Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-08-17

Lady Vernon hesitated, and indeed
abandoned the idea more than once, only
to recur 10 it again. She strove hard not
to love the child, but her heart was beyond
her control.
Little Martin crept into it, though she
strove hard to Danish him by the thought
of her baby Roderick, whose grave was in
the sea. One day, to steel herself against
this new love by memories of her boy,
Lady Vernon took from the depths of one
of her travelling trunks box in which she
kept Roderick's TOYS. She turned them
over and over, and tears fell upon them.
"No, my baby" she said, 81 will not
have another son to take your place.
will not" Then she cried out to Phoebe !:
"Ah, Phoebe, here is the mandarin he
loved so He had the head in his hand
when the nurse left him on the shore. Oh,
Phebel"
"Dear heart, so he had" said Phoebe.
''He used to take the head out always
At that moment little Martin ran into
the room. He spied the box of toys and
ran toward it.
"You must not touch them, said Phoebe.
"They are dear little Master Roderick s,
and he is dead" And she drew him back.
For the first time the child showed the
temper the janitress credited him with.
"They are mine," he said
He ran up to Lady Vernon and caught
her arm.
"Say," he cried, "they are mine" and
suddenly he seized the mandarin with both
hands and dashed cut of the room with
it.
Lady Vernon stared in amazement. The
toy he had clutched was in her eye sac
red relic of her dead son.
"Stop him, Phoebe" she gasped. "He is
bad child-a rude little creature after
ALL"
Phoebe started in hot pursuit, but the
child was already back again. He had
availed himself of the elevator which was
coming up. He was radiant, smiling
his cheeks aglow.
"See," he cried to Lady Vernon, and
presented her with the China mandarin,
no longer headless, but wearing his round
smiling face his arched eyebrows, and his
braided pigtail again.
"That is just what he wanted" added
little Martin.
Lady Vernon had never tainted in her
life, or she would nave done SO then. She
was bewildered, terrified
She examined the mandarin closely.
She was positive that the head he wore
had originally belonged to him. Besides,
the toy was not an ordinary one to be
matched in every shop.
This was the head that had been in her
child's hand when he was left by his nurse
upon the beach. She looked at Martin
again.
"Where did you get that ?" she asked.
'Its mine," said the child, "and SO are
all these"
Lady Vernon was trembling from head
to foot. A moment more and she had sent
for the janitress.
The woman came at once.
"Where did your grandson get this ~
the lady asked, pointing to the manda-
rims head.
NThe chany head. He has always had
it," said the old woman. at fits the
image but indeed 1 think he's no thief.
Anyway, it's been with him since l had
him."
'Where did you get him?" asked Lady
Vernon. "Where? Whose child is he
You call him your grandchild-is he
really SOP"
The woman hesitated. Then she an
swered slowly:
mo, my lady; Eve nothing to do with
him, anyway. He is nobody's child, I've
always thought. William and me never
had any children-we married late in
life-and one day a gentleman William
had been groom to came to him. Tm
going to be married. Williams said he,
and there's boy I'd like to have out of
the way. Eve been little wild, and
and YOU understand? And William, of
course, thought he did So he told Will
lam that he'd give him sum of money to
take the child 20 America and call him
his grandchildren twas enough to open
a public house with, and that was Will
Jams ambition. So he paid the money,
and we got the boy the day we went
aboard ship, five years ago this autumn.
He cried good deal ard wanted his
mother-some light oe love Of the gentle
mans, suppose And he had that chany
head in his pocket; he's kept it ever since.
He don't break anything, and hope
nothing is wrong, ma'am."
"No-go on gasped my lady. "Tell
me the gentleman's nameo
"The gentlemans name was Alfred
Farnham," said the janitress. "And my
poor husband failed in the public house,
lost all and left the child On my hands be-
sides, when he died. Oh, my lady, what
is ith'
at is this" cried Lidy Vernon: cal
fred Farnham is my husbands youngest
brother. My child inherited the estate
and title. In order to gain them for
himself he abducted my child, and
all the while / have believed him dead.
1t is he-it is the little fellow there.
l have loved him from the first My
heart told me the truth, though / did not
quite understand. Roderick, my darling,
come to mel am your mother"
With scream of joy the child flew into
her arms.
"And to think that should never have
known it," the mother sobbed, "but for
that little mandarin's head What poor
blind worms we mortals arew
l fancy that Alfred Farham hated his
sister-in-law more than ever and yet she
was lenient to him.
81 could punish you terribly" she said.
"But you were my husbands brother;
shall keep the story to myself. The family
lawyers will maintain the silence, and the
world need only know that my boy-the
real Lord Vernon-is restored to me. Only,
as you have place in Scotland, you will
go to it and never let me see your face
again"
And Alfred Farnham, though before the
lawyers he affected to believe that the
Yankee wife of his dead brother had
tricked them all, was glad to take himself
away in safety.
@You are too mercift1, Lady Vernon"
one of the legal gentlemen who kept the
family secret said to her, but she answered:
"Alone there by the sea he might have
murdered him-cast his body into the
waves and left him there to drown. He
spared my boys life, and that is why l
spare him-family pride has nothing to
do with it."-Mary Kyle Dallas IN Fireside
Companion.
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