Year: 1878

muttering at the same time some word
of pity for the child, Charles Wilson ap-
preached the frontdoor of the house
just as it opened, showing a coarse and
hard-lookiDg matron standing within.


MRS. Warren, this child is very
sick" the boy explained. CT think she
ought to be taken care Of"


"Poor Rose I" the woman said, with
an air of plying surprise. "I thought
she had cold, but she would go OUT
I'll make her some herb-tea right
away.


Little Rose might have shrunk at an
other time, but now she was entirely
passive as the woman took her and be-
gan to smooth her hair back.


In giving her up, Charles saw the
note clenched in Rose Paulier's hand,
and read it aloud.


Bless my stars ~ cried the woman,
in alright. I" Go right away, Mr..
Charles. You'll catch the fever" And
she unceremoniously shut the door in
his face.


"Poor little dear She'll die as sure
as fate" he sadly muttered, leaning ON
the fence, and looking sorrowfully up at
the front of that abode of sorrow. The
house at which he looked and which lit
tie Rose Paulier called home, was the
poor-house.


There were but very few town poor in
ht,t aft .xfo
nous custom which makes our town
charities an injury and an insult to those
who are obliged to avail themselves of
them, had been given in charge of the
lowest bidder, and they Jared according
ly. The Warrens were q hard, money
getting, childless couple, who did not
feel called upon to feed paupers out of
their own pockets, but who looked that
their charges were kept clean and pre-
sentable to visitors. That done, their
duties were done.


Rose Paulier had been with them two
years. Her mother had come to Saxton to
nursea sick lady, bringing her child with
her, and had fallen sick and died sudden
ly at her employers house. There was no
one to take charge of the little girl, and
their search found no relatives. 1t was
pity, but there was nothing to do but
to send her to the poor-house. To an
ordinary poor-house they would on no
account have sent the child, who was
dainty little thing, and whose mother
was evidently lady; but then this
house was model of its kind, and Mrs.
Warren was very excellent woman
So said the Burkhardt family, at whose
house the mother had died, and who
had already been sufficiently troubled in
the matter, and did not want to be both
cred with the child.


Mrs. Warren would teach her to sew
and keep house, and when she should be
old enough they would give her employ
ment. So the rich family, living in
splendor in house that was almost
palace, and with only one son to claim
their care, washed their hands of the
whole affair.


A gold-framed locket containing a
miniature which had been around the
woman's neck when she died, pearl
ring which she wore, and little gold
watch with spray of pearl lilies-of-the-
valley on the back, they kept to give the
child when she should be old enough to
take care of them. For the rest, Mrs.
Burkhardt felt that she was very char
table and very condescending indeed,if,
when she was driving that way, she Or
dered the footman to go to ths door of
the poor-house and ask how the little
girl was getting along.


There were no other children then at
this establishment, and of course the
children of the rich people would not
play with her, and Rose had a lonely
time of it. But she had not much work
to do, and, aside from poor and insuffi-
cient food, and having to sleep alone in
an attic where she sometimes could not
sleep for fright, might have lived pleas
ant enough animal life, wandering about
as she listed in summertime, and coiled
in sunny window in the winter.


But children need company even
more than adults do, and the child's
lonely life was telling on her, wearing
her out, saddening her, making her i'm
aginative and morbid. She was ready
for the fever when it came, and it
clenched her as some fierce, wild crea-
ture might.


There had been no mothers eye to