Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-24

she had been sure was to be herS. one dreamed
too of a boy she had known, whose devotion
was inseparably interviewer with the past, and whom
misunderstanding and the years had Obhterated.
She could not begin defend herself that
There remained only regret-bitter and incessant
regret-fOr the self-sutflCienCy OF other days. AS
the shadows deepened, she remembered with I'M
abated bitterness the cruelty of that relative who
had deprived her OF her brthrght and spread before
her the ashes of the world She thought of the boy,
and wondered where he might be now and felt
glad mserably glad, that he would never know
what had come to her.
But 1oneliness-absolute, awful and entire lone
1ness-was slowly breaking the girls spirit. She
more and more beseechingly to the future. is it
possible she sometimes asked of herself, that
there is really white face this island of
my own people? l believe that could walk bare
footed a hundred miles just to look at it The
natives said that there Americans away off,
giving the of the different stations where
they were to be found; but Madeleine never under
took any such journey. They all men, of course,
and did not dream that woman of their own race
trod this same island.
Madeleine as she left the bamboo hut one morning
on her way school, called to Rosario to go to Tao
tai that day and get beef. She had heard
that they were to kill there and the desire to obtain
confident, overwhelming. She remembered of
having voiced a regret for milk. "Leche,
echoed the sonora; there was plenty of it. She
despatched the 1tuchacho and returned presently
With a lar full for Madeleine's ncreduous CON
sumption 1t had tasted odd; but the girl, know
ing herself to be overcritical of palate had drunk
through Rosario, that it milk indeed, the milk
of the carabao. The incident had aroused in Made
eine spirit of investigation, which from Rosarios
viewpoint as cook proved frequently trying. He
laughed now good-naturedly she earnestly en-
Joined caution upon him in his selection
Madeleine herself headed procession that in
creased steadily as each successive hut yielded up
its bare-footed aspirants The ch1ldrens parents
looked down with enigmatiCal faces from the open
second story of their houses. Indifferent tolerance
was the nearest Interpretation Madeleine could put
their attitude Rut the children. the
brown boys and girls, her heart went out to them.
Coming with sleek wet heads, dripping yet from
the dip that like the little brown birds they had
taken in the morning, clad in cd'iSdS spotless and
fresh, they could not be other than attractive;
for they were only children, dear trustful little
children, whose PlayfulTness even was tempered by
a wonderful dOClllty. 10 confront them after the
sullen reserve of their elders refreshing.
In school they persisted in committing everything
to memory-whole pages, after the Spanish fashion.
Lessons, which Madeleine gave out in history, only
the substance of which they could be expected
extract, doed back to her utter stupefaction
word for word In mathematics, this hereditary
method of absorbing information failing entirely
they sorely puzzled. Almost phenomenaly
quick of wit till the fourteenth or fifteenth year
they then halted for just there the mental high
water mark of the race was stretched, and to go
farther meant stupendous effort.
Yet could not be other than patient
Madeleine often reflected she looked down
upon her little alien flock playing, strangely
enough, TRANSACTIONS of the games that occupy
the children of her own land; for, despite their
Joyulness, there was singular pathos about these
little ones-the girls with scant mother hubbardS
for the smallest the historic caH1iSdS cut to the
wast-line for the mature, the hair of little
and big plastered and rigidly knotted midway
down the head; the BOYS in long white trousers
outside of which shirts of every pattern and color
in calico fell; upon the usually unstockinged feet of
both sexes, heelless slippers that tapped at
every step or the silt like wooden variety that
clicked in moving. The girl had thought enough
realize that something stupendous yet
to develop out of this vast system of learning to