Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1915-03-03
I'LL MI M =.
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been in the family a spare thre,
months.
A strange coincidence followed. Phil
Up Mldthorne die of pneumonia in less
than a month after his wife's demise
Within a Year thereafter Horace
Blagden. now the great man of Cor
nun. since the passing away of his ia
Their, arose to the highest known point
IN Blagden generosity. He %journeyed
south with his wife and laid claim to
the Midthorne Infants. proffering Il
home. and an education. n other ad-
v~antages which their paternal grand
parents could i'll afford to spurn. The
children were allowed to come north,
TO the grey house on the Hill, to the
chill winds of Corinth, so unlike the
SOFT, balmy airs OF their birthplace. 50
far removed from the warm, lazy love
of those gentle Midthornes. From
flow~er-covered. ruin-racked mansion
under a blue sky. to bare. grim. solidly
prosperous walls under a sky that Was
always white.
Corinth paused aghast. Horace had
dore the n thing that no n believed
him capable of doing. He had taken
! into his w home. to his own pri1n
New England hearth. the offspring of
the despised M%agdalen and her red
handed husband. The children of an
adulteress. The children of a murder
err!
Horace Blagden kept his own coun-
sci. he Offered no explanation. no eN-
cuse for his surprising act. He was le-
gally appointed guardian of the little
ones; he set them down. with a grim
sense OF ms own power among the ufi-
blemished children of Corinth. and all
CQrinth was Quiescent. No mother lift
ed up her voice against the affront. no
father protested. They accepted the
1 LITTLE Nj6fhnrp,n rn1 <vnra (, u,.i IL,
themselves.
A word In explanation of Horace's
act. 1T was discovered. on the reading
of old Mr.. Blagden's win, that he had
not quite forgotten his lovely. though
erring daughter. There was a clause
b~equeathing $1,000 900 to each of her
children. the money to go to them when
they had attained the age of ri. the
beques!, in the interim, to be under
the control of a guardian appointed b.
the court. 1t was upon the discovery
OF this unexpected clause that Horace
Blagden set about, with some haste,
to have himself appointed guardian.
be the part of s,isdom for him to at
tend to the bringing up of his wards.
under his own eye and guidance.
And so IT was that the two little Mid
thornes came to the grey house on the
hill, where the hearts We're cold and
bitter. and where the ways We're hard.
When they came. blinking and wide
eyed. they found their cousin, Chef
wynd. there. He was o years older
than Eric. Age was not his only asset
IN superiority, you may be sure. From
the beginning. Chetwynd looked upon
his unluclly cousins as interlOpers, as
dependents. far beneath him in every
respect. 1t was necessary for him to
pummel Eric roundly on the second
day after his arrival. Eric, small as
he was, openly had resented the larger
boys airs, being a manly little chan
with fire in his blood. For this. he was
kept locked in a dark closet for three
hours. mean Eric. of course. When
Chetwynd told his mother that he had
thrashed his cousin. that excellent dis
ciplinarian promptly proceeded to pun
ish Eric. SO hat it would not happen
again.
The LATHE warm-hearted Midthornes
made friends quickly among the chill
dren in the set affected by the Blag-
dens. They We're not permitted to go
outside this circle. After the first few
weeks of uncertainty in their new sur
rOundings they rose to their own level
of joyousness. Not even the overbear-
ing attitude of Chetwynd could chill
this natural warmth of manner; nor
the stern. lean face of their Uncle Hor-
ace: o n amplified repugnance Of
their Aunt Rena. They were happy be-
cause they knew not how to be other
wise.
This was when they were 6 and 2.
They had no ideals. They had nothing
black to remember, for they only knew
that heir father and mother had gone
away for a long time. They knew moth
ing of Cain and Magdalen.
But they were to know before they
were many years older.