The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1915-08-04

Long Drive INTO tne Wooue'
81 nave never seen you be-ore,' he
said, but | am very fond of little
girls, and since | have none OF my
own / do not propose to lose sight of
you in a hurry"
The little Amesbury girl was OF an
age when most impressions do not
long survive. She would neither re-
member her father nor her mother nor
her nurse, nor her Indian dress, nor
the playhouse, nor the seesaw in the
woods but always she had a vague
recollection of three great and impor-
tant personages, who treated ner as
if she were more important than they
were, and who on parting from her
bowed over her chubby, dimpled hand
and kissed it for all the world as If she
had been a princess. 1t wasn't exactly
recollection, either. for she did not
remember their faces nor how they
came into her life, nor how they de-
parted. 1t was more like a dream
only fragments of which here and
there survive in the walkers mind. II
wasn't altogether a pleasant dream
There mingled with it certain some
thing of the essence of a nightmare.
Whether it was another man in the
background or some monstrous beast
with extraordinarily large, black
trimmed eyes she did not know.
1t is curious that she should remem-
Der a little of all this and nothing of
that message which came presently
from the house-a message brought
by one servant to another and crudely
blurted forth in the hearing of child.
Come quick, Mary, and bring the
baby; the missus is dead" She does
not remember running to the house
between two women, dragged by the.
hand, and If she did it is most likely
that she should remember only the
novelty of the swift locomotion, and
not the reason that called for it
The little Amesbury girl continued
to live on in her fathers house. The
lew said she might until things were
Strengthened out. There were no rela-
tives to interfere.
But it was a strange life. There
was no longer any discipline in the
house; even the trained nurse mad
to go. The servants began to neglect
their work and to amuse themselves.
But being neglected by nurse had it's
advantages for Tommy Steele came
every day to play with her, and often
many times in one day. He was a
much better nurse than nurse was.
He took good care OF one all the time,
ana she loved him with all her heart
Once nurse told them that they could
play hide and seek in the wood If they
would be very good and not get lost
or wet OF let rotten trees fall on them
or wasps sting them. And that was a
morning to be remembered IN many
ways. Tommy Steele was always "it."
AT first she would hide behind the
nearest tree and make great deal
OF noise and peek out to see IL Tommy
was hunting tor her or not. But grad
ually she learned to keep mum. and to
tuck herself into very small places, or
to move quietly or to keep mousy still.
Gradually she hid with more and
more boldness. running quite long dis
tances before she called cuckoo" and
the last time she went to hide she ran
a long way, and just when she had
lodged behind big white oak and
was going to call cuckoo" she found
herself looking into the great, round,
glasses of Professor Still
liter. Before she could scream he
had seized her around the waist with
his left arm and had muzzled her with
his right hand. Then he picked her
up and started to run. AS the hand
over her mouth prevented her scream
ing, she simply opened her mouth
and bit 1t.
In his rage and pain Professor Still
liter almost dropped her. He snatched
his bitten hand from her mouth. and
she began to scream at the top of her
lungs. to struggle and kick and to
make herself limp between times. And
once she twisted clean away from the
arm that had her round the waist.
Still she was only little child, and
Tommy Steele saved her. He came
out upon them IN a shower of broken
twtgs, hatless and bleeding from an
alteration with greenbrier Pro
lessor Stilliter did not at once realize
that he was only being attacked by a
small boy. He let go of the little girl
then tried to catch her,
as he realized the caliber of his as
sailant. In so doing. his attention mo-
mentarily diverted. received q savage
kick on the ankle bone and something
like twenty-five blows upon the head