The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-06-22
Stories of an inland State.


prises Is her occasional presentation to par
ents Of physical and mental inferiority Il
a child. remarkable In the possession o.
those graces in which they are most de
lnquent
Old 81 Matlk.n and his wife had been
vehicle Of Natures demonstration 70 arriv,
at astonishing results. They had been mar
ried years before and the first anc only
child had come early. 81 Matkin had beez
; mo good He had run little stores and
failed tnnumerable times. He had tried
coal mining at one time. photography al
another and wasteful speculations in rea
estate without end, until he was driven al
| las: to a farm And here he had been fol
years making q meagre living for himself
and his wife. for they had left this child
| behind them The child was girl, a cir
of golden hair and large brown eyes and
they had named her Belle Driven back
by the onslaught Of adversely eager in find
ing its opponent shiftless. this couple had
| been forced to retreat to the farm. II
" as then that the true little mother rebeled
! She believed that starvation would meet
and overcome them II they remained In the
! city, bu. her whole motherly solicitude pro-
tested against dragging child of such ex-
cellence into the dwarfing atmosphere OF
rural rearing.
She insisted that she would make the sac
riice of parting forever with her child in
order that the child might have the proper
advantages. She would give 1t UP. Would
let some one adopt the girl. Belle Matkin
was at this period of her life six years old
and her schooling was to begin.
a. - s-A- -
lor Of her crowded little home and shown
to handsome gentleman with fine shin
ing hat resting with its brim upon his
wrist. And he had asked her her name
and her age and patted her cheek. She
thought him very fine gentleman indeed.
She remembered this all very well. But
she did not remember that that night her
mother stopped and wet her face with kisses
ard tears and that she was bundled into a
carriage and driven into another section
OF the city. But she remembered awaking
the next morning and finding herself in a
great fine room and seeing a gentle woman
near her and desolately feeling that her
own mother was nowhere about She had
been dressed and shown all about her new
home, but with all it's finery she preferred
her own her old home and her own her old
mother. So she had wept and wept again,
and happiness wos forced into her face By
brides of candy, and by toys, until she
came to like her new home immensely ana
TO think of her old surroundings and her
first parents as a not too pleasant dream.
And as the years went by she came TO for
get them almost entirely and to thank her
stars that her lot had been cast differently.
For she was certainly happy here. AS she
had grown older she began to feel certain
superiority to her own flesh and blood.
She had advantages which they had not.
She blamed them with being unfeeling
enough, at any rate, to sell her as so much
merchandise. She blamed them for their
motive while thanking them for the results
of the sale. They were certainly beneath
her. They had given her the ridiculous
name of Belle. She always remembered
the circumstance Of its change with laugh.
Mr.. Everett. her nav papa, had suggested
a new name. Bertha, but she was SO young
she could not master that and so they had
compromised on Nell which was similar
enough to Belle to prevent forgetting and
dissim;lar enough not to be as tawdry
cheap as Belle.
For mary years her parents had lived on a
farm in the Western Reserve in Ohio. Once
year she had visited them. In the last
two years her parents had been living in
Kansas, after moving aimlessly about in
an effort to find prosperity which might
have come to them had they waited in one
place long enough.
She was now eighteen, a creature of splen-
did proportions, of superb carriage and
luminous beauty of face. She was idolized
by the man and woman who had adopted
her and reared her.
Conscious of a duty she owed her par
ents. slight as she believed that obligation
TO be, she had written them that she would
spend few weeks with them.
So in their little country home they had
for her coming. To speak more
correctly her mother had prepared for
her coming. for her father had received the
information of the proposed visit with
grunt indicating that he was to be worried
for few weeks as host TO a most particu- |
lad daughter, who had nothing In common |
with him whatever.
1t was five miles TO town from the Mat |
kins farm. Five miles out of a western |
town is long trip for closed carriage to |
make. But the town hack made the long |
trip today and those country people who |
Oy an apparition of a tangled mass Of cool |
avn reclining Idly on the seat.
This was Nell Everett. She watched the |
lusty weeds at the side OF the road whirl |
BY her, and brooding moment over the |
lreary land, stretching away to a horizon
which was picketed with wind-mills, sighed
and closed her eyes.
When the Watkins farm was reached, the
lriver came around and opened the door.
Watkins himself was in the field But the |
mother was there lingering her skirts with
nervous clutch and cycling the cab with
intense anxiety.
AS the daughter sprang from the carriage
md shook out the light, fluffy draperies OF
Ter dress there was IN the half-forward
attitude OF her old mother
world OF pathetic timidity.
The mother watched her approach with |
he same illy-concealed soLcitude and In
he nervous restlessness Of her hands dis
,layed how surely she believed that any
demonstration of affection uow would be
assumptions CT her.
Nell Everett came up 10 her old mother
nd with a parasol dangling IN one hand
nd a dainty bit of handkerchief crushed in
ne other bent over with a precision which
evealed the forrnality of the act. kissed
eg mother. who az once flushed deeply and
Ook her daughters hand t:midily. blissfully
nd LED her into the house.
Ard that daughter threw aside her wraps
nd stretched herself in chair and said:
II suppose you find il very warm out
ere
'oh. we struggled along" said the mother
lushing.