The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1903-03-26

4sNEE EEf-HG.
denly a slight pressure from ithout
made her turn hastily. re, al
most at her feet, was a bund Of red
clothing, surmounted by q ock Of
l%ight-brown hair. The paiT5 Be inno-
cent eyes looking up at her lddenly
CLEANED with a newborn HND piness.
"Muzzer! Muzaer! Use find you
at last. Where's you beenI long?
Baby's been cryin' an cryin ar you.
Hug baby, an tell him youd aebber,
nebber leave him again.
A pair of arms raised Be
seemingly upward. D6rothy picked
the little child up in aser arms and
Rugged, and kissed it. 5The longing in
her heart for some o1Ile to- love and
speak to was almost tao much, and
she broke into a violent sobbing. The
child cuddled close tos her and said:
Don't cry, muzzer, fur won't leave
you ag'in. Use goin,t to stay forebber
an ebber with you'd
The hands, chubby and warm,
stroked the hair Of the weeping wo-
man. Dorothy raised her eyes to
look at the little face pressed to
hers, and then she started. "A dozen
feet away stood Henry Egerton, an
expression of confusion and uncer-
tainty on his face.
He raised his hat and said:
Pardon me, I've come for Virginia.
She a away, and I could not catch
her until she crossed-crossed over
here"
Dorothy still held the child in her
arms, and Virginia suddenly ex,
claimed:
Use found muzzer! TIE found
muzzer, Uncl' Hen'y. Here she is"
The face of the man worked
strangely. A s%oftening of the firm
outlines made him look tender and
sympathetic.
Poor Virginia lost her mother q
week ago." he murmured, "and she
has come to live with me. I could
not bear to tell her the truth. But I
suppose I was wrong. Come, Vir-
ginia, come with Uncle Henry"
"Not unless muzzer comes too,"
pleaded the child.
The embarrassment of the man in
creased. Dorothy, understanding the
position of the two, suddenly raised
her eyes from the shock of brown
hair and said quickly:
"Leave the child with me a short
time. She is happy, and II need
some one"
There was a break in her voice, but
she continued with more self-control:
"But l must GO away for a doctor.
Father is very sick, and he needs
help and medicine"
Henry Egerton had been thinking
of the picture the two made framed
in the doorway, and he started at the
mention of her father. Then, ap-
parently without thinking, he said:
"I'll go for the doctor if you'll keep
Virginia until T return. I'll be back
soon."
He strobe away rapidly without
glancing again at the picture, which
somehow had strangely affected him,
and within ten minutes he was riding
fercely toward Oklahoma City. Dur
ling the ten miles he h~arlllygsAw an
object on the landscape, and when
he returned in company with the
physician he was quiet and taciturn.
Virginia and Dorothy were not in
the doorway to greet him on his re-
turn, but unmindful of the fued be-
tween the two families, he strobe
into the small shack behind the ply
sician. Then, while that individual
examined his patient, he waited pa
tiently at the foot of the rude bed,
furtively watching two faces which
seemed ~inseparably associated to-
gether.
Jared Wellington was a long time
in bed, and the fever wasted him to a
skeleton. Nature had robbed him of
the power and strength to protect
his shack from the approach Of the
enemy. But before his complete re-
covery the dead line" had been OBJ
liberated. The little footsteps of Vir-
ginia had worn a smooth path across
it from shack to shack, and often
Henry Egerton followed after his
tiny niece, "to go an see muzzer.'
Somehow. there was as much attrac-
ton for him as for the innocent child,
who had found in it's bereavement
another who quickly healed the
wound.
Then n day Henry Egerton
walked to the old shack with lines
drawn tighter around his mouth, and
with eyes hardened to bear a new
burden. The decision of the courts
in their respective claims had been
handed down. The ownership Of the
valuable quarter-section was decided
forever. Beyond the hearing of the
convalescent man, who sat in the sun
in the doorway, Egerton told the
news to Dorothy. Under the blunt
announcement she paled and flushed
by turns. Then pity for the drawn
face before her made her exclaim:
"Oh, I'm sorry for you, Mr.. Eyer
ton. I think you should own half
"No, it was all or none Now the
courts have decided it all belongs to
your father. I'm an in%terloper, and
must leave at once: You have the
right to order me off before night.'
"But I won't do it, Mr.. Egerton,''
Dorothy replied, with a bright smile.
"You can stay as long as you like"
"No man could do that unless he
Observation-Disclosures you will let me
uyNr1r fha r1aoa for ,yo,, r .-..11 49,