Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1916-01-21

age or nVe years, and was adopted
by strangers. She never was able to
get any knowledge regarding her
own parents only that her father
was an Englishman, and died at sea,
on voyage back to England, and
that her mother was a Scotch lady,
very poor, and ignorant of southern
ways, and died of grief over the loss
of her husband. Her foster parents
told her that they took her out of
pity, as she h I'D nowhere else to go.
When she grew to womanhood they
were determined she should marry
their son, and because she would
not, and married Mark Bertram, a
poor pedagogue, they disinherited
her and forbid her crossing their
threshold again. She had learned
from an old nanny, one of the
slaves of her foster parents, that
her mother did not think slave-hold-
ing was right, and that feeling was
strongly engendered in her. On the
morning of the day she left home to
get married, while her foster par
ents were out driving over the
plantation, she searched for every
possible clue that might lead to any
knowledge of her own parents of
whom she had been kept in almost
total ignorance. A certain bureau
drawer she knew had always been
kept scrupulously locked, she sue
ceeded getting into by pulling out
the dlawe" above it which had been
accidentally left unlocked. Hidden
away in this drawer she found a
packet of old letters, securely tied
together. Untieing them, her eyes
fell on one addressed to her, with
the seal broken. Her curiosity
was greatly aroused, and replac-
ing the packet as she found it, she
hui ried to her room, locked the
door, and unfolding the time-w worn
sheet, read these words: This
note is to you, my darling child,
Isabella Thomson. | leave it pin
ned on your skirt. Your father was
Of noble ancestry, and himself, a
nobleman. | was a Scotch lady,
met and married your father in
happy time. He went to London
to prove his claim to a legacy of
fifty thousand dollars. On the way
across, he was taken violently i'll and
died and was buried at sea. Word
has just come bearing the heart
breaking news. | have just now
written to the law firm he was 60
ing to see in London having the ad-
ministration of the estate his legacy
was coming from. The name of
the firm is. Street and number
-. | hope this knowledge will be
Of benefit to you, sometime. | pray
God you fall into good hands. | am
failing fast. Farewell sweet one,
and God hold thee in his arms.
Your mother, Jean Thomson"
Witch tears streaming down her
cheeks she read her mothers dying
message written so long ago. Fold
ing it away in her bosom, she at
once, with the assistance of her old
nanny friend, dressed for her briCs
al, while she dispatched a slave boy
for her betrothed, who came and
took her away, and they went to a
minister's and were married that
same evening. Soon after her mar
riage she wrote to the law firm in
London regarding the legacy, and in
a few weeks received a reply, say
ing that the legacy referred to ha
been settled, and that one heir in
America shared largely out of it,
twelve years since. She with her
husband tried to get certain elder
| ly lawyer interested in the case. but
he secuted at the proposition, telling
them that nothing whatever could
! be done. 1t dawned upon them
afterwards why he so discouraged
their efforts to recover the legacy
because they found out he was the
legal adviser of her foster father
Their every effort Was foiled through
the Vaccinations of that tricky old
lawyer. In a few short years she
was taken away, and then her hus.
band fled on horseback with theil
little boy to save him from being
kidnapped, and brought up in the
atmosphere of slavery.
At that time he left the letter