The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1890-07-05

| mother who abused her, and she ran
away, and kind old gentleman who
lived in grand style adopted her, and
when he died left her all his money.
She said she knew there must be lots
and lots Of people who would be glad to
adopt,u II they only knew about "a,
and that we could look for some old peO.
pie living in the country, without chill
dren, and awful lonely. She said there
were plenty of 'em, If we only knew
whore to find 'em.
We talked it all over one night at our
gate, and we decided that If we were
ever going. the sooner we went the bet
ter it would be, for we might miss some
good chance of being adopted.
So we left the very next morning. We
each took a tin pail, so people would
think we were going blackberrying; but
in the pals were the things we wanted
to take with us.
Mother was upstairs with the baby
when left, and Keziah was out in the
yard under the cherry tree, washing
blankets.
Tell mother I've gone down in the
pasture, Keziah," said.
You'd best tell her yourself" said
Keziah. "You know she wouldn't let
you go off this way, and not stroke Of
work done in the house yet And you
won't find no blackberries. There's
been Bromfeld people pickin' in them
| pastures, and they've cleaned out every
blackberry they could lay their fingers
on. You're jest tryin' to shirk out O.
takin',care of the baby, and it's ashamed
you ought to be OF yourself, too, and
your ma so delikit.'
OF course l felt like answering back;
but didn't She couldn't know that
she was looking on my face for the last
time, and felt sure she would be sorry
for her harsh words when l was gone,
and she realized, as day after day passed,
and was mourned perhaps for dead,
that she would never see me again. Be-
sides, / felt sorry for her because she
used such poor grammar
found Lulu down in the pasture sit
ting on an old stump. She looked dread
fully serious
"It was harder to come away than
thought it would be, )" she said. Il wish
l hadn't been obliged to do it."
"Well, we oere obliged, and that is all
there is about it," / said. ''Things
were getting worse all the time. The
idea of ourshot going to the wax works
exhibition! 1t was notifying. Every
body l met asked me if I'd been, and
didn't know what excuse to make"
We climbed a grassy knoll, as they
say in stories, and stood there, looking
our last on our homes. That is, we
thought it was our last, and of course
we couldn't look into the future and see
what really happened.
81 am glad did up all the chamber
work before / left" said Lulu Mother
can't reproach me for any thing
They'll appreciate us when we are
gone" answered. ''Now they take all |
our sacrifices as a matter of course, and,
without conjunction, work us like
slaves"
Lulu said ] talked just like heroine |
in novel. That is the secret of my in
fluence over her-she thinks | know so
much more than most girls of my age.
And l suppose / do
We didn't dare go on the main road;
so we struck for the woods and walked
into the thick of it before we stopped.
Then we turned around three times
with our eyes shut. and said some magic
words made up expressly.
This is the way" said, pointing to
my right.
And we walked off without the slight
est idea where we were going.
We talked about the future at first
wondering how soon we would come to
some palatial residence, and on what
sort of beds we would sleep that night.
1--WE must get out of these woods, or
we'll have to sleep right here on the
roots" said Lulu, at last 1--WE won't
find any palatial residences in this
wood. | went through most of it when
Tom Briggs took me nutting last fall"
'People say it is twenty miles long"
/ answered; "and there's no telling
what we'll find when we come to the
end of that twenty miles. We must
push right on"
So we kept going, but presently Lulu
said she was hungry, and then we found
out that neithcrsiof us had thought to
bring any thing to eat
OF course there was no use worrying
over it; we simply had to endure it; but
we got hungricr and hungrier the fur
ther we went.
I'VE must have gone at least twenty
miles," Lulu said, at last, ''and Pm so
tired out can't go any further"
Well, if hadn't known how to talk to
her, she would have sat right down
where she was, and starved to death,
for all know
But kept my presence of mind, and
told her she must go on whether she
wanted to or not; that sitting down was
not to thought of for moment
Then she began to talk about home,
and to wonder what her little sister
Eva was doing, and if Bennie had cried
after her. And saw she was beginning
10 feel sorry she had left.
II don't believe like running away,
after ALL" she said, tearfully; ''and if