Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1892-11-18
"Yes; and I-heard,"

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Mrs. Dotty, soothingly, putting hand
that looked like wrinkled ivory on thu
girls arm. 'He h just cross, soured, /,
lonely old man."
81 do mind :" Bessie passionately cried.
"Oh, dol sha'n't stay herel sha'n't
be an expense to him any longer. l will
60 away somewhere!"
She broke down in a fit of bitter
weeping.
SNOW, Miss Bessie, dear, you mustn't
cry that way; you really mustn't.
loved your mother before you, and l love
you"
But the poor, little, old comforter was
almost crying herself.
Years before, the Kirkes were the
people of wealth and position in that
part of the country. But one trouble
after an other 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 mai quite untitled for
fierce struggle against adverse fortune.
He fell ill and died. A year later his
wife followed him, leaving their child
to its grandfather, Godfrey Kirke. To
the latter had come the final blow when
his only son Robert, his hope and pride,
had run away to sea. Then in the
house, which since the death of the mis-
tress had been a cheerless and drearY
place, began rigid reign of miserliness
and consequent misery.
Bessie broke from her friend and 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 fiat
brown marshes, to where the waters
tossed, greenish and turbulent.
"a horrid day." she said, with q
shiver, "but it can't be worse out thar
in."
She put on short old Astrahan
jacket, a little felt hat and pair of
much-mended cloth gloves. Then she
went quickly down and out.
The dusk, the dresry 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 (if Mrs. Dotty could
correctly be termed a servant), and she
absolutely refused to enter the protest.
ing presence of her master.
"Teal"
ttYaa sir
The meek housekeeper withdrew.
Ten minutes later she brought in tray
on which were tea, bread, butter, two
cups, two saucers and 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 a
few drops of milk and cut a slice OF
bread.
"Butter has gone up three cents in the
last week." he said. ~ 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 lsmplight illumined
seemed singularly dcuse. What was
wrorg2 What was missing7 What was
different2 He paused, his hand falling
by his side. The child---as he and Mrs
Dotty had always called her-the child
was not here. She used to slip in sc
quietly, take her seat, and when hel
meager supper was over, glide away JUS
as softly. Yes, little as he noticed her
she was generally there. He rang th'
bell sharply.
"Where is sher he asked Mrs. Dotty
when she popped in her mild old head
There was no need to paricularize. Mrs.
Dotty cast swift, searching look
around.
''Isn't she herea"
Without waiting for reply, sh,
turned and ran up the stairs to Bessie's
room. There she knocked. Nc
answer. She opened the door, went in
The room was empty.
Hastily she descended the'stairs.
"Shs is not in, SIR"
"Where is she2"
al don't know, sir"
Impatiently Godfrey Kirlue pushed hi
chair back from the table.
"You ought to know; it's your busi
ness to know. But it doesn't matter
it doesn't matter in the least"
Down to Hanna in the kitchen wen
Mrs. Dotty.
"Did you see Miss Bessie9"
"Yes'm. Passin' westward q coupl,
of hours ago-yes'm."
"Ohp
Mrs. Dotty breathed relieved sigh
Bessie had probably gone to Rose Dever'
house. The Devers lived almost mil
away. As storm was blowing up sh
would most likely stay there over night
About ten o'clock Mr.. Kirke's bel
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