Los Angeles herald., 1908-05-31

While she and Mrs. Lockland sat that evening
on the gallery, busy with their little tasks there
fell upon Mrs. Lockland a long, dreamy silence
in which her needles fell from her hands, and
without seeing her, her eyes fastened long
and earnestly on her companion. Mrs. Morton
made no comment but with her own silence hu-
mored her friends mood
II have told you" Mrs. Lockland said at
last, "of the long, long quest in which have
spent so much of my life." Her voice was low and
unsteady and her words came with measured
slowness that indicated pain. II don't know why
] have not told you--it is no secret Il would not
make 1t one If could)-unless it Is that the bur-
den sometimes bears SO heavy that would not
add to 1t the weight of words. You may wonder
why, for fifteen years, 1 have every summer as
regularly migrating bird, returned to these
mountains. You will no longer wonder when
tell you that around them center some of the
sweetest memories that ever tenanted my brain.
my youngest sister for the five years of her mar
ried life, lived in this very neighborhood. Her
husband owned large interests in the quarries
and to better attend to these interests came here
to live; and Eleanor would hear of other
arrangement than to make this too her home
Where 1t was best for him to live, was best for
her she stoutly averred; and the logic
pleasant to her husband that he made little demur
and built of the plateaus Gts ruins may
still be SEEM pretty little home that was as
veritable nest for happiness as was ever reared
by mortal hands One child was born to them,
little girl that like flower, grew and expanded
into strength and beauty up in these mountain
heights like sprig of edelweiss or bunch of
violets.
"Nothng-distance place years. have dimmed
the beautiful picture, her youth and tenderness
and gentle ways boldly outlined on this back
ground of massy hoariness. Her mother was one
day suddenly summoned to the bedside of her
husband, who returning from business absence
had fallen sick in New York. She obeyed the
summons with all the speed she could command
and reached him before his death, for it proved
his deathbed to which she had been summoned.
Accompanied by her child and her nurse she made
the journey in safety till they reached the city
md In he doylr ond xud Of fhn
(for emigrant trains debouched just as they
entered) they were separated
"They never met again, for after year of an
guish and distracted search, my sister herself
taken and in her dying hour bequeathed me this
as yet unended quest And have been true to the
trust, through agents or in person l have gone
from place to place, sparing neither time money
in it's prosecution when the least hope cleaned
that success would crown my efforts. No clew has
come to us-only once rumor that child
had been aboard steamer bound for New
Orleans who had with her parrot that she called
Iippo and our child wnen last seen had with her
her pet of that name. The long, long years that
have passed since then" continued Mrs. Lockland
after unbroken silence, "have not robbed me
of my longing, has the futility of my search
made its continuance any the less an obligation.
But sometimes" and her voice grew thick and
her eyes filled with tears, sometimes despair
tugs at my hope and fears distress my faith. But
l still have hope still pray that God will give
her back to us. But why do I trouble you
with this? Why do l impose ON you burden
you can not bear? You can not help me, you
can not restore her"
Mrs. Morton made no reply She sat like a
marble in whose not sound had
entered No sympathy, no comment even escaped
her lips. All the while Mrs. Lockland had been
telling her story she sat one dazed, her eyes
fixed on the recounteur, her ears alert for every
word From the very beginning of the narration
she believed the lost child was her Nellie. Had
she not been found in New Orleans? Had she
not in the delirium after her fall talked to and
fondled parrot, calling it Zippo. AS distinct