The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1868-08-20
a TOUCHING INCIDENT.

The following incident Of travel in mar
lated by correspondent of the Daily .Sar-
atogian 1t took place on the Rensselaer,
& Saratoga Railroad, on one of the North
ern trains, between Saratoga and White
hall:
When the train halted at Saratoga,
among the passengers from the West came
man OF about thirty years of age, elbow
ing his way through the crowd, and bear
ing in bis arms child. He was a poor
man his clothes were poor ; he looked
poor. Around his hat was tied a piece of
soiled, worn Grape II was evidently all
the mourning his scanty means would per-
nit, for the mother of the child was dead.
This man was rough in exterior, yet his
face was an honest one. He handled the
baby awkwardiy, yet there vas tender
ness in his sad look that Showed the puri-
ty Of fathers love. The little fellow
lay asleep On his coarsely clad knee; a
stray sunbeam glanced across is tired face.
They were both tired, the father and
child, for they had come from the far
West and as he placed his hard, toll worn
| hands to shield II from the golden rays,
there WAS In his look mixture of sadness
and care, as if his pent-up feelings had
been SO crowded back into the inner cells
of his heart that even tears could have
been no relief to the hidden anguish that
was making his lite misery.
! The poor child cried it might be The
| little thing was tired, it might be it missed
/ its mother perhaps it was hungry per-
! haps it was SICK, and SO it cried. The
| tears rolled down its baby cheeks; the
| father wiped away the dew-drops as they
/ fell, and then tried to feed it. He was SO
| awkward with the bottle-his had been
q life of toll and hardship--and le knew
not how to give his darling its nourish-
ment. As lie made effort after effort to
/ stife the cries and check the tears of his
| motherless babe, how he must have miss
| ed her who IN his life of labor and priyae
| ton had b, en- his solace and comfort
| An uubidden tear started to his eye, but
! he brushed 1t quickly away. All who
saw him pitied him. At length q woman
richly apparelled, with an infant resting
on the lap Of her nurse beside her-she
had been watching the man-said in a
gentle tone. "Give me the child" The
poor fellow looked at her with a look of
gratitude, for there was a mothers ten
derness III her voice. With humble resig~
nation, as though it were pain to part with
7 him, even for moment, he gave her his
boy. The woman took ii its soiled
clothes rested on her costly silk; It's tiny
head was soon beneath her shawl, and in
q moment all was still Like the Grecian
daughter, who through the iron bars fed
her starying father, So did this high born
ladyteem her breast feed the hungry child,
and when, on her gentle bosom the little
one lay in calm and unyexcd sleep; she
put aside the shawl.
The fathers heart swe.led with graft
tude. He said, as tear welled in his
eye, and his voice was thick with emotion.
THANK you, I'll take him now" Then
the woman's nature spoke forth, as she
gently answered, mot yet; you viii wake
him. and mile after mile that noble
hearted woman held that poor man:
child, aud il was>not until her own babe
required such nouIishment as only moth
er can give, she gently rose and placed thC
stranger boy With Its father.