The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-11-22

lage had made excuses to call upon the
J young mother and see the baby that cried
like a cat. Children came to the win
low, looked in and then ran away as
from haunted place.
After a few days Dorothea's insanity
:eturned, and 1t was thought pest to re-
| move the child from her. A month
| passed, during which she lay upon her
| bed, uttering the vagaries which came to
her beclouded mind. At last her memory
and her reason returned, and she asked
| for her babe as if it had been absent but
an hour. This was toward evening,
and, after receiving the child into her
arms, she lay for an hour in deep silence,
as if absorbed in thought; but not a mo-
ton was made she did not see, and at
times, when the babe gave utterance to
low cry, the mother would raise her
self upon her elbow and gaze upon it
with painful intensity. She refused
all offers of food, and now and then, as
the twilight deepened, hummed drowsy
tune in the babes ears or whispered to
it in sweet and soothing words.
After time the babe fell asleep and
Egbert sat down by the open door. The
twilight passed into evening. The wind
began to moan dismally through the for
est, and the rain began to patter on the
cabin roof.
The moaning changed to wailing and
then to roaring, and the wind swept the
increasing rain against the window.
The day was done and wet, wild night
had set in. Egbert sat for while and
listened to the dreary music, then barred
ho IN !, L. IN, iC ph ho ir
fell asleep.
The brief period Of Dorothea's sanity
had passed away and the cloud upon her
mind began to settle with the falling OF
the night. The roaring wind, the sweep
ing rain, the beating upon the roof and
the child at her side, became, all alike,
creatures of her imagination. Looking
upward, through the mist, she saw her
mother and was child again herself.
The sound of the wind and the rain
passed away; but, as she gazed, the
vision faded and, instead of the peace.
brooding form Of her mother,
appeared the child, which to her
distorted Imagination, seemed to
rise, as did those other phantoms
months before, merely to hide from her
the one face she wished to see. She
changed her position on the bed, but the
infant still appeared. She tried to
brush away the face with her hand, but
could not reach it.
She could now hear the roaring OF the
wind again and see the warning branches
of the trees outside the cabin window.
The wind and the rain and the trees
spoke to her. They were real. They
would help her. Had not all her life
been passed in intercourse with them,
and had not her father taught her their
secrets?
All else were mere phantoms. She
was a child again, and this was her
fathers cabin! What was that strange
man doing in the great chair by the
table, and whose was this babe which
was lying by her side? Her past life
was almost wholly blank, but blank
blotted by the faint recollection Of life
long persecution. What could the child
be- bat some evil sprite left to worry her?
And the wind and the rain told her to
kill it.
Once more she looked upward, but
could see nothing but baby face above
her in the mist. She turned her head
upon the pillow and saw the little sleeper
by her side. She watched it for mo-
ment and then, as serpent creeps
through the bushes in search Of its prey,
she passed her hand slowly over the
child. AS she did so, the wind seemed to
die away and the rain ceased to fall upon
the roof
She paused, and a low moan came
through the tree-tops in the forest. 1t
came like moan from that blot in her
past life, moan grief-burdened and
growing faint with despair.
1t strengthened her purpose and she
touched the baby hand. 1t clasped her
fingers convulsively, which caused her to
look tntently upon the little face. 1t
was the same which, q few moments be-
fore had appeared in the mist above her.
Still, with q faint dawning of intelli-
gence, and perhaps of maternal feeling,
she paused to wonder il it might not be
O real child. But at that moment the
babe awakened and gave faint cry
which, even to the mother, seemed like
the cry of a cat.
There was no more doubt! The child
belonged to the evil one who was still
pursuing her.
A fresh gust Of wind came up with its
long sough gathered from the depth of
the woods, and her brain was Influenced
by it. Again her hand, which had been
withdrawn when the baby's fingers
clutchcd it, was stretched out and this
timo touched the infants head. Her
eyes were burning with excitement, but
with nerves steady and hand firm as
iron, she passed her fingers down the
littlo sleeper's face to it's throat and felt
tho warm beating from its heart, ="
All! a,fnc wild night It was, and the
wind came roaring and wailing through
the dashing rain, and beneath the dark
storm cloud. A roll Of thunder and out
in thc forest q tree had been shiyered
with the lightning's stroke! A hush for
Nh instant and then the storm broke
forth afrcsh. The hand was resting on
tho infants throat. Tho fingers
closed. No gaspl No sound! But the
little hands tuggcd at the great one
which was taking its lie away! The
baby breast heavcd with quick throes
and the legs were drawn up convulsivc-
ly. The struggle ceased, and the soft
baby eyes slowly deadened into . sense
less gaze.
That instant another roll Of thunder
passed over head, the whole village was
Illuminated by the flash of lightning and
n holt from heaven struck tho minister's
house.
Then the peal rumbled on among the
clouds until it died away in the distance
AS if satisfied with the work that had
been done, the wind died away and the
rain ceased falling. Dorothca Ingram
took it as an intimation, that she had
conquered, and fell asleep.