The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1901-02-28

uown under a Douganvllea vine which
poured its cataract of purple over a
fountain. Little Ines, her mouth sus.
piciously smeared, sneaked here and
there among shrubbery ana wiped her
hands on her skirt, cycling her mother
guilty and swallowing.
lines, come" cried the mother, her
face dreamy, 81 must tell you-oh!
my little one-I must tell You at last
more about your father"
Ines, wide-eyed, half forgetting the
yellow haw and sweet potato jam
which filled her, crept up. She sat
down and curled her body, kitten-like,
against her mother; the latter's arm
encircling her.
''Nour father was good Your ia
ther was the noblest man in all the
earth"
Ines swallowed some final remnants
down under the arm.
"Your father-oh! Ines! Ines!--I
was jealous once!" She wept On
Ines fair cheek where the jam
smeared, tear fell.
81 made him wretched." cried her
mother-''we-we did not live to-
gether happily. lnes-we--oh. il was
all my fault | still love him."
She could say no more. Ines lay
with her head on the slender mothers
lap meditating. The long hour gone
by. it seemed the mother was hap
pier. She bent down. She kissed the
cheek. She tasted the yellow haw and
sweet potato jam.
Ines" murmercd she. with SOL
emn severity, tear-stained.
Ines knew it was all over. She got
up and wiggled sucking her thumb.
Floods of remorSe arose. broke in her.
Il sold the hand" burst forth she in
a storm of tears. 1t was one of those
anticipatory, reief-bringirg, inunda-
ting confessions.
There was suddenly presented to her
vision her mothers face-whitc. Ines.
seeing it through a mist of tears.
exaggerated its sorrow It seemed
horror-stricken.
What" cried the lady.
"Thc kuoc,ler- the hand," shriekcd
the miserable peuitent.
Ines, That hand was your fathers
hand"
The fatal words beat on the chid's
brain. Her dead fathers hand!
Could il he? She had heard of mum
mics. She had once seen a skeleton.
She. too. felt the horror. dazed. Then
a Sckly doubt, at which She clutcl ed,
made her smile in sickly manner Then
believing II in some fearful. mystic
rious way true. her blood was frozen.
The knowledge of that hideous crime
fell ON her. Six years of life had
taught her that miracles are real. She
had sold her own dead fathers hand,
'But-hut | thought il was gold"
silly child it could not he"
The little lips grew stiff. The eyes
stared tragicaIIy. Ines face was pale
as death, her mind cropping into II is
sepulchral possibility. but the
color of it," she barely WHISPERED.
scared as only child can he.
Her mother recalled that the brass
was a little furnished. She did not
understand Ines. "They all turn So"
murmured She, dreaming Of last
days. when hanging thus. as the sad
years 90 on"
The terrified Ines, her life wider
ness, sprang suddenly madlE away.
An these things with which he
ttt'd up the nome, at Ieast-aj lea #,
these | can keep, Wept the neither,
seated alone.
Ines. tiny ghost, Shiyering, crept
into the paWn-shop. The man there
was very fat and red, with the north
ol-9palh complexion and Jug OF
north-of-Hpan cider IN his hand. The
counters ana shelNeS were tu'l OF
secondhand things with tickets on
them goId-cmbroldered somhreros,
SILVER saddles mantIllas, cottee-urns,
everything. Ines could not speak.
she cfouched IN frozen misery under
the counter. The man Leaned far
over: ms lace appeared above her like
the moon.
What do you Want?' asked he and
grlnned.
'Ihe-the- Her whisper died,