Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1864-04-27

a stranger 90 All the way to Beacon street,
Hamilton Brent thought of it, and after he
sat down to his own dinner, pictured the sup
per table in Davis room, the centre piece of
thankf ness. To his matronly housekeeper,
whose heart was ever open to deeds of chart
ty, he told the sad story, and promised to find
. the next day where they lived, that from the
bounties he had been blest with Giles Davis
home might be yet happier and pleasanter--
The next morning. he did not forget 10 ask
Giles where he lived, and after dark the
housekeeper and her son paid st. Nicholas
visit 10 the room designated, leaving their
basket upon the platform In front of the door,
with nothing TO show from whence it came
but the the two letters" II. B. burned
rpon the handle.
Early and late was Giles Davis at work,
and the ragged charity hand' that at first
the men in the yard had summed, grew to be
respected BY all, from his employer down to
Tip, the little fellow who made fires and did
the errands of the Office. The old house
keeper, after being caught in her second visit
la St. Nicholas, used to go in and chat with
| the little woman whose hand and life grew
marvelously strong as the better time coming
cleaned upon her.
! Hope on her its heavenly radiance shed,
| And waved its silver pinions Ger her head"
The winter went by, and March came-the
| month of winds and snow, of halls and rains
| of DAYS that are cherries and nights that
| are gloomy even to the gayest heart, and still
| master and man stood as firm and as high in
| each others confidence as ever. Often, as
| he sat alone, Hamilton Brent conceived an
| imperfect knowledge of his proverb shining
| upon him. in the kind effort os Giles Davis,
| but the full time had not yet come for him to
see 90 after many days." the wealth of its
promise.
| Upon one of those st ormy days you and |
have seen in March, came an order for ship
| timber, WHICH Brent must attend to himself.
All day long he staid in that drenching and
chilling storm. That night his walk home
seemed longer than usual-the house colder
the matronly housekeeper "crusty." His
great visions were sad ones-his dreams more
like spiritual visitations than like visions that
we love to think linger around and above us
in our sleeping moments.
The next day at his office passed sadly and
drearily until it grew nearly hight, when heart
and flesh failed him, and he fell fainting to
the floor. In the hour of excitement that
followed, Giles Davis stepped into the posi-.
ton of counselor and nurse. Every one IL
and around the office gladly followed his di
rections OF asked his advice He it was who
they agreed support Brent home and stay with
him During the illness of many weeks thai
follewod his rash exposure, Giles strong arm
was the one on which the good old housekeep
=
little woman was brought from her humble
home to the grander one of her husband:
employer, TO assist in the enormous duties o.
nurse. The sick man, whose friends Twill
the exception of an invalid aunt, who lived
with her daughter in Maine,) had all gone t
the esprit land, looked. in moments of con
sciousness, the gratitude ne could not speak
every day, Giles would go to the office to
consult with Porter and report favorably to
his employer.
1t was rot until April showers +" had
brought Nay flowers" that Hamilton Brent
took his old place in the lumber yard. But
the strongest tie that bind humanity to-
gether, united their hearts, and Hamilton
never forgot that, under God, he owed his
after prosperity to the charity hands.
During the summer evenings when his bach
| elor home grew silent, he would think, with a
lingering regret, of pleasanter one in a
quiet street, and devise some plan to insure
that one as a part of his own. 1t was not I'M
til Christmas that his plan perfected.
| Then, when the other hands received the slip
of paper with "A Merry Christmas written
on it, and a dollar note pinned to it, Giles re-
ceiyed little package, and opening it in his
| pleasant home, found it contained the gift OF
| one-1Jurth interest in the lumber-yard pro-
vided Mrs. Davis would consent to occupy the
house in Beacon street, in company with he1
husband, Hamilton Brent, and her old friends
| the matronly housekeoPor and her Mrs
Davis was not unreasonable. She went, car
rying with her nothing but the sweet smiles
that had made her humble home a paradise
for her husband; and as Hamilton Brent en-
ioyed the pleasantness of the group that lin
| gcred in the moonlight of his ancestral man
sion, his heart understood at length the bless
cdness Of the command, 9 Cast thy bread up
on the waters, and thou shalt find it after
| many days