The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1892-11-23
eyes: and I---heard. "

Mrs. Dotty, soothingly, putting hand
that looked like wrinkled ivory on the
girls arm. "He is juAt a cross, soured,
lonely old man."
IL do mind !" Bessie passionately cried.
ooh, 1 dol sha'n't stay herel l sha'n't
be an expense to him any longer. will
go away somewherel"
She broke down in ft Of bitter
weeping.
"Now, Miss Bessie, dear, you mustn't
cry that way; you really mustn't.
loved your mother before you, and love
YOU"
But the poor, little, old comforter was
almost crying herself.
Years before, the Kirkes we're the
people of wealth and position In that
part of the country. But one trouble
after another had come upon the house.
First, the wife of the master died.
Maud, the daughter, married man
whose only crime was poverty. He was
frail, scholarly man, quite untitled for
fierce struggle against adverse fortune.
He fell i'll and died. A year later his
wife followed him, leaving their child
| W It's SiduNNlhbuti3 NOulIty hlIh0s ~
the latter had come the final blow when
his only son Robert, his hope aud pride,
had run away to sea. Then in the
house, which since the death of the mis-
tress had been cherries and dreary
place, began a rigid reign of miserliness
and consequent misery.
Bessie broke from her friend aud ran
upstairs and into her own little bare
room. There was no fire in the CRATE,
though the day was cold with the pene-
trating damp of wind from off the
ocean. She went to the window and
stood there looking out across the fat
brown marshes, to where the waters
tossed, greenish aud turbulent.
"a horrid day." she said, with
shiver, "but it cant be worse out than
| in"
She put on short old Astrahau
jacket, a little felt hat aud a pair of
much-mended cloth gloves. Then she
went quickly down and out.
The dusk, the dreary November dusk,
was filing the room when the old man,
plodding over his accounts, laid down
his pencil and rang the bell. Mrs.
Dotty responded. Mr.. Kirke kept but
one other servant Gf Mrs. Dotty could
correctly be termed servant), and she
absolutely refused to enter the protest
ing presence of her master.
"Tealn
eyes, sir"
The meek housekeeper withdrew.
Ten minutes later she brought In q tray
on which were tea, bread, butter, two
cups, two saucers aud two plates. Mr..
Kirke poured out his tea, shook little
of the sugar he was about to use back in
the old silver bowl, added carefully
few drops of milk and cut slice of
bread.
'Butter has gone up three cents in the
last week." he said. 'I can't afford to
use butter"
So he munched his bread dry, with a
sense of exaltation in his self-imposed
penance. He would not open the
poorhouse-door for himself by using but.
ter. But, somehow, the rank tea tasted
ranker than usual. Surely the bread
was sour. And the gloom outside the
small circle that the lampight illumined
seemed singularly dense. What was
wrong1 What was missngl What was
different2 He paused, his hand falling
by his side. The child-as he aud Mrs.
Dotty had always called her--the child
was not here. She used to slip in so
quietly, take her seat, and when her
meager supper was over, glide away just
as softly. Yes, little as he noticed her,
she was generally there. He rang the
bell sharply.
"Where is she2" he asked Mrs. Dotty,
when she popped in her mild old head
There was no need to particularize. Mrs.
Dotty cast a swift, searching look
around.
- ''Isn't she here3"
Without waiting for reply, she
turned ana ran up the stairs to Bessie's
room. There she knocked. No
answer. She opened the door, went in.
The room was empty.
Hastily she descended the stairs.
"Shs is not in, sir"
"Where is shef"
al don't know, sir"
Impatiently Godfrey Kirke pushed his
chair back from the table.
"You ought to know; it's your bust
ness to know. But it doesn't NATTER
it doesn't matter in the least"
Down to Hanna in the kitchen went
Mrs. Dotty.
"Did you see Miss Bessiel"
"Yes'm. Passin' westward a couple
of hours ago-yes'm."
"Oh"
Mrs. Dotty breathed relieved sigh.
Bessie had probably gone to Rose Dever's
house. The Devers lived almost mile
away. As storm was blowing up she
would most likely stay there over night.
About ten o'clock Mr.. Kirke's bell
again tingled out. Again Mrs. Dotty
appeared before him.
"Has the child come int"
"No, sir"
"Do you know why she went outl'
al suspect, sir"
swell, speak up
"She overheard our conversation to
day."
"What of itl"
"Nothing of it," with very angry
fash from very faded eyes, "except that
she vowed she would be an expense to
you no longer"
"She did, chr"
"She did"
"Well," grimly, 81 hope she won't!'
The child had sulky fit. She was