Los Angeles herald., 1908-05-31

me-" she continued gazing toward the stony.
starcrowned head of Grandfather Mountain. II haze
looked upon your face before not pictured, not
in dream but with these very eyes. You have
not come to me in the night, but l have played
about your feet in the light of day! oh, mother,
1t is all plain now; 1t is all plain; I can see;
can understand. These lilies since first we came
here have talked to us-all of glory and grandeur
but to me they have said other things as well,
they have whispered to me some secrets of my
childhood and at night have sung me lullabies."
What need is there to tel-indeed how could
it be told-Mrs. Lockland's joy on finding her
sisters child Julians delight to learn that
the woman he loved ardently and to whom
he clung so unwaveringly when he found she had
been waif was none other than child of his
own house-was one of his own kith and kin.
There is link yet needed to confirm your
identity" said Julian one evening this happy
family party sat recalling everything they had
ever known or heard concerning those far-off days.
drawing out from the shadowy past every incident
and circumstance however trivial that in any
way might bridge the silence of the dividing
years. There is yet a missing link in our evil
dence" Julian continued which If furnished the
chain is complete"
"It is complete to me now," Mrs. Loclland
quickly interrupted
"And to me, too, assure you" replied Julian,
but I insist on supplying this missing link.
1t will make the chain but the stronger. I'm
enough your senior, Nellie, to recall the little
tot used to- play with; and remember distinct
ly as II it happened yesterday incident of our
childhood which left its impress on my mind and
a on your body AS l swung you back and
forth one day in our grape vine swing my earnest
ness got the better of my discretion and tossed
you too high You fell, and in your fall came
down in some shrubbery near, receiving wound
in your arm. l remember your palor and pain,
and nv fright and that our mothers concluded
the wound would leave a 1t was here-on
your wrist Let me see."
She pushed back the wristband.
"And it is you l have to thank for this, is it?"
she asked, pointing to a deep scar just where
he had indicated Her face was full of smiles and
bushes, and her censure not severe. Il have time
and again lamented this blemish," she continued,
''but if it is the link that makes complete the
chain of evidence that makes you my cousin, Mrs.
Lockland my aunt and Grandfather Mountain my
birth place l shall never again regret it."
There was a wedding that fall at Grandfather
Mountain. Julian declared other place
half so appropriate in which Nellie heartily con
Cured. And Julians and Neie's wishes in the
matter had to be regarded as Julian was the
prospective bridegroom and Nellie the prospective
bride.
'was ever in the world difficulty SO nicely ad-
justed" said Mrs. Morton after 1t was over. 81
have not lost my daughter but have gained a
instead.
'Nor have I lost my son." Mrs. Lockland
piled, "only found my longlost neice to hence
forth be my daughter" And Nellie did not forget
in her new happiness those who had befriended
her in her infancy New ties and new interests
did not erase old memories-the present with its
wealth of pleasure did not obliterate the past
with its obligations of love and duty to those who
had been kind to her. She suggested (and with
Julian a suggestion only was all needed for him
to do all in his power to compass her desire)
that their house should be built Colonel
Mortons that he and his wife in their age might
receive from her the tenderness they had given
her in her youth.
And as for Conrad-her honeymoon had not
waned before she began her search for him, in
which search Julian gladly Joined, eager to COM
pensate if a home and friendship could for the