Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-06-23

left IN hour earlier, she would have
been crying out in her misery for Dad"
and there would have been none to
answer.
He sWore a VOW then that if she
recovered he would never again leave
her-revenge might go, but he would
care for her as she would have done,
whose very heart and body seemed to
tremble with his as he gazed; and
when, at last, the crisis of the attack
was past and the child lying exhausted,
but out Of pain, in his arms, the mans
stubborn soul rose up in him. and he
recognized the God that had granted
the life tina the might have forfeited.
For this demon by which the child is
rudely shaken out Of it's slumber, and
brought face to face with appalling stuff
ering andofte Il death, is one before
Which the strongest man, the most
skillful surgeon, must bow; and the
sight Of the broken nerve, the child's
terror Of the recurrence of the agony,
are even in the days Of recovery, sad
der still.
The weak voice, the pallid cheek, the
overheated atmosphere of the room, re-
mind the watcher Of how precarious
IS the life that has once been SO threat
ened; and when Mr.. Eyre heard the
last fiat Of a famous London surgeon
that nothing but the most devoted care
and watching would shield her from
constantly recurring attacks Of a SINH
lar nature, he buried Hester Clarke and
vengeance fathOms deep in his memory,
and forbade them to rise again until
summoned.
AS he sat with the child in his arms,
it struck him that somewhere he had
seen something similar and in this
very room. j.. and the child had been
his own; but it was dead, and he had
come hither as q magistrate. with the
ministers Of Justice at his heels, to
aI1'"St the woman upon whose knees it
lay for the murder Of his wife.
Had the enivitable law Of nature
reproduced itself? Was God to bring
the sinners heart to humanity through
it's nearest and best?
All that night Mr.. Eyre watched be-
side the little steam-enshrouGed figure.
At daybreak the Arizona sailed; and
as she parted her cables her captain re-
joiced that she carried one passenger
the less than had been booked.
Mr.. Eyre himelf put the ship and
man out of his mind, and on the day
when he might have reached Testers
landing place was wholly engaged in
enjoying the froliaS of a child who, in
the sparkle Of young March
day, had recovered some Of the bright
ness that she lost in an illness that,
though five weeks old, she had not hith-
erto been able to forget.
In one bitter short experience Madcap
had learned the meaning of the word
death, and shrank away from it
shrank even from visiting her mothers
grave, and knew safety nowhere out
of her fathers sight.
She had been taken back to her old
room opposite bis, and not even Doune
could have found the heart to GUST
her from it when, at Easter, he came
back to find her languid; half her
beauty of rounded outlines gone, threat
ened daily and hourly with the dead
ly complaint that had already seized
her twice since the one that had appall-
Cd Mr.. Eyre
II" hearts of father and son
merged their bitterness there at her
ide. and in her common love Joined
forces to protect her; perhaps jealousy
showed as q mean and common thing
AS they watched over the little frail
life that was the all of each; and the
first fiber of respect in DOune stirred
10 his father when, after a long watch,
Mr.. Eyre laid his hand on the boys
she ulder and babe him go to rest. But
first Doune went to his mother, and,
light in hand, looked in her eyes for rea-
sons why she should so have loved Mr.
Eyre.
Perhaps the boy found them there,
so that he could subordinate himself to
her happiness, and when, few days
later, Geordie came, her satisfaction
was complete.
No need to tell the boys now to take
care of her. Carried over every puddle,
and up every hillside, little Madcap
daily gained flesh strength and tone, so
that the village folks smiled to see
the master and the boys go by with
her. The black drop of blood between
father and son was gone, they said,
praying heaven that when he grew
older he might not take the tragedy
of his mothers end amiSS and read
Mr.. Eyre wrongly, as in their secret
souls they themselves had done Some
of the women said that in making an
idol of the child he had made a phan-
tom of the mother. and that he was
more foolish over the second NIadcap
tnan he had been over the first; and
this was true in a sense, for, while he
had felt himself master of his wifes
fate here he knew himself helpless.
and his love was all the purer that it
was so much less masterful. If out
wardly he wore as proud a front and
carried things with as high hand as
Yer, inwarGly he knew Himself chang
ed man. who looked out on life with
new eyes. and in whom the very lust
for vengeance was for a time eNtin-
GIliShed, so that he hardly thought of
the Arizona or Of how each day his
canoes of tracing Hester leSsened.
About this time Mr. Eyre received a
letter that puzzled him. since he could
see no good reason why it should be
addressed to him more than to any
other person.
1t was his way to read his letters
through without first looking at their
signature, so that only at the end of
this one did he find enlightenment, and