The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-03
THE TWO MADELNES.
BY JOHN GAsToN..

Icopyrfght, 1902, by Daily story Pup col \ E !. < < ! and the ambitions of the past, were all | as though they had not been. In the | chill gray nor iting he arose as one who
 dreams. walked aimiessly through the the | freight drew heavily into the little sta l tion without idea of time or place or | season he climbed aboard and was borne
 westward. | About the fire in a miners cabin in | the far West sat, four men. They were clad in rough clothes and were lounging | about in the easiest attitudes that oc- cured to them, finding comfort in their pipes of tobacco after the hard work of | tha day. One of these men, somewhat differing in appearance e. from the he rest est there were lines of suffering. But the unusual thing about the face was the | expression in the eyes; they were kind and sad eyes, but unless he spoke di- rectly to another, an expression, not of being hunted, but of hunting. dominated them. As if they were always seeking and never finding. This was John New, and talked of him among themselves. always ending by saying that there was something wrong-no doubt about that. That man had past. And yet the great ing any evil of him. No man in camp was so kind-hearted or half as enduring of hardship or trouble as was John. None of them was so patent when m drudxery. and none so helpful in 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 1t, kind O queer" For during the years that he had lived and worked with them no word or sign of the life he had lived before he had come to them had John eve: given. Nothing of the wife and child for whom he had worked so hard had they ever heard.
 It was the month of October and the mountains wore their purple and golden haze, preparatory snowy winter garb. Soon tho little cabin would be showed in and communication with the town shut of. In anticipation of this time two of the men took journey to town about this season of each year and pur- chased the necessary supplies for the coming cold weather. John was almost always one of these. for his knowledge of household economy was of value in making the purchases. Several days were occupied usually in this journey and this little period of change and ac- tivity was welcomed by these men of the mountaini and the woods.
 One evening while his 'pard was ab- sorbed in game of cards, where the bags of gold dust lay thick upon the streets of civilization. The sun was just resting on the horizon before it bade 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 ot peaceful foreboding that the twilight brings to the tired son of man, But of these things about him John seemed to have little knowledge or care. until one of the homes he passed for a moment seemed to attract him. It was low cottage standing in the midst of a flow pr-nAple6 and ifa windows climbed and bloomed the honeysuckle. The sight of 1t stirred something in the breast or brain of this man, as if a dream forgotten had almost come back to him He looked again at the house and from the rear of it chasing toyfully In pursuit of a playful spaniel, came golden-haired child, very fair to look upon.
 As she ran toward the walk in front, keeping close after her payfellow, wo- man stepped out on to the broad porch under the honeysuckle and called to her:
 Madeline. come-it's supper time
 Madeline-Madeline! In flash the cur tain of darkness lifted from the mans brain and the life that he had forgotten all came back to him. The magic word. the name of his own little girl. spoken by another mother to another Madeline was the key that started again the won derful wheels of memory. The joy of feeling, remembering. of living, was his again.
 The woman on the porch was almost frightened when she saw the strange rough man take her little girl in his arms and kiss her paSSionately. And the child was frightened. too, at the expression on the mans face-so fierce, so passionate as he compelled his recreant memory to bring back to him that which it had hid den all these years. He turned and left the child. who ran to her mother, not a little shaken by her strange friends ac- uons.
 Four days later the darkness was turned q hp iY1r tn ioty and his own Madeline's question had been answered. And a week later from the Madeline in the East to the Made taining the most beautiful of French dolls, and with it was note which ex- plained how sine of the West had found Ia father for she of~the East.
 by c. R. Cassady