The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1869-07-23
glisreIIaneons geIertianss /.
OLD NICK HAWKER.
A BAD NAME.

A BAD NAME.
4 called about the place to drive q
carriage and do odd jobs. l am Mich
olas Hawker. Maybe, if you've heard
of me, you've heard nae called Old
Nick n
And the man stood back, fumbling
with his ragged cap, as the clergyman's
fair-hsired wife turned her benignrnt
face upon him.
Have you references p she asked. .
No, m 7
But 1 especially stated that appli
caDts must bring them
chr
q said I must have references.
4 can't read. 1 heard it by mouth
If you must ma'am, l can't get the
place. I'd like to-
Why's Are you a stranger here
Do you know no oueg haa s
4 wish was. Too many knows me,
not knowing any good good of me,
InaCs the worst. ro4 n
He fumbled with his old cap again,
looking into it as though he hoped to
find references there. 1t was one, in a
certain way. The kind of cap no
steady man ever wears. It spoke Of the
tipsey slumbers on cellar doors and IN
cutters. It was jammed and mashed
and greasy and torn. Yet even under
standing that as she did, and marking
the incomplete washing of the unac-
customed face, and the untidy combing
of long neglected hair, the strange pitt
ful attempts to spruce and look respect
able, Mrs Harrow, read a wistful some
thing in the fellows face that attracted
her. ..alaa
4 don't quite understand you,' she
said. why, if you knew that, did you
come at all
4 thought mabbe-being clergy
mans lady, you know,-mebbe 'twornt
all talk about helpin' sinners to repent
There he paused. Some thought Of
the tallying of Christian precept and
practice was plainly in his mind; but
he did not know how to utter it with
out giving offence. He spoke the next
moment very, very humbly.
You see, ma'am, have been drink
ing for a good many years. I've had
trouble. Wife-but she dead and gone
now; 1 hope she's forgiven for her share
oft. All you'd care for is, I've had
trouble enough to kill a man, and have
not cared to be respectable. But the
other day saw my girl, my only child
Lizzie. She's growing up good and
smart and pretty, and she promised to
keep little room for me, somewhere, if
I'll try to be decent again; and I want
to try. I'd work low, and work hard,
and-GOd hears nee-Pll keep sober
but refsrence-bless ye, ma'am, there's
Smith at the tavern could tell you l
was drunk in his bar-room every night
for five good years, and there's Brown
and the Grocery, could tell you all the
odd jobs I've done for the last three
years. were paid for in glasses of grog.
That is the only reference Old Nick is
likely to get. 1 deserve it; but it is
hard, now / want totry; for / am strong
yet, and know all about horses and the
like. a
Again looking at the man, Mrs. Har-
row, who studied people as some men
and women do pictures, saw amidst the
ruined features and watery eyes, that
wistful look which had touched her be-
fore, and her heart yearned to prove to
the man that Christian charity and
kindness were not .all talk She be-
hsvsd the poor fellow was in earnest,
and that BY hiring him she might save
him. Mr.. Harrow, the clergyman Of
Marsh Msllow, and her husband whose
preconceived ideas of what a servant
should be, were exemplifed in the per-
sons ofthe Scotch gardennr, Rufus Fur
geson, who had, in bis white cravat and
black coat, more than once been taken
for Mr.. Harrow himself by strangers,
and Betsey Ball, the prim and highly
respectable female domestic of the
household. Mr.. Harrow, his wife knew,
could not but disapproye. 1t is all very
wen to go to India to save the souls Of
heathens; but Mrs. Harrow felt sure
that, jealous as he was in such cause,
Mr.. Harrow could not think of taking
any one heather into his own house for
the same purpose.
1t will never do, 1 krow,' she said
to herself, with a sigh.
But just then the man spoke again.
If you could only see Lizzie, and
know about her, ma'am.' ~
And she saw his rough hands clutch
themselves in a despairing way that de-
cided her to risk Mr.. Harrow's disap-
proyal.
I'll take you on trial. she said with
a smile. 81 Never mind the reference.
If you really love your child you'll not
make me repent it, and / think you
do
And the man, with face all aglow,
ruined as it was, made what he meant
for bow, and said oily:
Thank'y ma'am.'
Reading him as she did, Mrs. Har-
row could not have understood his
gratitude better had he knelt and kissed
the hem of her robe.
James told me not to trouble him-
to choose a man for myself, SO she tried
to comfort herself; but she knew Just
what would come after all-the aston
ished elevation of the eyebrows, frigid
disspproval, the quiet censure, so much
harder to bear than any scolding; and, |
though the Rev. James Harrow never
guessed it, took up her cross in the
cause of Christian duty, when she re-
solved to bear it, for the sake Of trying
to save one poor soul and body.
She did not presume to say why she
had hired this man, instead Of one of.
dozen Tebutable sober persons, with
characters and savings, who applied for
,he position, and no one fathOmed the
motive. She had prided herself lit
lie on being considered a sensible wo-
nan, especially by her husband, and
he gave that up with sigh, and heard
hat muttered, 4 fancied 1 could en-t
rust an important matter to your
charge, Elizabeth. | find l am mis-
akaD IN silanca IF only tb;s mon