Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1869-11-02

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acquiring that money, and his whole
future had depended upon its posses,
sion. Its loss made his life, backward
and forward, one great blank. All
the golden reward of those years of
pain, and toll, and selfdenial, had
crumbled into heap of ashes which
would fill the hollow of his hand. Oh,
bitter, bitter, bitter!
Presently he felt himself shaken
violently by the shoulder. A voice
speaking. The words seemed to come
from long distance, and to evolve
themselves out of a continuous noise,
like the roaring of surf breaking on
the shore.
"Richard Craig, | arrest you on the
charge of nurderr' said the voice.
He was conscious then that those
words had been spoken over and over
again in his deafened ears, but had
conveyed no idea to his mind. he
rose unsteady to his feet and looked
around. His great agony seemed to
have removed him from all conscious
ness of familiar sights and sounds.
All things were unreal to him. Bur.
ley stood by the door. One police
man also kept guard there, while an.
other stood beside Craig. Crouching
down on the floor in a corner at the
foot of the bed was Annie. She was
rocking herself to and fro, and crying
loudly. Her dress was stained with
blood, and her hair hung down upon
her shoulders. Across her knees lay
the corpse of her child.
"Open your eyes, pet Let mother
know you hear Pussie, look at me
look at mother !"
She said these words in a low
sweet voice, with her lips close to the
chiId's ear. Suddenly, she threw her.
self backward, with the pale face
elapsed tightly to her breast.
"Oh, my God~ she walled, any
baby is dead! What shall | do Oh
what shall | dor
Richard Craig stood watching her
without seeming to be cognizant of
the scene. 1t was as if communica,
tion had been suspended between his
senses and his brain, and it was i'm
possible for him to recover mental i'm.
pressions.
At last he slowly walked across
the room and stood beside the moth.
er and her dead child, looking down
upon them.
After pause, during which Annie
betrayed no consciousness of his pre-
sence, he stopped and touched her Oh
the shoulder.
"Don't pity her" he said in a slow.
labored way; "she burned all my
money; pity NE"
/ He raised himself from the bending
! posture.
"All is gone," he said, in a slow
musing way. "Ten years | worked
| for that money" He stopped; bis
eyes were fixed on vacancy, as if the
! heavy, burdensome years passed in
mental review before him. Then his
eyes wandered again to the child, anG
/ he pointed his finger at her.
She burned !' he said in his hard
automatic voice.
Annie had never locked at him, haC
never heard one word that he SAID
Craig stopped and touched her agair
on the shoulder.
Annie" he said, pointing a second
time at the dead child, "do you know
what she did? She burned all my
money"
" What do care for your money p
cried Annie, with flashing eyes and il
tones Of mingled hate and horror
You've killed my child. hope you'll
hang for itI'
Then she returned to her lament
as if she had never been interrupted
Her passion and vehemence shivereC
Craig's apathy as blow shivers shee
ice. He looked at her with an ex
preston of rage and grief impossible
70 describe. 1t was so horrible tha
the three men looked at him in abso
lutte fear. Their souls recoiled at tn,
spectacle of such great spiritual ago
ny.
A realization of his situation haC
come to him in one lightning-like flash
The golden reward of his ife's la
bors had been snatched from him il
the twinkling of an eye, and he wa
a beggar. Doubly paupered, too; in
aSmuch as he had been robbed of al
energy and hope.
Then he had turned to the woman
whom he had loved so long. and Wit
was to be his wife; she abhorred him
and uttered only a wish for his shame
full death. The mark of Cain wa
upon him. Already the murder of al
innocent child began to lie an incu
bus upon his mind.
Perhaps" he thought, :" in anoth
er world | shall not regret, or ever
remember"
He put his hand into his breast.
The men who were watching hin
thought he sought a weapon to xii
the woman who had just taunted him
and one of them sprang to his side
Quick as he was, it was too late
Craig had put the muzzle of a pisto
to his temple and fired. He fell heay
| lily to the floor before they could reacI
him. One second he was before then
strong and full of vitality; the mex
he was corpse. He lay with hi
head just touching Annie's foot in it
old worn shoe; and yet she neve
even looked at him.
Color OF A HoRsE.-The Arabs i
lustrate their estimate of the differ
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