The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1908-12-16
Her Child
o. Dreams
BY Frances Peck Barnes

/ vi many WCchS dIteT tue UdDy Ol0Q
the doctors despaired of Mrs. Man
sard's life. Motherhood had meant so
much to her.
Then had come the cruel tearing
apart. The wrenching of bonds, which
no human hand could have sundered.
The dull thud, thud of earth on a lit
Tie coffin, and then for time the
darkness Of utter oblivion. After
wards had come a terrible time of
FEVER and delirium for the mother,
whose motherhood was but a memory.
The fever passed, but in its place
was terrible weakness over which
the doctor shook his head gravely.
Il have tried everything in my
power, but to no avail. She pays not
the slightest attention to anything l
may propose"
And then-when every one had al
most given up hope-came Child O.
Dreams.
He came at a time when the world
was wrapped in slumber. He toddled
into Mrs. Mansard's firelit chamber
and with eager, baby steps hurried to
the bed where the woman lay with her
mournful eyes, which would not sleep,
fixed on the glinting freight. He bur-
rowed a warm little face into the list
less hand, then raised. two love filed
eyes.
Tate, muzzie Baby heepy."
Mrs. Mansard gathered the little
form into the warmth of her bed, cud-
ding the tiny feet and hands and
pressing ardent kisses on the tousled
baby head. There was no surprise in
any action of hers. Why, no. He
had been sent back to her, for God
was good and had understood. Not
real baby, of course, but precious,
comforting thing-one that was all her
own and of which no one else should
know.
Dear" she whispered, lust you
and me. Not even father must know,
for he would not understand Darling
Child O. Dreams"
The baby drowsily burrowed his
head under her arm and murmured in
his sleep.
The days wore on and Mrs. Man
sard improved with a rapidity that was
astounding. She ate and slept as she
had not done since her collapse, and
gained strength. The color once more
came into her cheeks, and her hus-
band fondly anticipated the time when
she would again be her own happy
self, and in hundreds Of little ways he
endsavored to fill the void which had
been left by the death of the baby.
But underneath all the Joy he felt at
the rapid convalescence of his wife
there was a puzzled feeling of unrest
and pain.
He noted that even when he was
reading to her or talking to her she
seemed scarcely to hear him. She
would lie with parted lips, her ex-
pectant eyes fixed on space. At a
question from him she would start,
then answer quickly-apoleget 1t
appeared-and he would regret having
spoken. Something intangible was
coming between them, and because 1t
was intangible the knowledge Of it was
all the harder to bear. They two had
been so much to each other at one
time, and she was so dear to him-so
dear. Alone in the stiffness of the
nights he suffered as strong men |
only can suffer. But his wife never |
guessed, for the face he brought to |
her was always cheerful In choosing |
her life partner Margaret Mansard |
had chosen well.
But though the mothers ears we're |
deaf to all save the prattling Of his |
own little voice, the echo of the ia
theirs suffering found its way to the |
knowledge of Child O. Dreams, and |
one night with a grave little face he
asked for "Favver"
He's sleeping, Child O. Dreams, re-
turned the mother with strange lit |
tie resentful note in her voice. Isn't |
mother enough?" she added, unable to
restrain that jealous contraction of her
heart.
Child O. Dreams looked at her with
great, reproachful eyes. The mother
was startled out of all inertia by their
searching gaze.
Baby! Child O. Dreams!" she
cried. Don't look at mother so.
Don't you love me, Child O. Dreams?
Don't your"
The baby nodded slowly. Then his
lips quivered. "Yove favver, too. Fav-
yer kyin," he said.
And then great wave of compre-
hensfon passed like a cooling hand
over the brain of Mrs. Mansard. The
face of Child O. Dreams seemed to
grow hazy and far away, and in its
place was the one of the man who had
been so much to her and to whom of
late she had been so little. A thou
sand things flashed over her memory.
How unfailingly patient he had been.
How tenderly his arms had Graded
her pain-racked body. How carefully