Emmons County Record

THE FAIRY SPRING.

"A picnic in the glen,
Kit!
Just
what I've been wishing for! Of course
it will be on the knoll, near Bacon
place, and—"

"Of course,"
interrupted Kittie,
"Mr. Lionel Bacon will be there, and
if, under the combined influence of
the poetic woods and a heavy dinner,
Miss Agnes Hale doesn't make him
propose before the day is over she
deserves to forfeit all her laurels
won!"

Agnes deigned no reply, and we will
use the pause to explain that she was
the belle of the country round, and
that Lionel Bacon was the most eligi-
ble young man in the same country;
and that, in addition to being rich
and handsome, he was also honorable
and manly. He lived with his broth-
er's family at Bacon place, and was
an admirer of Miss Hale's but up to
the present time he had failed to avow
any warmer feeling, which piqued that
lady not a little, for she was not ac-
customed to having her charms with-
stood, and she had secretly resolved
to become Mrs. Lionel Bacon.

The picknickers were gathered in
the glen. It was a grand day, clear
and bright without a shadow of a
cloud to portend the shower that al-
ways comes, and everyone was in good
humor.

Agnes and Kittie were both in the
party; Agnes as fresh and beautiful
as the day, and Kittie looking very
well for her quiet little self, for she
was neither a beauty nor a genius,
only a fresh-hearted sensible girl, able
and willing to take her share of the
everyday sunshine and cloud of or-
dinary life.

Lionel Bacon had not yet appeared,
but Agnes did not expect him till noon
and she employed her spare time in
shedding sweet smiles on her other
swains.

The snow-white cloths were spread,
a most tempting feast was devel-
oping itself when a voice cried:

"Who will go to the spring for wa-
ter?"

"I will," said Kittie, and she seized
a jug.

"Allow me to carry that, Miss Kit-
tie," cried Fred Jones, rising from his
seat by Agnes, whom he had been
fanning.

Kittie knew her sister did not like
adorers to leave her side for any
other woman, and she attempted to
decline the offer, but he persisted, add-
ing:

"You come too Miss Agnes, for this
is a fairy spring, and if you chance to
reach it at just the right moment you
will find a water nymph who will tell
you your fate. Who knows but this
may be the appointed time? Will you
try?"

Agnes laughed assent, and they set
out for the spring. They soon reached
it, and, sitting beside it, found, not a
nymph or a fairy, but as dirty and
bedraggled and sorry a looking child
as one could wish to behold, who, as
they approached, sprang up and ran
to meet them, and, seizing Agnes'
dainty dress in her dirty, trembling
hands, sobbed:

"Take me home! Please take me
home!"

Agnes snatched her dress away
and pushed the child from her ex-
claiming:

"Good gracious! You dirty little
thing! Go away! You have ruined
my dress!"

But Kittie went to the little thing
and tried to comfort her.

"For pity's sake, Kit," Agnes con-
tinued, as her sister wiped the tear-
stained face with her handkerchief
"what are you doing? I wouldn't
touch the filthy thing for the world!"

Mr. Jones looked uncomfortable.

Kittie turned from Agnes and gave
her attention to the child. Mr. Jones
filled the jug, and then stood irreso-
lute between them. Agnes grew im-
patient. It was past noon; Lionel
Bacon would arrive at the picnic be-
fore she returned, and she did not
wish that to happen. She asked pet-
tishly:

"Well, Mr. Jones, are you going
back with me, or will you also join
the foundling service?"

Mr. Jones turned to Kittie
"I am very sorry, Miss Kit

"Oh,
never mind!" interrupted
Kittie. "You go back with her. I
shall do what I can for this baby,
and then I think I can find the way
back alone."

They left her, and Kittie washed
the little face and tried to smooth
out the rumpled dress, and discovered
in so doing that the face was delicate
and pretty and the dress fine and
handsome. She tried to learn from
the child who she was and where she
belonged, but in vain. She was a
mere baby, scarcely three years old,
and all Kittie could get her to say
was:

"Take me home to mamma
and
Annie!"

Kittie was in despair, and had just
decided to take the child to the picnic
when there was a rustle in the bushes,
and the next minute a nurse, aproned
and capped and with a white, scared
face, appeared, and the child screamed
"Annie! Annie!" and ran to her.

A few words told the story. The
nurse had taken the child into the
woods and she had strayed away,
and the nurse had been searching for
her, wild with terror, and was almost
discouraged when she found her.

This she poured out, mingled with
thanks and blessings for Kittie, and
then, taking the child in her arms,
she went away, and Kittie returned to
the picnic.

They were in the midst of dinner
when she arrived and in high glee.
Lionel Bacon was there, and Agnes
was happy with him at her side. A
shout greeted Kittie's appearance, for
Agnes had told the story with a color-
ing of her own.

"Where is the foundling?" cried a
voice. "We are dying to see her, for
we have resolved to adopt her and
call her the daughter of the picnic."

Kittie's face flushed, but she replied,
quietly:

"I am sorry that you will not be
able to carry out your praiseworthy
design, but I delivered the baby to
her nurse, who will restore her to her
family."

The day after the picnic Agnes was
in a bad humor. Lionel had not pro-
posed; in fact, he had decidedly re-
axed his attention to her, and, in ad-
dition to this, she had gotten a bad coat
of sunburn and was almost sure she
had discovered a freckle. She lounged
listlessly around the room, comfort-
ing herself by saying ill-natured things
to Kittie, who bore them with com-
mendable patience, till they were both
attracted by the sound of a carriage
at the gate. Agnes hastened to the
window and exclaimed:

"I declare, Kit, if it isn't Bacon's
carriage, and the coachman is bring-
ing a note. What can it mean?

She put out her hand to take the
note as the maid brought it in; but,
to the surprise of both, it was for Kit-
tie, who opened it and read aloud:

My Dear Miss Kittie—I have just
learned from my brother how much I
am indebted to you for your kindness
to baby yesterday. I should have
come to you myself, but I am confined
to the house with a cold, and in con-
sideration of this I beg you will return
with the carriage, that I may tell the
gratitude I am unable to
write.

Yours, affectionately,
MARTHA BACON.

Kittie ceased reading and Agnes
broke out—

"Heavens! Who could have dream-
ed that dirty little imp was her child?
I have indeed thrown away my fate,
for Lionel Bacon will never enter this
house again." And she burst into a
flood of tears.

Agnes' mortification was deep and
bitter, but she soon healed it by mak-
ing new conquests. She was, however,
wrong in one thing. Lionel Bacon
did enter the house again, and when
the next spring time came he took
from it little Kittie, to make her his
wife. She found her fate at the fairy
spring.