Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-12-28

as quicniy dhSWcltu' lut CdSe piOOheu
no delay. Margaret Tborno heard the
familiar step In the hall, then In the
room below. She knew what he was
doing. How often she had seen him
stoop owe the CRATE with outspread
hands, saying cheerily, as Beth crowed
and held out her hands, JUST a minute
little Beth. Papa mustn't chill the ba-
by!' The memory of the old-time ten
derness, the old-time happiness struck
her with a sudden pang. "Never again;
never again. b whispered as she bent
over the child.
A moment later he came In. The
women spoke to him In the sympathetic
Key OF the sick room and the doctor
silently wrung his hand. Margaret
looked up with a slirht movement Of
the head, but did not offer him her
hand. He stood irresolute a moment,
then took the chair facing her, the
baby between them.
Margaret" he said, ut was very
good of you to send for me-"
1T was only right she said, her
voice hardening In her efforts to steady
1t; s b is your child, too"
She had not meant to be harsh. but
she knew 1t sounded SO. Why must
she always be misunderstood? He half
sighed. The message had come, then,
from no lingering tenderness or return
Ing ~softness, but from a stern sense Of
right. Well, so be it.
He made no effort at conversation.
and so they sat, the silence of death
upon them. 1t grew oppressive. The
women, one by one, stole out of the
room, and the doctor finally, with the
feeling that even he intruded here.
muttered something about going into
the library to lie down, telling them to
call him IL there should be any change.
He went heavily down the stairs. and
the two were left alone with the dying
child.
1t was a strange scene. Each held
a baby hand; each with a burden of
grief unutterable bent over the little
form and watched the Pickering life 20
out; and each shut up and double-locked
and bolted the heart that the other
should not know what was therein.
They were but a hand's-breadth apart.
but between them was a great gulf
fixed.
John Thorne had not seer his child
since that acknowledgements day
when he gave her and his home into
Margaret's hands and went forth alone.
How he had longed for a sight Of the
baby face. for a touch of the baby
hands. none but himself could ever
know. But he had been too proud to
ask to see her, and Margaret had said
in bitter scorn, 1T is the way of the
sex. A woman would Awe never for.
gotten her own child" And she had
clasped Beth passionately to her heart
and cried out, II will be father and
mother both to you, my baby, my poor,
forsaken baby"
And she had steeled her heart against
her husband for Beth's sake and had
! kept her proudly out Of his way. never
DOUBLING for a moment hat his had
been a shallow pretense of love com
pared to her own.
AS he bent over her now, all his heart
In his eyes. a strange feeling Of doubt
began Juggling at her heart. Had he
really loved the child like this? Tn
comfortable regrets took possession o.
her. Could she have misjudged him
She might have sent Beth TO see him oc
~casionally, 1t seemed to her now. wher
she had her all the time. He had beer
more generous than she. On tina
dreadful day when they had made theil
final arrangements and she had asked
with beating heart, land BETH" hi
had answered. Beth shall stay will
you. A mother has the first claim
And she had never let him SEQ hel
once. And Beth had asked for him 81
often. How could she have been 81
4, cruel?
Yes, he had been generous-she comic
see IL now-but then she had calico
him heartless. destitute of natural af
lection. shallow-natured. and her w
hard-heartedness she had called loyalty
TO Beth. Alas! alas! how we worship
our very vices under the name of vir
tues and never know they are miscallet
until some lightning flash tears away
the rags we have clothed them I'm ant
lays them bare to our opened eyes.
She glanced furtively at him. HI
rested his head on his right hand. hi,
left clutching Beth's. His eyes were
fixed on the child as II he would In
these few moments left feast his fam