Do not deny me your friendship. Do not exile me to the iceberg*
from which I would so gladly depart."
She bent with tearful eyes over the hand stretched toward her.
" I was not always alone," he said. " I once had a daughter.
She would be like you were she living, but I lost her and have
not even the consolation of 'knowing where she lies."
" I know not the grave of my parents," she said quietly.
" Why! have you not always been with them? prom what
Miss Rosa tells me they died before you left America."
" They were my foster parents."
Stiiger became highly excited.
true sister?"
" Not by blood. We grew up as sisters and it was the wish of
my foster parents that I forget my true relation to them."
" Do you remember nothing of your parents?"
StOger stood erect but reseated himself when he noticed the
astonishment of the young women.
" Of my father I remember nothing, but the image of my
mother is firmly connected with the remembrance of a night, the
terrors of which I shall never forget.
" I must have been about four years old at the time and remem
ber being aboard a ship, but my recollection of it is very hazy. Only
that one night I was awakened by being roughly torn from my
bed. I heard the howling of a storm, the groaning and creaking
of the vessel and the despairing cry, ' The ship is sinking!' I
did not comprehend what had happened, but I knew that it must
be awful. My mother stumbled with me upon deck. There a
scene of indescribable confusion was before us. The night round
about, the roaring of • the sea and the fearful cries of the crew
nearly robbed me of my senses. I only know that suddenly the
vessel lurched and we were hurled violently against the deck rail.
Bracing herself here as best she could my mother took from her
bosom this locket and put it about my neck with the words:
' Never part with it. Hear! Never give it away. It's from your
father. His name is -- !"
That is all I heard, and then hugging me for a moment so
tightly that I almost smothered she cast me into a boat. After
that all was blank, and when I recovered consciousness I found
myself with my foster parents. They told me that my mother
had been drowned by one of the boats upsetting and not knowing
to whom I belonged they took me into their family."
The Free Lance
" So Miss Rosa is not your
[JANUARY,