The Red Cloud chief., 1901-04-12
Observation-Disclosures
!: Hopkins Youngster !:
eu Eycrsrd Jack Appleton.
y HE was a very pretty child,
. with the customary bright vel
y low bnlr-whlch would turn to
eu Evcrsrd Jack Appleton.

-
y low balr-which would turn I,
brown In few years -ant
blue eyes that were even on their way
to becoming gray. but though she un
doubtedly resembled Hopkins In many
ways. she was but n child. Her moth.
er and father had both died one winter
In the South. more than n year ago,
and Hopkins, being the child's uncle
on its mothers side. had taken II for
his own because there seemed to he no
one else to take 1t. All Hopklnss peo-
pie were dead. also. or abroad for In.
definite periods. and remembering.
with shudder. the crudlty of the
child's fathers relations, Hopkins
knew that his sister would never rest
In her grave IL he allowed them to
bring 1t up. So he did n queer thing.
as he was more than apt to do. and
took the little girl to bring up himself.
Not that he attempted the thing sin
gle -handed-that would have been too
wild an undertaking even for Hop.
kins; he simply brought her home. and
his faithful old housekeeper and her
daughter took the little one I'm hand
while he treated her M if she were his
daughter, and consequently was not
bored by her presence a great deal.
She was three years old when she
came to him. and inside of six months
she was calling him Papa" quite as IL
she had never had another such rela.
tive, and Hopkins. having a lurking
fondness for children, rather encOur-
aged her to do so, though pretending
to himself that II annoyed him.
Very few of his club friends knew of
his eccentricity In this case. but those
who did, and who saw him driving
with her every pleasant afternoon In
the park smiled and murmurcd
There Is Hopkins with his youngs.
ter. Queer chap, he" and passed on.
Now, added to his love for children
Hopkins loved home life, and being a
young man who had seen comparative.
ly little OF that life. he naturally ideal
lied what little he knew of It. When
the youngster came to his house and
made broad beam OF sunlight wher.
ever she went, that idealizatlon grew
even larger, and he wished I'm truth
she were his daughter and that Kath.
crime. But here Hopkins smiled
and stopped thinking.
He was In love. of course. There
had never lived Hopkins In all the
generation of Hopklnses that had not
been In that condition during the
greater part of his life. but Hopkins
was quite sure that though his ances-
tors had been ardent lovers all. none
of them could have cared for their
chosen ones as he cared for Katherine
IA fact which he impaired to them
one night as he sat in the library and
muscd on the subject after the young
ster was safely put to bed. And the
only answer those respected ancestors
made was to let quiet smile spread
over each ana every one of their paint.
and'canvas faces. and broaden in the
iirelights pleasing glow.
But though their descendant was not
ordinarily a coward. and quite as self.
possessed as most young men of his
set. when 1t came to saying those same
fervent words TO Katherine herself,
lie found IL just a little more than he
could muster courage to do The aw.
ful possibility of failure stared him 50
constantly In the face that II he did
not tremble In his physical knees when
lie thought o. 1t, he undoubtedly did 50
In his astral counterparts. Yet when
ever he went around the square To see
her. as he did very regularly now, he
invariably started down the steps with
the firm determination to ask her and
have IL over with, and he invariably
came back with that strong resoly,
done up In splints, ms IL We're. and q
feeling Of self-contempr, mingled will
sclf-pity, embedded in his mind
But one night-it was one OF tn,
nights when he did not go To see Kath
crime. and which had been spent will
the youngster In an extremely noIs,
and romping. hut entirely happy. man
ner--a great idea came to him. and th
idea bearing upon the subject a,way
uppermost in his mind nowadays. h
began the next day to develop an,
nurse, and enlarge 1t. and get ready l.
make IL of use to him.
The next day but one that idea hay
ing been made the most of, he cam
home early in the afternoon. and in
structing Mrs. Higgins, the house
keeper, to put on the youngsters bes
bib and tucker, he ran up stairs to hi
room. where he found his own clothe
properly laid out by his f, thful mar
In the course of an hour hp reappeare
and at the foot of the stair, found tn
youngster waiting for him, ooking eS
ceptlonally pretty in n dainty llttl
gown he had not seen befo."
I'VE will be back in an uour or s,