The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-08-31

BY JAMES WHlTcoMR RILEY.

! wan face back with an imperious air,
she exclaimed sententiously: IVY, Mary
Alice Smith is me-that's who Mary Alice
Smith ISL
| 1t was not long, however, before her
usual bright and infectious humor was
restored. and we were soon plotting the
little stranger here and there about the
house, and laughing at the thousand
funny things she said and did. The wind
ing stairway in the hall quite dazed her
| with delight. Up and down she went
hundred times, it seemed And she would
talk and whisper to herself, and often
times would stop and nestle down and
rest her pleased face against a step and
pat 1t softly with her slender hand. peer
| ing curiously down at us with half
averted eyes And she counted them and
named them, every one, as she went up
and down.
I'm mighty glad I'm come to live in
this here house." she said
We asked her why.
"oh, cause" she said, starting up the
stairs again by an entirely novel and or
iglnaI method Of her own" cause Uncle
Temps ner Aunt 'Lizabeth don't live
here; and when they ever come to git
their dinners, like they will ef you don't
watch out, wy, then, kin slip out here
On these here stairs and play like l was
climbin' up to the Good World where my
mother is-that's why!'
then we hushed our laughter, and
asked her where her home was, and what
it was like, and why she didn't like her
Uncle Temps and Aunt 'Iizabeth, and II
she wouldn't want to visit them some
times.
"Oh yes" she artlessly. answered in
reply to the concluding query; 'I'll want
to go back there lots O. times; but not
to see theml Tll-only-go-back-t
-to-see'-and here she was holding up
the little fared-out fingers of her left
hand. and with the index finger OF the
right touching their pink tips In ordered
notation with the accent Of every glee-
| ful word-'I'll- go-back-there-to
-see-Davfd-Maso effries-'c he
-the-boy-fer-mei" And then she
clapped her hands again and laughed in
that half-hysterical half musical way Of
hers till we all Joined in and made the
echoes of the old hall ring again. And
then" she went on, suddenly throwing
out an imperative gesture Of silence,
land then, after I've been in this here
house a long, long time, and you all git
SOS you like me awfui-awful-awfu
well, then some day you'll go in that
room there-and that room tnere-and in
the kitchen-and ont On the porch-and
down the cellar-and out in the smoke
nOuSe-anQ the lOrt-an0 all around
oh, ever place-and In here-and up the
stairs-and all them rooms up there-and
you'll look behind all the doors-and in
all the cubboards-and under all the beds
and then you'n look sorry-lilSe. and
holler out, kindo' skeert and you'll say,
-is-Mary-Alice- Smith, And
then you'll wait and listen and hold yer
| breath: and then somepinll boiler back,
away fer off, and say: 'Oh-she-has-
gone-homer And then ever'thing'll be
all stu ag'in and you'n De areared to
houer any more-and you dursn't play
and you can't laugh, and yer throat'n
thist hurt and hurt, like you been a-eatin'
too much calamus-root er somepin !"
And as the little gypsy concluded her
weird prophecy with a final flush of her
big, pale eyes, we glanced furtlvely at
one another's awe-struck faces. with a
superstitious dread CT a vague, indefinite
| disaster most certainly awaiting us
around some shadowy corner of the flu
ture. Through ell this speech she had
been slowly and silently cropping UP the
winding steps, her voice growing fainter
and fainter, and the little pixy-form fad
ing, and wholly vanishing at last around
the spiral bailister Of the upper landing.
Then down TO us from that alien recess
came the voice alone, touched with a tone
as of wild entreaty and despair: Where
-ia-Marv-Aice-Smi And thon a