The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-12-07

covery for Wala. but he received the news with indifference. An aunt? Why, that was almost the same thing as mother!
 But the lady he called mamma did not think so, and she tried her best to make the little fellow understand how, instead of mamma, she became auntie. It happened a very long time ago when Wala was only little boy.
 Big as that?" he asked, holding his hand few feet above the floor.
 ''No smaller than that" Wala looked surprised.
 Big as my kitten?" he asked again. pointing to a tiny kitten which had recently been given to him, so tiny that it could sleep in the smallest bas- ket Wala had.
 "Yes, just as big as that"
 WaIa laughed; then, becoming seri- ous, he said:
 But I must have been very ridicu- lous then"
 So, continued the lady he called mamma, when he was as big as the kitten and very ridiculous looking in- deed, the strange lady had brought him to her and given him to her for eyed and ever-and now that he was grown big and wise she wanted to take him back
 Would you like to go away with herr"
 ''No, she displeased me-" said wala truthfully.
 Then he went on with his reading.
 But the strange lady with the white face and black dress had left behind her an atmosphere of sorrow that filled the formerly happy house. The aunt mamma cried great deal, and both she and the uncle-papa asked the little boy great many times whether he would like to go away with the | strange lady.
 One night after Wala had gone to bed he heard his uncle and aunt talk | ing in the next room. His uncle's | voice sounded so loud and angry that the crystals in the, chandelier rattled again.
 You are talking perfect nonsense, ! my dear" he was saying. "We have 1 no right to dispose of the lad one way or another. But do you know what ! she has had to liyeson ever since that brute left her?''
 "But she loves him dearly-"
 "Well, don't we love him, too? You are really very peculiar in what you say! One would think you wanted to have him taken away"
 "oh Grigori, how can you say SO? | But perhaps you are unjust to her. Think! She is so horribly alone" l ''Katia, you are enough to enrage a saint! Is it so indifeeret to you wheth- CT the boy grows up honest or scoun- drel?"
 "Oh, love him sol" cried the aunt mamma, bursting into tears. The unele-papa soothed her fondly, berating himself for stupid donkey.
 Then the door was closed and Wala heard no more For long time he lay awake, rocking his little brain to who wanted to take him away and make scoundrel of him.
 The next morning he waited in vain 1 for some one to ask him if he wanted to go away with his mamma" but no one spoke to her. They only looked at him in pity-as if he were sick and go- ing to die. And they brought him new books with big colored pictures.
 The days passed and Wala's fear of . the big, black lady constantly in- creased, though he never spoke of her. Only he had dreams at night and that made him feel strangely during the day. He was very silent and spent a great deal of time reading 8 story about beautiful mermaid who died to make some one else happy. Poor mer- maid, with such lovely golden hair!
 At last one morning, when he was breakfasting with his aunt-mamma Wala heard his uncleLpapa cry joyful ly, in a voice that ran through the house:
 "The tribunal has refused to give the