River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1906-04-26
The Redemption
Of a HunChback
BY ELEANOR H. PORTER



I bought a curious old desk last
week at a still more curious old shop
on Third avenue That night, as was
gioating over my new treasure. |
CHANGED upon an inner secret drawer;
and there found-torn straight
across from top to bottom--a closely
written manuscript.
Carefully matching the jagged edges
together read this:
So her name is Alice! It's pretty
name-but what is thai to ne? What
have to do with pretty names or
pretty faces, or yet with pretty fan
cies?
Remember? What indeed, do | not
remember?-ah, yes; there are some
few things, after all | do not remem-
Der kisses, save those of compassion;
nor smiles, save those of pity. do
not remember romps and games, save
those that for me bore defeat.
I do remember eyes, my moth
er's eyes, always mournful when
turned on me; and other eyes, my
fathers, always quickly averted, II by
chance they met my own. There were
still other eyes, round, widely-opened,
curious, yet frightened, my playmate's
eyes, always following me about with
fascinated horror.
Was it the eyes that first told me
was not like other boys? Or was it
the Mirror? The Mirror was a fearful
thing of shifting lights and shadows.
1t reached from floor to ceiling in
mothers room, and it said that one
was small and ugly, and that ones
head set far forward on shoulders
that were high and squarely cut. 1t
said that ones back was not straight
and slender like Toms or Dicks or
Bills, but that it crooked and curved
and punched into a great round knot
below ones neck.
School? All, yes, remember school
1t was a thing of hard, high seats, and
of boys and girls, all tall, SO hopeless
ly tall; thing of large, round eyes,
all mirrors, and of romps and races
in which | alone had no part.
School was followed by college, and
college was but school intensified
When it was over | took up law.
And now from early morning until
late at night / work and study, save
that at four each day | walk in the
park. 1t was in the park this after
noon that / saw-Alice.
She sat alone on one of the seats,
and I stood for a long while watching
her from behind a screen of shrubs.
Fer pretty head was tilted back
against a tree trunk, and her brown
hair flashed golden in the sunlight that
came slantwise through the trees.
Some dainty worsted stuff of pale blue
lay in her lap, while her slender fin
gers toyed with two long knitting
needles of ivory.
BY and by a girl older than himself
came hurrying up.
did keep you waiting, Alice?" she
said
Alice! But what, indeed, have / to
do with pretty names, or pretty faces.
or yet with pretty fancies?
My brain is on fire, my hands trem-
BILE. and | can scarcely breathe; but /
must write, even though l am forced
to resort to my old trick of using my
left hand--my right wrist was
sprained to-day
/ must put this thing into words,
then look at them, study them, and
understand what they mean.
When / reached the park to-day,
Alice was already there. laughing and
playing with. kitten The ball was
half unwound so that long coils of
blue lay loosely over Alice's dress and
over the grass at her feet Suddenly
the kitten, with the ball between her
teeth, jumped to the ground bounded
across the path and the narrow strip
of grass and into the roadway beyond.
Alice, with a laughing protest,
sprang to her feet, and, passing the
blue thread hand over nand quickly