Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Neb.) 1900-1930, 1909-09-16

were not always kind to you, were
they? 1 shouldn't wonder If they beat
o sometimes! But you will never bs
beaten any more. You shall lave a
nice little pony, and a cart, and flow
ers, and pretty clothes, and everything
that little girls like. 1 don't know
what they are, but whatever they are
you hall have them. So don't cry any
more! What a pretty name Pepeeta
is! 1t sounds like music when l say
1t. L have got the toughest name in
the world myself. It's a regular jaw
breaker-Doctor Paracelsus Aescula-
Plus! What do you think Of that, Pc
peeta! But then you reed not call me
by the whole of IL You can just call
me Doctor, for short. Now, look at me
Just once, and give me a pretty smile.
Let me see those big black eyes! No?
You don't want to? Well, that's all
right. L won't bother you. But l want
o to know that I love you. and that
you are never going to have any more
trouble as long as you live"
These were the kindest words the
child had ever had spoken to her, CT at
least the kindest she could remember.
They fell on her ears like music and
awakened gratitude and love in her
heart. She ceased to sigh, and before
the ride to town was ended had be-
gun to feel a vague sense Of happi-
ness.
This next few years were full of
strange adventures for these singular
companions. The quack had discov-
cred Nprtain o1,ao - 49, -o.x l--.
of the child whom he had thus ADOPT
ed, and was firmly persuaded that She
belonged to a noble family. He had
MADE all his plans to take her to Spain
and establish her identity in the hope
or securing a great reward. But lust
as he was about to execute this
scheme, he was seized by a disease
which Frustrated him for MANY
months, and threw him into a nervous
condition in which he contracted the
habit of stammering. On his ecove
from his long sickness he found him
self stripped Of everything he had ac-
cumulated; but his shrewdness and in
domitable will remained, and he soon |
began to rebuild his shattered fortune. |
During all these ups and downs, Pc |
peeta was his tnseparable and devoted
companion. The admiration which her |
beauty excited in his heart |
had deepened into affection and finally |
into love. When she reached the age |
OF 16 or II years, he proposed to her |
the idea Of marriage. She knew MOTH
ing Of her own heart, and little about
life, but had been accustomed to Yield
implicit obedience to his will. She con-
sented and the ceremony was perform
ed by a Justice of the Peace in the
city Of Cincinnati, a veal or SO before
their appearance in the Quaker village.
An experience so abnormal would have
perverted, If not destroyed her nature,
it not contained the germs of
beauty and virtue implanted at her
birth. They were still dormant but
not dead; they only awaited the sun
md rain of love to quicken them into
life.
The quack had coarsened with the
years, but Pepeeta, withdraw
ng into the sanctuary of her soul, liv-
ng a life of vagnue dreams and half
conscious aspirations after something,
she know not what, had grown even
more gentle and submissive. AS she |
lid not yet comprehend life, she did
lot protest against its injustice or it's
ncongruity. The vulgar people among
whom she lived, the vulgar scenes she
aw, passed across the mirror of her
oul without leaving permanent i'm
She performed the coarse
.uties Of her life in a perfunctory +
manner. 1t was her body and not her
oul, her will and not her heart which :
concerned with them. What that
n that heart really were, res '
to be seen. c
(To be continued.) [