Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 July 1877 — KATE’S PRINCE. [ARTICLE]

KATE’S PRINCE.

“There now, youVe bunging Unit floor again, Mint* Jenny; l dedans to goodness you children would worrit the patience out of a saint.” “ Oh, never mind, Sally,” I Raid, punting, after si facts to get into the house find—si rate I. had won, for Lit mid Cissy w< re yarda behind * “Never mind, indeed !” cried Sully, “ and there's your line cousin coming down to-day from London. I wonder what ulie will say when she sees you wing about the meadow like so many wild colts, and your arms all brown anil scratched, and the hooks oft your dress. 1 never nee such children, never.” “ I bit you like us, Sally,” I said, gelng hold of her rough, fat, red arm, and aying my cheek against it. “ 1 don't, I declare I don’t,” she cried, impetuously; and, to show her dislike, site threw her turns round me, and to |hi 'ey,'al in y nose nearly flat against the piece of hard wood she used to wear inside her dress. Sally was our housemaid, parlor-maid, and nurse-maid all in one; and it used to seem to me that site, spent all her leisure time in quarreling with the cook and snubbing us; but, for all that, one ol my principal recollections during the fever 1 had so long was waking at all times so aee Sally's red face watching by my bedside, ntid I know she did all cook’s work for six weeks as well as her own, when poor cook had shell a sad accident mid rut hand. We three -Lil, Cissy and I had a long discussion about Cousin Kate and her visit, aud we all felt what dreadful little rsgamufiins we should seem to her, foV I'm afraid we hud been running wild, I hough papa only used to laugh at it, and would come into the school-room when mamma was busy with us over our lessons whenever it was a Hue morning, and cry: “ Now then, girls, the sun si lines and the birds are calling. Out with you! I jearn lessons’when it rains.” I knew afterward why this .waft, I'apa had a horrible nervous' dread of our growing up weak and sickly, for his was a delicate family, and I had heard that oiircqusius were often very ill. “ I can guess why Cousin Kate’s coming to stay with us,” said Lil. “ I know why site’s coming,” I said. “ It's because she’s ill,” shouted Lil, for fear £ should show my knowledge lirst. “Sally will take her up new warm milk and an egg in it before she gets out of bed in the morning,” said Cissy, solemnly; “that will soou make her well.” “She shall have all the eggs Speckle lays,"said Lil, “and Jenny will take her every morning to the old garden-seat under the trees. She’s sure to get well there.” And so we did, for Cousin Katjecame that afternoon—a tall, pale girl, with a sad, weary look in her face, as she gazed wistfully from one. to the other. We three girls stood back quite in awe ol the well-dressed, fashionable-looking body,- who was so different from what we had exported, while mamma went up to welcome her, and took her iti her arms in a tender, affectionate way, saying: “ M.> dear child, we are so glad to see vihi. V-1

<Vfutjiii Kate threw her.arms round inammAa neck and burst jjito a lit of sobbing, hiding her face from our sight. We did not nee any more .of Coupin Kate that day, but our young interest was deeply excited, und somehow, perhaps f“sh ivd by dark hints .dropped by Bally, who was a blighted dower, having been c losHed in a love affair with the horsekn per at a neighboring farm, we girls got to think of our cousin’s illness as a Kind of mystery connected in some way, how we did not know, with the heart. Our awe of the sweet, gentle cousin fell off the very next day, when we took possession of her, and led her round our dear old country homo, with its wilderness of an orchard, great garden shrubberies and pleasant meadow.lb r coming seemed to mark an epoch in our young lives, for, seeing how weak and delicate she was, we used to vie one "ith tin' other in being quiet and gentle, waiting upon her iu the most unnecessary way, like slaves, and always ready to rush off most willing messengers to forestall any little wants she expressed. Tina eamo natural to us ; but on my part it was increased by a few word's whiclp I heard pass between papa and mamma, mamma saying that she did not think poor Kate would ever grow strong again, but slowly wither away. 1 gave a great gulp as L heard these words, and then burst out scJbbiug violently. “bm here, Jenny ! ’ said mamma. “ Well, my dear, as you have heard what we said, it must be your secret, too. Never let your poor cousin know what we think, and never behave to her as if you thought she could not recover.” 1 promised readily, ami at .11 the possession of that secret seemed to make me more womanly than my sisters, ami I redoubled my tenderness to the suffering girl. J.’he invalid was J 9—a great age in our estimation—and l used to look up to her with veneration, gazing iu her soft, sweet lace ..and wistful eyes, wondering why she was so ill, ami what was the great sorrow that had conic upon her like a blight upon one of the rosea round ouy porch. Cousin Kate came to ns iu the spring and the months flew by till it was the height of summer ; ami many and many a night had I turned my face to the. wall, so that Lil should not know, and cried silently till my pillow was wet. For I knew so well that Kate was weaker, much weaker than when slio came ; a walk across the lawn to the old gardenseat in til© shade being as much now us she could bear. “Cousin Kate,” I said, one day when we were alone, Lil and Cissy having rushed off to get some flowers, ‘‘couldn’t any doctor make you well ? Bhe looked at me with a wild, strange gaze which almost startled me before she replied, and then in a way that made my heart beat she sobbed out: “ Only one—only one P’ and then, as if to herself, in alow Whisper, she added,

“ and before he can come I shall be dead —dead !” She did not know I heard her last words, and I sat chilled and frightened, gazing at iicr till my sisters came back, when, as we frequently did, we sat down about her; Lil got upon the seat, Cissy sat on the grass with her head against one of Kate’s hands, which hung listlessly from the corner where she leaned, and I threw myself on the grass at her feet, so as to look up in her gentle face, which had now become calm with its old, weary look. “Cousin Kate,” said Lil, “ tell us another story.” “No, no,” I said, “don’t ask; she isn’t so well to-day.” “ Yes,” she said, quietly, raising her head and looking at me, “lam better to-day.” “Tell ns one, then,” cried Cissy, eagerly, “one you’ve never told us before.” There was silence then for a few minutes, and as I gazed up in Kate’s face I saw her eyes close and a sort of spasm twitch her lips; but the next minute she was quite calm, and then, with the leaves whispering round tis and the twittering of the birds coming now and again from the distance, she said, in a low, sweet, musical voice: “Once upon a time in the days of long ago, when people were very, very happy on this earth, there lived it prinee who was young, ami handsome, and true. Nearly every one loved him, he was so manly, and yet so gentle.” “ And he loved it beautiful princess,” prut in Cissy. t saw the spasm cross Cousin Kate’s face again, but it was calm directly after, and she went on. “No, dear,” she said, “he did not love a beautiful princess, but a poor, simple girl who loved him, too, with all her heart, and they were so, so happy. When the flowers blossomed they seemed to blossom only for them, and the birds sang their sweetest songs for them in the sunshine.” “Yes, and they were married and lived happy ever after,” cried Cissy. “ Co on.” There was once more that piteous look upon Cousin Kate’s face, seen only by me; but it passed off, and she went on. “ No, Cissy, they were not, for the poor, handsome young prince had enemies:—cruel, bitter enemies—who slandered him aud said that lie had made false keys, and opened the treasure-chest of a great man, and stolen away his gold and precious stones.” “Oh! ” whispered Cissy, now deeply interested. “Aud,” continued Kate, “they took the poor prince, and there was a great trial, and, though he declared he was innocent, the wicked people who slandered him aud bore false witness against him prevailed ;.and the great Judge said lie was to be east into prison, and wear heavy chains, and be kept, there for twenty-one long years.” “ Oh!” cried Lil. “Yes,” Siiid Cissy, “I know, and then the simple young girl, who loved him, went and unlocked the prison gates, and struck oil' lbs chains and set him free.” “No- no,’’cried Cousin Kate, and her voice altered terribly, so that I was alarmed, though I could do nothing but gaze up in the wild face before nte, for now a change came over it. “ No,” she cried, “ the poor girl could do nothing but sit and weep, and feel her broken heart beat beat- -beat, in. its own prison, wearing itself out till -till she died, and— Oh, Frank! Frank! what have we done that we should sutler this?” I leaped up to throw my arms round her, while my sisters shrank away alarmed; for cousin Kate turned from us with a bitter wail, buried her face in her hands, and threw herself half over the arm of the old garden seat, sobbing iu a wild, hysterical wail, such as I had never seen. “ Kate, dear Cousin Kate,” 1 sobbed; but even as I spoke there was a hasty step on the gravel, the bushes were dashed aside, and the shadow of a tall man was cast over us. “Kate—darling!” he cried, catching her in his arms, as I xvas thrust rudely aside, “1 am innocent aud free.” She did not hear him, for she gave a faint gasp and sank back insensible. We three girls were almost stunned ; but we saw the tall, thin, pale-looking stranger hastily lift poor Kate from the seat, and literally run wit h her to the house, while we followed more slowly. As we reached the porch it was to meet pupa running out, and iu a very short time he returned with the doctor. But this doctor was the wrong cue ; the right one had come to us at the garden-seat, and it was his words that brought dear Cousin Kate back to life, aud, iu the course of a few months, to health. For Frank Roberts was reinstated in the Government offices from which he fell, in a higher post—-one which gave him the confidence of the higher officials—while tlio man through whose treachery Frank had suffered a year and a half before died confessing that lie had been the guilty party alone. Oh ! those liappy days when the roses were coming back day 1 iy day into Cousin Kate's cheek, and when Frank, who was down at the old place every Saturday to stay till Monday, used to be sent to play and romp with us girls. I can hardly believe that thirty years have glided by since Mien; but so it is, and to this day we call dear old gray-whiskered Frank “ Kate’s Prinee.”— (JassclVtt.