St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-02-26

The professor dropped the letter
which he had just read for the sixth
time. He rose with nervous energy
and we to thf. window.
He gazed into the street and saw
children-children- every
where children-laughing running,
skipping and generally disporting
themselves with the amiable idiocy
of youth.
What IN earth shall I do with II? %
muttered the professor, drumming
on the window with his eyeglasses.
What put it into my sisters head
that I would be the best person in
the world to take care of her child?
"Why didn't her husband outlive
her? Why did she die? The whole
thing has been simply a plan to
break up my-hem! 1 didn't mean
that! 1 suppose poor Jane would
have lived if she could.
But what am I to do with a
three-year-old child in my bachelor
quarters? 1 don't know, I'm sure.
If Mottsboro were big city, perhaps
1t wouidrr. be so bad But in mis-
cradle little village like this, where
every ones business is known to
every one else, shall be driven mad,
l know 1 shall
AS he stood gazing out of the Win
dow aero SIS the short stretch Of level
green lawn and over the snowy
pickets of the well-kept fence, he
became aware of a face at the Win
dow Of the next house.
III, nn2cyr' exclaimed the pro
fessor, half alcu1, what will she
think? l never spoke to her but once,
AMI that Vas at Mrs. Barbey's lawn
party, where I was introduced to
her. Then she said it was a pretty
sight, and I answered, Yes, it looks
like rain
4 couldn't help it. She was so
beautiful, and 1 was so $3.50 mod
est-or-bashful- idiotic or some
thing"
1t was quite true. Ever since
Prof. Arthur Brewster, instructor
in mathematics and astronomy at the
Mottsboro high academy, had been
presented to Miss Mabel Riker, he
had never dared to speak to her
again.
She had passed him OH the street
often, and had always greeted him
with a pleasant smile and a bow,
but he never dared to do more than
lift his at awkwardly and hasten on.
He would have given months
salary to find courage to say some
thing, and a years for the audacity
to join her in her walk. But he
realized that courage was not a
purchasable commodity.
She saw him at the window and
smiled, Whereupon ne retired into
the room with great celebrity.
Her smile always frightened him.
1t always made him feel as if his
heart had jumped out of place.
He had hardly recovered from his
alarm when the aged woman who
acted as housekeeper, cook and gen
eral servant in his small cottage,
knocked at the door, and, on enter
ing, said:
There's a mon here wild a child"
o Lord, it's come, said the pro-
fessor, the perspiration starting out
on his brow.
He went down to the sitting room,
and there he found the express mes
senger. The professor did not dare
to take his eyes off the man lest
they should fall on the queer bun
dled-up object on the sofa.
Professor" said the messenger,
there's the kid, safe and sound.
Brought 'er all the way myself.
She's jin-dandy, she is. Her trunk
is in the wagon. Wot'n 1 do with
to"
Bring it in and put it in the small
room up stairs"
While the man was out~of the
room the professor walked to the
empty fireplace and stood gazing
into it, painfully aware that his
every movement was solemnly OBJ
served by two coal-black eyes.
He could not have told how he
knew they were black; but he was
morally certain of it.
The man returned with the trunk
and deposited it in the small room
beside a brand-new iron bedstead.
That's all o. K, professor" said