The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1860-02-29
THE GOODBYE
sorpe-GeoreeI ?,

"George-George
"Well, what's wanting now ?"
The young husband turned back the door
knob, and there was Impotence in his tone, and
annoyance on his brow, as he answered his
wife's call.
"Nothing, papa, only baby and I just want
to kiss you goodbye" and she came up toward
him, the little, graceful, sweet-voiced weman,
with her babyin her arms, and held up the
small soft face to his cheeks, and the little one
crowded, aud thrust up its dimpled hands, and
clutched the short, thick locks triumphantly.
, go, baby, you rogue, you'd like to pull out
a handful of papa's hair, wouldn't You now y
laughed the merchant, in a tone SO unlike his
former one, that you would not have recog-
uized it, and he leaned down, and kissed the
small fragrant lips over and over.
"Now it's my turn, papa," and Mrs. Rey-
Doids smoothed away the rumpled hair, and
kissed her husbands forehead and as he went
out of the house that morning, a new ~softness
and peace had erased the troubled look from
the mans face.
And that day it was appointed to George
Reynolds to pass through q sharp and fearful
temptation.
He was in the midst of a commercial crisis,
and several of his heaviest debtors had failed
that week, and now q payment of ten thousand
dollars was due, and there was no way to raise
this sum unless
He held the pen irresolutely in his shaking
hand, the veins were swollen into great blue
cords on his forehead, and the breath came
thick and fast betwixt his hot lips; a few
scrawls of that pen, a solitary name at the bot
tom, and the young merchant could secure the
ten thousand dollars, aud his business credit
would be safe. There was no sort of doubt,
too, but he could raise the money within a few
days, and thus secure himself from all discov-
cry, and the pressing circumstances OF the
case certainly allowed some limits in finan-
ciering.
So whispered the tempter, as he walked up
and down the soul of George Reynolds, al
ways softeuing down the word fogery into some
false name, which totally changed to his per-
ceptions the moral complexion of the deed he
was about to commit.
The young merchants eyes glared all around
his Office, but there was none to see him then
he dipped his pen with a kind desperate ca
gerness, into the tall porcelain irk-stand, and
he drew it along the paper, when suddenly
his hand paused, struck by a thought-the
memory of his wife's kiss that morning.
He saw her as he saw her last, standing in
the door, the baby in her arms, her sweet face
full of motherly tenderness and wifely trust,
rs she lifted it TO him at parting the voice of
the tempterl passed away before that rush of
holier emotion which blurred the mans eyes
he dashed down the pen. "Mary! Mary
you have saved your husband sink or swim,
I viii not do this deed 1 should blush for
shame to meet your eyes and our baby's to-
night, if l carried the burning consciousness
in my own soul, though no other man ever did
orswould. Mary, my little wife, you won't
know it, but that goodbye kiss of yours this
morning has saved your husband from this
great SIM
George Reynolds did not sink. Tt was a
hard struggle, but the storm passed by without
falling on him as it did on many others, and
Mary, his wife, never knew that she had saved
her husband from a sin which, in her eyes would
have been worse than death.
The good which we have done, we shall
know, tEnot here, but hereafter" and the best
and truest lives are those which strew all the
years with the sweet aromas of loving and self
sacrificing deeds.
AS the water-lillies take root, and grow ST.
lently amid the slime aud mud in low waters,
until in the midsummer they open their great
creamy vases to the soft persuations of the
sunshine, and lie in Snowy fotillas on the bo-
SONS of streams, the glory and idealization of
al. flowers, SO amid the .lowlands of life, among
its shadows and mists, have we also to sow day
by day our small seed of all gentle and gener-
Gus deeds, not knowing when they take root,
or expecting to behold their unfolding into
blossoms on the river of time.
o, ye who sign to set your lives with the ara
fosques of great and noble deeds, who pant
Der border horizons, and higher opportunities,
God has appointed you a aoorh aehere you are,
Every day lifts up its white chalice out of
the night, and is held down to you through all
its solemn, silent-footed hours, for those small
labors of love whose true significance and rela-
tons we shall only understand in eternity.
And in this small daily labor lies much of
woman's work, and her sweet home influences
fall like the sunshine and the evening dew,
upon the characters around her.
She may little comprehend what a silent
force of healing, restraining, Strengthening in
fuence she is exerting, and periods of unrest
and despondeRcy may fill many hours with
shadows, which would be Illuminated with joy
and thanksgiving, if she could only "know as
she - known-"
But the pictures Of ali lives are locked up
in the eternal galleries, and the angels hold
the keys, and when Gods voice speaks. the
word, the doors shall be opened, aud when we
go in we shall all "behold and understands
Home Magazine.
'sIGKLY SHRED OF GULF STATES"