Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1896-07-09

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second between his
fingers and the third at his lips.
where's Nell?" he asked.
Down there piece, pickin' posies,"
answered Nan. preparing 10 follow her
brothers example with the doughnut.
But, suddenly, the tempting morsel
was put down. and the little girls face
was clouded as she turned to him.
Say, Jake, yer didn't steal 'em, did
yer?' she asked
The boys expressive face lighted up
with scorn.
4 "A-stealin' from herr" he cried, 'the
lady what gives us everythin' an lets
us call her mother! If that's your
cut, yer won't get me to hang on!
No, she guve 'em ter me just now, one
apiece. Where's Nell?" he repeated
He gave a shrill whistle
Then, seating himself on broad
stone doorstep beside Nan, he
munched away at his dainty and
watched the little figure coming up the
slope from the field, her arms full OF
daisies and buttercups. She was
laughing, and every now and then
burying her face for a moment in
these silver and golden treasures OF
childhood
Say, Man." said the boy, nobody
ever saw Nell with posies in her arms
before, did they? She looks kinder
pretty, don't she? Lots nicer'n when
she's luggin big heaps O. wood chips,
or that ole bag er pertaters she used
to have ter kite, an stop an cry cos
it was so heavy when her hands got
y all blue with the cold that wuz in the
winter, though. But this is sorter
strange, amt it now, Man,"
The child hitched little nearer her
brother. Say, now, Jake" she be-
gan, honest, do you think it's a
dream like the things Bill Wilcox
dreamed about, the time the pretty
lady got him to Sunday school an
they told him about heaven? I've hit
myself hard lots of times, but I've
never walked up any more"
At the window of the old farmhouse
1over the heads of the speakers stood
The sumner" to whom the children
rison, the farmers wife, and she had
offered to take three poor city children
for their country week. Her eyes
filled with tears as she stood listening
to the children's talk. Heaven! ah
how little they knew!
What do yer do that for?" went
on Jake's incisive voice to Nan. why
do yer want to wake up, Nan, an feel
lads boot-what's left of it-a-hittin'
yer, an tellin yer ter git out an earn
yer vittles? There amt nothin' O. that
Nkind here" he added "but l know it
amt a dream, cos I'm just as wide
awake z ever | wuz." And the boy s
bright eyes as they turned upon his
listener showed that this was saying
good deal But then, yer know"
he went on, maybe this is heaven
sorter beginnin', yer know. an bimeby
well get up ter the city the man told
us about that day."
ooh, no." cried Nell, making place
for herself on the step beside the
others, 81 don't want no city. An
look a-here, Jakey, here's the gold
crowns, an here's the little feathers
they make the angels wings Of" And
the child held up her buttercups and
pulled softly with her little fingers at
the white petals of the daisies. AN
then, it's just the way they said,' she
went on.
What dyer mean, Nell?" asked the
boy.
"The pretty ladies in the beautiful
q cloes; don't you remember when they
came down into our alley how they
told us that IL we'd be good we'd go
to heaven? An then we wuz real
good. Nan an me; an they told us
SO. An so, yer see, that's how we got
here"
Mrs. Morrison, standing at the win
dow listening to the three little
strangers to whom She had opened
her house and her heart, felt the tears
plash down upon her hand.
A tall man Of about forty-five, with
grizzled hair and beard, and a stern,
though handsome, face, came around
the corner of the house at the moment
and. catching Nell's assertion, sighed
heavily. Had she heard it?
His eyes swept the side of the house
and fastened upon the face of the
woman at the window. All, yes, she
had heard il also. The prattle of the
children had recalled to them what
they had once believed of this home
that If not heaven, ii was as the boy
had put it. a beginning of this. And
6nowl "a :. tho other steadily 70,
one long moment, and the eyes of each
said to the other:
"Alasl what mockery OF heaven /:
tbis-and not through me-"
At last the woman turned away and
disappeared in the house and her hus
hand went on down the hill without
a backward glance.
The children had not noticed either
one. Jakey went on to expound his
theories, unconscious that he hat
touched to the quick two hearts II
which long had dwelt that spirit o
bitterness which makes life anything
k,t haavan Roth husband and Vile