The St. Johns herald., 1898-10-22

r N the Baptist Orphan Asylum of a
 small town in Vermont Lizzie Mac
 ready was known as No. 6. The name was particularly fitting for mOre reasons than one. Lizzie was the youngest child in a family of six. She was the sixth orphan who had been ad- mftted to the institution in the sixth year of its establishment. Her father was a locomotive engineer on the Ver- mont Central Railway. Lizzie, the youngest child, was years old when he was killed in a collision, and brought home a corpse to his little ones. His eldest daughter had been keeping house since the death of her mother, and soon after the father S demise she married section boss. The children were scattered among friends and relatives. The boys had found good homes and were all at work earn ing money, Lizzie was taken into the orphanage, of which her aunt, kindly, middle-aged woman, was matron.
 Nobody objected to this arrangement, for Miss Sanders stood very high in the esteem of the townspeople, who thought 1t but right that the youngest child of the dead engineer should be cared for at the expense of the county, since all the others had not become burdens on their charity.
 Number Six grew up a likely girl amidst the orphans of the place, and now, at the age of 16, she was quite a help to her aunt, who still continued in charge of the countys waifs. All who had been there when she was toddler were gone. The girls had sought ser vice with the townspeople, the boys were at work in the fields. Lizzie was taking upon her young shoulders the cares which burdened the white-haired woman who had been a mother to her.
 At this time there was not an empty bed or cradle in the institution. An open winter, something unusual in the rigorous climate of the Vermont hills, had depopulated the firesides and filled the graveyard. For years there had not been infants in the home until this winter. Now there were two, a boy and a girl The former was the son of the schoolmaster. The girl was poor washerwOman's child. Bud, the male Infant, was robust enough and thrived as successfully among strangers as he had in his mothers arms, but Bee, the charwoman's infant daughter, needed 8 deal of attention. This little mite of humanity had been christened Beat rice, to the great astonishment of ev- erybody. A washerwoman calling her child Beatrice, was an unheard of thing among the plain people of the Vermont hills. Maggie, Mary or Annie, wagged the gossips, would have been more suitable.
 Mrs. ROsSiter, the mother of little Be atrice, came to the Green Mountain town when her child was not quite a informed those who asked after her antecedents that her husband had died short time ago, leaving her in pov- erty. He had been a good man, she explained, but a years sickness had eaten up their little savings.
 
 and a few days before Christmas the mother was called away from little Bee, before she could indicate what she wanted done with her child. After the burial of Mrs. Rossiter, the baby was taken to the orphanage and placed In charge of Miss Sanders. From the first Lizzie Macready-Number Six took a violent fancy to the little one. Bee got all the coddling and fondling. She was such wee thing; so delicate and frail. Big blue eyes gazed wist- fully out of thin, pale face, and there was sad droop to the baby mouth, as If the child realized its forlorn condi- ton.
 For time after Mrs. Rossiter's con- Ing to Water Hollow, the gOssips in- dulged in talk about the legitimacy of little Bee. All doubts were set aside, however, when the Public Administra-