Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1915-06-23

in spite az Professor Sulltor's guar.
anty, the triumvirate. as they were
both popularity and uupopularly called.
determined TO have a Loo, 40 the luuc
Amesbury girl for themselves ToEeed
out IN Indian dress so that she re-
sembled the ornamental side OF a cent.
they found the object Of their search.
Well" he said brusquoly. cam /
right? Is she the finest child You ever
saw, or isn't she? Just see the breadth
OF her skull above the ears"
He would have touched her. but she
SHRINK from him. When Barclay. how.
ever, spoke 10 her she showed neither
fear nor aversion. only a pleasant shy.
ness.
Il have never seen you before" ne
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 30 seesaw in the
woods; but always she had a vague
recollection Of three great and impor
tant personages, who treated her as
IL she were more important than they
we're, 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. It wasn't exactly
a 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 ana
there survive I'm the walkers mind. IL
wasn't altogether a pleasant dream.
There mingled with It a 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 a 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 locomotlon, and
not the reason that called for t.
The little Amesbury girl continued
to live on in her fathers house The
law said she might until things were
Strengthened out. There we're no rela.
tives to interfere.
But it was a strange life. There
was no longer any discipline in the
house; even the trained nurse had
to go. The servants began to neglect
their work and to amuse themselves.
But being neglected by nurse had its
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,
and 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 or let rotten trees fail on them
or wasps sting them. And that was a
morning to be remembered in many
ways. Tommy Steele was always 1T"
At first she would hide behind tho
nearest tree and make a great deal
Of noise and peek out to see If Tommy
was hunting for 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
long way, and just when she had
lodged behind a big white oak and
was going to call cuckoo" she found
herself looking into the great, round,
black-rimmed glasses Of Professor Still
liter. Before she could scream he
had seized her around the waist with