Miss McDonald

pellation for one who clad herself almost in widow's weeds, and felt, when she stood at poor Tom's

do so, for, knowing Mr. McDonald as he did, he thought she would be happier alone, but God so ordered it that w

dead, and made their way to England, and from there to Scotland, where

the past and the happiness she cast away when she consented t

, with intense contempt for herself, she read over the journal s

after years, little dreaming with what sore anguish of heart poor

uy, Guy-my husband still-mine more than Julia's, if you could know how much I love you now; nor can I feel it wrong to do so, even though I never hope to see your face again. Guy, Guy, the world is so desola

sinking into an unhealthy, morbid state of m

l one golden September day, when there came a turning po

ay was fine and she was far too restless to remain at home, she proposed to her mother that the

much as her father was of Scotch descent she felt a double interest in him, and with her mother was among the first

st took his stand in front of her and announced the opening hymn. His text was: "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" and so well did he handle it, and so forcible were his g

pence and given to the poor, Jesus said unto them, 'The poor ye have with you always,' and is it not so, my hearers? Are there no poor at your door to be fed, no hungry little ones to be cared for out of the abundance which God has only loaned you for this purpose? Are there no wretched homes which you can make happier, no aching hearts which a kind word would cheer? Remember there is a blessing pro

f his remarks directly to her, and had the dead Tom risen from his grave and spoken with her face to face, she could hardly have been more affected than she was. The resemblance was so str

e wishing for something to do. There was work all around her, and she found it and did it with a will-first, from a sense of dut

mong them was productive of so much good. Better dwellings, better wages, a church, a schoolhouse followed in her footsteps, and then, when everything there seemed in good working order, there came over her a longing for her native countr

ecame, if not a belle, a favorite, whose praises were in every mouth. But chiefly was she known and loved by

ity to her one day as it lay dying in her arms. "I'se goin' to heaven, which I shouldn't have done if you'se

er poured into her ear. As she had brought that little child to God, so she would bring others, and she

ly, their silver-tipped harness flashing in the sunlight, and their beautiful mistress radiant with happiness as she sat in her large open carriage, not in

in New York where she has not been, and never once, I'm told, was she insulted, for the vilest of them stand between her and harm. Once a miscreant on Avenue A knocked a boy down for accidentally stepping in a pool of water and sprinkling her white dress in passing. Friday nights

mong the curls of her bright hair. When Daisy first entered upon her new life she had affected a nun-like garb as one most appropriate, but after a little child said to her once, "I'se don't like your black gown all the time. I likes sumptin' bright and pretty," she changed her mind and gave freer scope to her natural good taste and love of what was becoming. And the result showed the wisdom of the ch

o, on the days when Daisy was expected, she scrubbed the floor, which, until Daisy's advent had not

ss and handsome face were commented on and remembered as some fine show which had been seen for nothing. Especially did the children like her in her bright dress, and the velvet and ermine in which she was clad when Guy met her in the Park were worn more for their sakes than for the gaze of thos

man appearance he was prosperous and happy. Prosperous in his business, and happy in his wife and little ones, for there was now a second child, a baby Guy of six weeks old, and when on his return from New York the father bent over the cradle of his boy and kissed his baby face, that image seen in the Park seemed to fade away, and the caresses he gave to Julia had in them no faithlessness or insince

n sorely pressed on the subject, and then the child wondered how that could be, a

ame to the cottage a friend of Julia's, a young lady from New York, who knew Daisy, and who, while visiting in Cuylerville, accidentally learned that she was the divorced wife of whose existence she kn

me what to say and I'll write it down for you, but do

ht at once with the idea, and th

age, 'Most

y, an' he tell me yes, bootiful, an' every night I p'ays for you and say God bress papa an' mam-ma, an' auntie, and Miss McDolly, and 'ittle brodder, an' make Daisy a dood dirl, and have Miss McDolly send her sumptin' for Tissmas, for Christ's sake. An' I wants a turly headed doll that ties and suts her eyes when she does to seep, and wears a shash and a pairesol, and anodder bigger dolly to be her mam-ma and pank her when she's naughty, an' I wants an 'ittle fat-iron, an' a coo

respe

Thor

w, and just as it was beginning to grow dark in the streets she bade her coachman drive home, where dinner was waiting for her in the dining room, and her mother was waiting in the parlor. Mrs. McDonald was not very well, and had kept her room all day, but she was bett

ired and cold I am!" she said, a

ald asked, in a half-querulous tone, as if she d

boy," Daisy said, and her mother replied: "Well, I'm sure I shall be glad for your sake when it is o

ts-the poor, whom we have with us always. Don't you remember the text and the little kirk

, as her mother had said, pale and worn, as if the shopping had been very hard upon her. And yet it was not so

he dozen, her thoughts had been with Guy and the time she met him at Leiter and Field's and he walked home with her. It seemed to her years and years ago, and the idea of having lived so long made her feel

who had instigated the letter, had never written to her more than once or twice, and then only short notes, and she did not recognize the handwriting at once. But she saw it was postmarked Cuylerville, and a sick, faint sensation crept over her as she wondered who had sent it, and if it contained news of

ille, De

le,' I have flitted hither and thither until at last I floated out to Cuylerville to visit Mrs. Guy Thornton, who is a friend and former schoolmate of mine. Here-not in the house, bu

hat think you of her making up a bundle of shawls and aprons and christening it Miss McDolly, her name for you, and talking to it as if it were really the famous and beautiful woman she fancies it to be? She is your 'sake-name,' she says, and before I knew the facts of the case, I was greatly amused by her talk to the bundle of shawls which she reproached for never having sent her anything. When I asked Julia (that's Mrs. Thornton) who Miss McDolly was, she merely answ

I have done wrong, an

, sinc

Bar

ither move nor cry out for a moment, but she sat like one turned into stone with that sense of suffocation oppressing her, and that horrible pain in her heart. She had thought the grave was closed, the old wound healed by time and silence; and now a l

about her heart and the choking sensation in her throat began to give way, and one after another the great tears rolled down her cheeks, slowly at first, but gradually faster and faster, until they fell in torrents and a tempest of sobs shook her slight frame as with her head bowed upon her dressing-table she gave vent to her grief. It seemed to her she never could stop crying or grow calm again, for as often as she thought of the touching words, "I p'ays for you," there came a fresh burst of sobs and tears,

nd the plainer bit of china, who was to be dollie's mother and perform the parental duty of "panking her when she was naughty," was also purchased, and the dishes and the table and stove and bedstead, with ruffled sheets and pillow-cases and blue satin spread and the washboard and clothes bars and tiny wringer, with divers others toys, were bought with a dis

e. That Daisy dared not send, lest it should look too much lik

ied her for her delusion could she have known how sure she was that but for the tard

dared to do it, and could do it, how gladly her Christmas gift should be the handsome place which they had been so proud of! But that would hardly do; Guy might not like to be so much indebted to her; he was proud and sensitive in many points, and so she aban

ristmas, the box arrived and was deposited in the dining room, where Guy and J

e-name, Miss McDolly, send it, see did.

very knot in the string which his wife in her impatience would h

old what she had done, while Julia listened with a very grave face, and Guy w

op which he handed to Julia, who

, Decembe

is so glad to send you the doll with a shash, and the other toys. Write to me aga

McDo

so pale, as he took out one after another the articles which litt

on't you love her, papa?"

r, and generous. No other little girl

atural as he spoke, and one who knew nothing of his former relations to Miss McDonald wou

tmas Miss McDonald opened with trembling hands the envelope bearing the Cuylerville postmark, she felt a keen pang of disappointment in finding o

, and that hurt Daisy m

red, and her lip quivered a little, and the tears sprang to her eyes as she remember

nd, and with a bitter pain in her heart, she put away Julia'

come to her a few perfectly polite and well-expressed lines from Julia, who had the impertinence to sign herself Mrs. Guy Thornton! It was rather hard and sorely disappointing, and for