Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 June 1881 — Miss Mulock’s Romance. [ARTICLE]

Miss Mulock’s Romance.

It was “ John Halifax,” published after she was 30 years old, that brought her fame, and made the task of earning her daily bread a little less arduous. Seven years later she was awarded a pension of S3OO a year. She was nearly 40 when she married. In 1865 Capt. George Lillie Craik, an officer in the English army, who had been in the Crimea, met Miss Mulock, and, although some years her junior, addressed her and succeeded in winning her hand. They Broved8 roved most congenial companions, and leir married life was all they could wish, with but one exception, the woman whose love for children amounted almost to a passion, who wrote ''Philip, My King,” was denied the happiness of feeling baby fingers upon her cheek or of ever hearing herself called mother. Thin was a severe sorrow, but even this pain was partially assuaged. Strangely enough, one dark, rainy night, while she and her husband were speaking of children and of the joy and brightness they bring to so many dwellings, there came a loud ring at the bell and then a furious knocking. On opening the door, lying upon the sill, they found a basket inclosed in many wrappings. When thev were removed they discovered a lovely little baby only a few hours old. The child was wrapped in one roll after another of India muslin, and on its breast was pinned a note, begging Mrs. Craik to be kind to the little waif thus brought tother door, and assuring her that no mean blood flowed in its veins. Tenderly she lifted the little thing in her arms, and her heart opened as warmly to take in the poor little deserted creature. They called the child Dorothea, God-given, and she became their adopted daughter, as tenderly cherished and as passionately loved as though she had been their own.