The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1895-03-21

" and let miserable thief rummage
through the house. OF course one might
be little startled. but | should be so
angry at the impudence of the man in
venturing into my house that | should
order him out at once
Perhaps he would not go, mother"
said |, mischievously. Il have heard
that, as class, burglars are not very
biddable. His first act would probably
be to tie us in our chairs and gag us. so
that he could investigate at his leisure
and without fear of being disturbed.
My mother looked at me Indignantly.
do you suppose said she. that |
would sit still to be tied? The burglar
would have to catch me first, and l
promise you | would lead him pretty
chase"
| laughed involuntarily at the pic
ture thus conjured up of my mother,
who was no longer very slender or
agile, flying around the room. lodging
our supposititious burglar. but a hurt
look in her dear eyes sobered me. and |
said
We'll, supposing a thief should walk
in, on us now, the best thing / can think
of would be to hide uilda under the
table then when Mr.. Burglar went in
to another room she could slip out of
the back door, find the nightwatch and
bring him here to rescue u.s."
l smiled at the little German maid
who sat at my feet holding skein of
yarn on her patient hands and she
smiled intelligently in return, though
was by no means sure how much she
had understood of the conversation
Hilda was quite a recent importation
from Deutschland. She had only
been with us few weeks and her at
tempts at our language were some
thing fearful and wonderful. but her
ears were becoming educated much
faster than her tongue.
My mother and had lived alone to-
gether for many years in what had
been the outskirts of West Ripley.
But the manufacturing interests of the
town had been developing so fast that
it was reaching out in all directions,
and we who had been glad to have
neighbors within half a mile now had
them in the same block.
But with the growth of the town
and the increase of prosperity there
had come also an influx of disreputa-
BILE characters and an increase of such
petty crimes as theft and burglary, and
at last my mother had taken the hith-
erto unheard-of precaution of having a
Yale lock and chain put on our front
door. We were, however, so unaccus-
toned to the necessity of locking our
selves in that more frequently than not
we would go to bed and sleep peaceful
ly through the night without turning
key anywhere.
On this particular day we had been
hearing some unusually circumstantial
and narrowing accounts of recent bur-
glarious exploits where our own ac-
quaintances had been the victims; and
my mothers indignation had been
greatly reused by the pusillanimous
conduct of one of the "burgled" ones,
who had quietly covered his head with
the bedclothes and let the thieves take
what they would. Woman as she
was" she had declared, she would
not be such coward"
AS it drew near bedtime my mother
looked up from her knitting and said
to me:
Marian, did you lock the front
door,"
Il am not sure, mother" l replied,
"but | will go and see
Never mind, child" she said, with a
queer little smile; iii go myself as
soon as | have knit this row; then |
will know it is done"
Her ivory needles clicked little
faster. My head was bent over my
embroidery frame, for !, too, was anx-
ious to finish another row." Hilda,
still on the low stool at my feet, and
almost hidden by tie cover of the table
against which she leaned, was sorting
the bright woods, when suddenly low,
gasping cry frora my mother made me
look up. Our sitting-room door had