The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1902-03-19
THE TWO
MADELINES

WnlCn eAIoto Ohly III thO eh"pSN
minds of children-of all ages.
Even harder to answer han that I'M
answerable question were the sincere
blue eyes raised with questioning look
to her own; and Alice Newcomb, as ii
seeking an answer to give the trusting
child, whose he 4 nestled so lovingly on
her bosom, looked out of the window
to the sunshine and the birds and all
the pretty growing things and sought
in vain for an answer.
Why had he left them? The ques'
ton that had never left her mud by
night or day for five years; the harass-
ing, stinging, burning question which
it seemed to her was branded into her
very soul. Her last thought each
night, her first at dawn, haunting her
dreams by night and her work by day,
never forgotten, always unanswerable:
Why had he left them?"
The village had known no happier
home, had never contained within its
boundaries q cosier nest than the c.
tage where now sat the lonely woman
with the winsome child lu her lap.
The sunshine peeped through the
h~oneysuckle and into the room where
these Two sat, Just as John Newcomb
Hhu huOWIt IL WOulu "hSh WiGh lilo
hand he had planned and built
the little home, full of hopes and pur-
poses for the future.
Their married life had been of unu-
sual aud perfect content. Lovers for
many years, they had waited until
Johns prospects as q partner in the
firm of Newcomb Il Miller, carpenters
and builders, gave them assurance of
H~nroso1 oofotu and thnn fhov had
married and settled in the prettiest of
cottages, almost before Alice could be-
lieve it true. Three happy years had
they spent in their home, during which
an added Joy had come to them-the
little golden-haired girl whom they had
named Madeline. She was a beautiful
and an ideal child, born of the love of
a perfect and a happy home, and her
coming had filled to the brim the cup
of happiness which life held TO the lips
of John and Alice Newcomb. John
Newcomb was a manly man, as the
men who said who worked for and
with HIM, he was " every inch a man."
And with every inch of his many
inches, for he was more than six feet
tall, did he love +" his GIRL" Alice, and
his baby, Madeline. To all that was
rough and burly and hearty In him did
the dainty little girl appeal, with the
unconscious strength of girlhood. The
first word and the first step and the
first tooth were events w to be for
gotten in John Newcomb's life, so
tightly about his heart did the little
Madeline weave the meshes of love,
giant meshes woven by baby hands.
The partnership prospered, the cot
tage was almost entirely paid for, and
Johns reputation for the practical part
of his work, as we'll as the theoretical,
for ne had been known as an excellent
draughtsman, grew apace, and was the
source of some modest pride to John
and of much wlfely pride to Alice.
The homecoming Of John at night
was the joyful part of the day to all of
them, and as the little II grew to
more of the pretty ways and words of
babyhood and childhood, more and
more did John look forward to the
restful evening time at home.
One night, 1t was soon after Made
line had reached her third year, and
had had u " beefday party" something
happened that had never happened be-
fore. John did not come home.
Never before had such a thing oc-
CURED. He was experimenting the
work of a handsome school building in
a neighboring city. 1t was a contract
the firm had been proud to get, and he
he had gone down to supervise
the work in person, coming home each
night. AS the hours went by Alice
first became alarmed, but her perfect
faith in John and confidence that
nothing but the missing of his tram
could have delayed him, soon quoted
her fears, and, like the innocent baby,
she soon went to her rest.
Poor Alice. 1t was the last peaceful
and perfect day that had been granted
her. Five years of torment had she
lived through, and yet John had not
come home The love for her child
and his had held her to life and sanity
the work of her hands, with some aid
from her friends, had kept the little
home.
And the sun shone in at the windows
and the honeysuckle grew and bios
dened and a lovely woman, with the
fair child in her arms.
The fall of a heavy stone archway in
the building, where he had fingered
alone That night, going over the W0lk
of his men, a crash of stone and brick
upon a man when none were by to see
and tell of it, hours of lying uncon-
scious in the darkness in the chill DC.
tober night, had blotted from this
mans mind all memory of the past.
When in the early dawn his conscious
ness returned his mind was as totally
without memory as that of the new
born babe. The home that he had
built, those dearest to him, the center
of all his thoughts and hopes, the
ambitions OF the past, were all as
though they had not been. In the
chill gray morning he arose as one who
dreams, walked aimlessly through the
deserted streets, and when a Numbering
freight train drew heavily into the lit
tie station, without idea of time or
place or season he climbed aboard and
was borne eastward.
~
About the fire in q miners cabin in
the far West sat four men. They
were clad In rough clothes and were
lOunglng about in the easiest attitudes
that occurred to them, finding comfort
In their pipes of tobacco after the hard
work of the dav. One of thaae eone.