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

an emergency of sickness or accident
as this same John.
They pondered, these rough miners,
as TO what had made the man, as they
put it, " kind o. queer" For during |
the years that he had lived and worked
with them no word or sIgn of the life
that he had lived before had John ever
given them. Nothing of the wife and
child for whom he had worked so hard
had they ever heard.
1T was the month of October and the
mountains wore their purple and gold
on haze, preparatory to snowy winter
galb. Soon the little cabin would be
showed in and communication with the
town shut off. In anticipation of this
time.two of the men took a journey to
about this season of each year and
purchased the necessary supplies for
the coming cold weather. John was
almost always one OF these, for his
knowledge of household economy in
making the purchases was valuable.
Several days were occupied usually in
making this journey, aud this little Pc
riod of change and activity was well
coined by these men of the mountains
| and the woods.
One evening while his /" pard" was
absorbed in a game of cards, where the
bags of gold dust lay thick upon the
table, John wandered away through
the streets of civilization. The sun
was just resting on the horizon before
it babe good night to the pretty little
mountain town. And up and down
the street, lined with graceful trees
and cosy homes, were to be seen the
children in their happy play. And the
hour was full of peaceful foreboding
that the twilight brings to the tired son
of nan But of these things about
him John seemed to have little know,
ledge or care, until one of the homes
he passed by seemed for a moment tC
attract him. 1t was a low cottage
standing in the midst of a flower deck
ed lawn, and over its windows climbed
and bloomed the honeysuckle. The
sight of it stirred something in the
= breast or brain of this man, as If {
dream forgotten had almost come bacl
, to HIM. He looked again at the house
s and from the rear of 1T, chasing joy
f fully in pursuit of n playful spaniel
came a golden-haired child, very fan
to look upon.
: AS she ran on toward the walk il
front, keeping close after her playfel
low, a woman stepped out into tn
G broad porch under the ~honeysuckl
1 and called to her:
il "Madeline, corue-its supper time
f Observation-Disclosures In a flash tn,
r curtain of darkness lifted from TIL,
p mans brain, and the life that he ha,
s forgotten all came back to him, 8n,
the magic word, the name of his owl
little girl, spoken by another mother t.
another Madeline was the key tina
> started the wonderful wheels o
y memory. The joy of feeling, remem
t boring, of living, was his again.
The on the porch was almos
s frightened when she saw the strange
rough man take her little girl in hi
g arms and kiss her p%assionately. An,
G the child was frightened, too, at tn
G expression on the mans tace-so fierce
so passionate, as he compelled his re
O creant memory to bring back to hin
e that which it had hidden all thes
}, years. He turned and left the child, VIII
ran to her mother, not q little shaker
by her strange friends actions.
-Four days later the darkness wa
turned to light and the mourning t
|, joy, and his own Madeline's question
had been answered. And a week late
g from the Madeline IN the East to tn
n Madeline in the West there came a DO,
containing the most beautiful of Frenc'
dolls, and with it was a note which eX
planned LOW she of the West ha
o found a father for she of the East.