The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1911-07-11
ESTABLISHED 1876


| after Bessie just before supper.
All the rest OF the day she was very
busy preparing for her orphan visitor.
There was small bed to drag down
| from the attic ana place beside her
own, and it had to be made up with
all the miniature bedclothing which
she had used as child There were
old fashioned dolls and other toys to
be resurrected from hair trunks and
brushed and rebnrnished, and there
was batch of delicious ginger cookies
to be made so that she might fashion
dozen gingerbread men and elephants
with currant eyes for the deIectation
of little Bessie
At last when all was in readiness
and the little girl had been happily
transferred to the phaeton and allowed
to drive the gentle pony home there
was never such unalloyed bliss as
shone In the faces of Miss Belinda and
her little orphan The child loved Miss
Belinda and chung to her with affec-
ton when she had chance. and Miss
Belinda was almost ashamed of the OPP
portunities she afforded Bessie for
showing her affection.
ut certainly can't harm anybody to
enjoy being loved" protested Miss Be
linda to her sterner self as she brush
ed away tear
rs you crying. Miss LindaT asked
Bessie wistfully.
Just teenty bit, dear, because you
love me SO much smiled Belinda,
bending to kiss her charge.
Il smile when you love me-" con-
f1ded Bessie. 1T makes me feel SO
good here" She placed tiny hand
on her heart. Miss Belinda kissed her
again
That happened after Bessie had been
there three months. The adoption
papers had all been made out and
fled and Bessie Carson had become
Bessie Downs when one Afternoon the
gate latch clicked sharply, ana tau
man strobe up the path and looked
strangely down at little Bessie playing
with her dolls at Miss Belinda's feet.
From her chair on the veranda Miss
Belinda arose with sinking feeling
at her heart. This man was not from
the home, although there was q
strange familiarity In his tall. lean
figure, his tanned cheeks, with the
firm, beardless lips and chin. He did
not look at Miss Belinda. but he push
ed back his hat and held out his
hands to little Bessie.
''Bess! Darling little Bessl Don't
you know daddy?" he asked hoarsely.
With startled cry the child looked
at him earnestly and then ran straight
to his arms with the unfaiIing instinct
of the child for its parent
Then the man looked up and saw
Miss Belinda standing, white and
shaking, before him I'm sorry,
ma'am. but it's my little girl, and
Mercy! Linda Downs. what are You
doing here with my BessieY
In the long. cool twilight there was
time to relate how james Stearns had
married the girl he had been engaged
to when Belinda Downs met him In
the west so many years ago and they
had both fallen in love in spite OF
bis previous engagement. but he had
been true to his promise and married
the girl who had been Bessie's moth
er; how one of the devastating foods
OF the west had separated the little
family for months. and at last the
wife and child had gone east In the
hope of finding some Of Mrs Stearns'
relatives. She had been taken Ill in
New York, registered by mistake IN
der the name Of Carson. had died ana
left the homeless little Bessie to the
care of stranger hands
In the meantime the distracted ia
Their had been hunting high and low
for his family. He had traced them
to New York, had proof of his wife's
death and now had come to Little
River to find that an all wise Provl,
dence had brought his little daughter
into the empty. longing arms of the
one woman in the world who could be
his wife now
When Emeline Brown heard of it
she chuckled audibly. Don't never
min at orphans again. Belinda
Downs" she admonished the bride.
You're under debt Of gratitude to
ne for pressing Of you to take one"
But Belinda and her orphan-or-
ohaned no longer smiled contentedly
1t the man they both loved best In the
unrld