The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1917-07-06
CHAPTER KIN.
The Dam Gives Way

The Dam Gives Way.
She begun getting her strength bnck
very fast In the next two or three
days. but this queer kink In her emo
lions didn't atraighten out. She came
10 See that Il was nbsnrd monstrous
almost. but that didn't help. Instead
Of baby. she had given birth 70 two.
They were hers. OF course. US much
as one would have been. Only, her
soul. which hnd been waiting SO
ecstnticaliy Tor Its mlracle---f0r the
child which. by making her a mother,
should supply what her life needed
her soul wouldn't--couldnt accept
the substitution. Those two droll,
thln-yoIced. squlrming little mites that
were exhibited TO her every morning,
were as foreign 70 her. as II they had
been brought into the house in a
basket
When Harriet eame la for the iirst
time 90 see her. Rose knew. Har.
riet was living here now. running the
house Tor Rodney, while Rose was
laid up. Doing II beautifully well,
too. through all the confusion Of
nurses aud ALL Harriet said:
Il think you're Ia great luck 10
have had two at once; get your duty
20 posterity done that much sooner,
And. Of course. you couldn't possibly
be expected 10 nurse two great crea-
lures like that"
Rose aequiesced. She would have
struggled. though. she knew. but for
that queer trick fate had played her.
Her heart ached.
when she found that struggling
with herself, dcnounclng herself for
a brute. didn't serve 10 bring up the
feelings toward the twins that she
knew any proper mother ought 70
have. she buried the dark fact as
deep as she could. aud pretended. II
was only before Rodney that the pre-
tense was really necessary. And with
him. really. Il was hardly pretenss
at all. lie was such d child himself
In hts gleeful delight over the pos
session Of a son ami a daughter, tina
she felt for him. tenderly. mistily
UNANIMOUSLY, the very emotion she wa
trying 20 capture Tor them-felt Tx
cradilng his head In her weak arms
kissing him. crying over him.
She wouldn't have been allowed Z
do that 10 the babies. anyway. The
were going 10 be terribly well brough
up. those twins; that was apparen
from the beginning. They had tw
nurses all 10 themselves, quite apar
from Miss Harris, whe looked afte
Rose-AIrs. huston aud Doris. Oh
maid, who were destined. II uppearet
TO be as permanent as the babies. Bu
Rose had the germ Of an idea Of he
own about that.
They got them named with very II
tie difficulty. The boy was Rodne,
of course, after his father and CRANE
father before him. Rose was litt
afraid Rodney would want the 81
named after her, and was relieved
find he didn't. There'd never in Il
world be but one Rose for him,
said. SO Rose named the girl Porti
They kept Rose la bed for thr
weeks; fat on her back as much
possible, which was terribly irksoI
to her, since her strength and Wit
ity were coming back so fast.
might have rebelled, had it not be
for that germinant idea of hers.
wouldn't do. she saw, in the light
that, to give them any excuse for G.
Ing her unreasonable.
One Sunday morning, Rodney {
ried her upstairs to the nursery
see her babies bathed. This wa
big room at the top Of the no
which Florence McCrea had alw
vaguely intended to make into
studio. But, in the paralysis of
decision as to what sort of studio
make it, she had left the thing bar
Rodney had given Harriet c
blanche to go ahead and fit it up
fore he and Rose came back from
seashore. and the layetts was "a