Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1902-01-23
Ole TWO MADELINES
By JOHN CASTOR
Copyright 1902. by Daily Story Coz
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eff he loved us why did he leave
u.s." asked the child, with that logic
which exists only in the unwarped
minds of children-of all ages.
Even harder to answer than that I'M
answerable question were the sincere
blue eyes raised with questioning look
to her own; and Alice Newcomb, as
if seeking an answer to give the trust
ing child, whose head nestled SO low
ingly 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 mind by
night or day for five years; the har-
assing, singing, burning question
which it seemed to her was branded
into her very soul. Her last thought
each night, her first at dawn, haunt
ing her dreams by night and her work
by day, never forgotten, always unan-
swerable: Why had he left them?"
The village had known no happier
home, had never contained within its
boundaries a prettier or cosier nest
than the cottage where now sat the
lonely woman with the winsome child
in her lap. The sunshine peeped
through the honeysuckle and into the
room where these two sat, just as John
Newcomb had known it would when
with his own hand he had planned and
built the little home, full of hopes and
purposes for the future.
Their married life had been of I'M
usual and perfect content. Lovers for
many years, they had waited until
Johns prospects as a partner in the
firm of Newcomb & Miller, carpenters
and builders, gave them assurance of
financial safety, and then they 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 beau
tiful and an ideal child, born of the
love of perfect and a happy home
and her coming had filed 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 said who worked for and with
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 I'M
conscious strength of childhood. The
first word and the first step and the
first tooth were events never 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 he had been known as an excellent
draughtsman, grew apace, and was the
source of some modest pride to John
and of much wifely pride to Alice. The
homecoming of John at night was the
joyful part of the day to all of them,
and as the little one grew to more of
the pretty ways and words, of baby
hood and childhood, more and more
did John look forward to the restful
evening time at home.
One night, it was soon after Madeline
had reached her third year, and had
had ''beefday party" something hap
pened that had never happened before.
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
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 her confidence that nothing but
the missing of his train could have de-
layed him, soon quieted her fears, and
like the innocent baby, she soon went
to her rest.
Poor Alice. 1t was the last peace
full and perfect day that had been
granted her. Five years of torment
had she lived through, and yet, John
had not come. 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.
The fall of heavy stone archway in
the building where he had fingered
alone that night, going over the work
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 Oc-
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