father! Father! Where is Brer Mich.
olas?' she cried, pushing away the gifts
that had been lavished upon her.
1t twas q question the colonel could not
answer.
''Dontyou ever think Of himy' pleaded
the little sister, with her slender. hands
pressed against her aching heart. II
think OF him all the time. don't ever
forget him. Oh, father, suppose he is
'iiio
Her father turned upon her face
stony in its despair. "We must forget
him." he said, hoarsely. "He is not to
be found for any search of mine. To
forget is all that is left us.
ooh, what does this mean" cried
Missy, wringing her hands.
at means that he has hidden himself
out of our reach" answered the colonel
gloomily.
"If were man." cried Missy, clinch-
ing her small fists fiercely, "1'd search
the big world over"
The colonel was hurt that Missy should
doubt he had done his best, but his pride
disdained to explain what unavailing ef-
forts he had made to discover, for her
sake, his sons retreat; and Missy ignor-
ant of this, felt her heart waxing ever
more and more bitter against her father.
She did not know that she was miserable
because of this bitterness; she thought
she was miserable only because she miss
ed her brother.
Missy, however, had by no means
abandoned the hope of her brothers re-
turn. Some day he would surely come
home, and in this confident expectation
her energies took the form of feverish
ambition to improve her mind. Brer
Nicholas must not find her the ignorant
child he had left crying to him in the
rain; she must strive for the commenda-
tion of the beloved absent brother; for
him she studicd-as her strength permit
ted; for him she labored at the detested
piano, in a pathetic anxiety that her
mind should atone for the defects of the
fort to reach him.
And now n great dread possessed Col.
Thorne, a dread lest Missy should become
morbid through the Indulgence of this
insistent desire to recover her brother,
and he suddenly determined to take her
at once to New York and put her under
the care of physician, as his aunt had
repeatedly urged him to do.
This was in the summer of 1860. Col.
Thorne was one of those who felt sure
there would be no war; therefore, when
he found, after few weeks in New
York, that Winifred was in fair way
to improve, and that she could be con-
tent to remain with Der aunt, he did not
hesitate to leave her when he returned
home in October. His child, he thought,
could travel homeward with friends at
any time, or he could go to her.
When the fighting began the colonel,
like many others, declared that it would
all be over in less than sixty days; but
as the war went on-an ever deepening
horror-he rejoiced, even while his heart
ached for the sight of her. that his little
lame daughter had been left in New York.
He did not see Missy again until the
fall of 1865