We quote from "Dorothy's Islands", Mrs. Conklin's latest book.
Dorothy was a child taken from a New York orphan asylum and adopted by a lighthouse keeper and his wife. She grows up supposing them to be her own father and mother, but the mother and child are antagonistic, and it is impossible for them to attract one another. This peculiarity of nature is very well given in the first chapter.
EXTRACT FROM "DOROTHY'S ISLANDS."
"When I grow up," said Dorothy "I am going to find an island all green and beautiful in winter as well as in summer. All around it the sand will be as golden as sunshine, and the houses—the happy houses—will be hidden away in green things, and flowers of yellow and scarlet and white. And then, father, after I find it, I will come and get you, and we will sing, and learn poems, and do lovely things all day long."
"You are going to do wonderful things when you grow up," replied the amused, tender voice overhead.
"Don't all grown-up people do wonderful things?" questioned child Dorothy.
"I never did," answered the voice, not now either tender or amused.
"No, you never did," broke in a woman's voice with harsh force.
"I think father does beautiful things," said Dorothy in her warm voice. "He brought the sea-bird home to me, and we loved it so, but you threw it off with its wounded wing."
"Let nature take care of her own things," responded the voice that had nothing of love in its quality.