The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-04
THE SPOILING OF
 SARAH JANE.
tBy Julia Truitt BishopJ


 Copyright. 1904, by Daily Story Pub. Co.
 Mir. Lawler cast a casual glance at the little cottage down at the corner-the cottage which he owned. and which his agent had rented two days before to q Mrs. Bryan, tall of figure and hard of hand. Surely there was a child sit- ting on the step He arose and looked closer. Yes-a little girl-an exceed insly small girl; though he saw now that her diminutive figure appeared smaller because she was hunchback. A white cat was winding and rubbing around her. For the first time since he had owned the row of cottages child held possession in one of them. and MT. Lawler was angry. This was too careless of Morton--he would see him about 1t at once. He would tear that row of houses down next year and make q vineyard there-or something perhaps a quiet grove. with high walls around it. where he could rest in the evenings
 Mir. Lawler had for some years been able to afford himself any little fancy he pleased. and it was one of his fan cies to dislike children: to steer clear of them whenever he could: to ignore them when he went to the houses of his friends; to see that they never in- truded on his grounds where he held state in the big. lonely house; and to make careful provision That no family with children should get into one of his cottages He had managed so carefully that this had been practically child less neighborhood. No boys rolled their hoops along the sidewalk by those cot tages; no little girls dresesd dolls on the steps; no baby patted its tiny hands m the wondow panes. Perhaps one req son for this was that there had once been a child in the big house, and after the mothers death he and the boy had grown further and further apart-had not understood one another, and had IT. nally come to division, so that MT. Law Ter had told the boy that the door was open and he could go. He had not dreamed that David would take him at his word-but there was no mother to stand between them now as she had done all the boys life, so David went and now MT. Lawler, the learned law yer. the eloquent speaker. sat In the pli- Jared portico of the big house ana scowied fiercely at a little girl on the step of the cottage at the end or the row.
 The next morning he saw her at clos CT range, He went past the cottage on his way to town, and just then sne flashed out of the door and sat down on the step with a sudden plump that attracted his frowning glance. She was carrying a bowl and spoon. ana the white cat was following with ex- pectation in every feature.
 Now, Sarah Jane," said the httle girl. in a high, thin voice. that seem ed to make her more elfish than before stand up an eat. an don't you spill a drop?'
 He could not help pausing to look- this tall, thin man who disliked emil dren-there was something so weird about the little girl on the step She was gravely extending a spoonful or milk to the cat, and the cat as graVeiy sat erect on it's launches, with both paws grasping the sides of the spoon; and. with eyes half closed and ears bent back, drank the milk with much rattling of a red tongue against the tip of the spoon. Ms. Lawler looked on with a portentous frown.
 'I should think you could find some thing more important to do than spoil ing Chat cat" he said severely.
 The little girl turned her large eyes upon him.
 she ain't spoiled!" she said. In the sharp little voice. shes an orphan an had to be raised by hand, an that's the only way she knows how to eat"
 That's all nonsense" said MT Law