The Grand Haven news. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1858-18??, 1864-04-27
LUcIUs STREET.

who sat nj the Ironb WlndOW. 10 you
sec that young mnnT
Yes Henry; ] happened TO know him
--one Of your clerks" and the lady turn
ed her face, most sweet, most fair, from
the beautiful child, TO whom she was toss
ing up and down a cluster of silvered
voiced bells, and listening TO its crow of
triumph.
"Was one of my clerks, you mean,
Ellen. That's the very young man we
turned off last week for helping himself 20
a ten dollar bill out of the drawer. You
remember | told you about il"
Yes. but / never suspected that he
was the one. You know he brought me
messages several times from the store,
and | was always pleased with his bright,
pleasant, courteous manner. He hadn't
the face Of rogue, Harry"
"No this was his first ohense. / be-
lieve the boy was as honest when he came
from the country as ever one was; but
but he fell into bad company, and there
was an end of him. There's no trusting
boy or man after the first theft" and Wal
don took up his paper.
His wife glanced sadly across the street
to the slight young figure which was
slowly passing out of her range of vision
She remembered its rapid, alert step,
which had struck her little while before
and fanced there was remorse and de-
preston in the altered bearing. Then
her glance dropped on the sweet face with
the wide bloom in its cheeks, and the
childish wonder aud JOY in its eyes, and
her heart grew pitilul, and reached out
with q half mother-yearning, after the
slight, halfdrooping figure which had just
passed by.
She thought of him, friendless, dis
graced, desolale, this youth in the great
city, so full Of all temptation and excite
ment; and she thought, too, of the moth
or he must once have bad, and was just
as fond and proud of him as she was Of
her own boy; and invoIuntarily this lady
whom wealth and luxury and all that is
good and to be desired in life and not
spoiled, reached out her hands with n
quick gesture of alarm and protection to
her child.
"What is the matter, Ellenr
She smiled, half apologetically.
Il was thinking, dear, what if that
boy were ours"
Mr.. Waldon looked down on his small
heir little touched.
." shall never place him in the midst
Of such temptations as my warehouse"
"Bn: this boy had to meet them, and
because he failed once, it seems TO me
chat it was hard to turn him right out in
to the cold and dark Of the world"
Mr.. Waldon smiled little.
40, Ellen," he said, "that would
sound very pretty in a story, and senti-
ment of this sort is very attractive in a
woman like you; but it don't do for us
business men. We have got to be up to
the mark, hard, and straight forward, and
practical"
And yet, Harry, you business men
have had mothers love you, and have sons
in your turn to love- That is the hard,
straight, practical truth"
When she paused her husband said.
"Why, Ellen, what makes you take
such interest in this clerk, whom you have
never seen more then half dozen times 2"
" | do not know, Harry. Perhaps it
is because | look at my own boy and
yours"
"Well, to please you, I'll promise to
take him back once more, and give him
trial"
And Mrs. Waldon rose up, went over
to her husband, pushed away the black
hair, sifted with gray, from his forehead,
and the kiss which fell there was the
warm, sweet and fragrant kiss of a loving
wife.
Half an hour later, Lucius Street was
retracing his steps through the street
flanked with his stately homes, down
which he had wandered unconsciously,
for some spirit Of unrest and unhappiness
had taken possession of him that day,
from which he vainly tried to deliver him
self.
Suddenly voice called him on the op-
posite side Of the street" Lucius! Lu-
cius Street,
He turned, and there, standing on the
stone steps of his dwelling, Mr.. Waldon
beckoned to him. A blush burned up
into the young boys cheek, and he hesi-
tated.
And again Mr.. Waldou's voice came
over to him kindly, but auihortatively-