The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1871-12-21
JOSEPH G0LDiNG'S LAST CHRIST.
MAS.

1t was very strange, thought old Jo-
seph Golding, that he couldn't be mas
ter of his own mind. He had lived o
great many years, and neither remorse
nor money had ever been in the habit of
disturbing him; but now it seemed to
him as if the very foundations of his
life were breaking up. He was well
through with his days work-he had
dined comfortably sat in an easy
chair in a luxurious drawing room,
whose crimson bangings shut out the
still cold of the December afternoon-
he had nothing to. do but enjoy himself
Mr.. Golaing liked to enjoy himself at
this season as much as others did, for it
was Christmas Eve. What though he
was in the habit Of spending it solitar-
ilyp-he liked solitude. Perhaps be-
cause nothing more lively came in his
way, and he was too shy to look out for
it.
For many year on Christma as Eve he
had sat balancing in his mind the great
accounts PR ssnted in his ledgers, the ac-
cumul4ting Golfers at his bankers, the
strokes OF business he would make in
future. Not 50 now. The year was
drawing to close; some intruding
voice kept whispering that in like man
ner SO was his career. He could not
put it from him, try as he would. The
voice reminded him of coming time
when his life's work would be all doue
even MS his days work was all done
now-when he would be ready to sit
down IN the evening and look over the
balance-sheet of his deeds, good and
evil. Curiously the old days came
trooping in slow procession before him.
And he had been able to forget them for
so very long!
His dead wife! He had not loved her
much when she was with him, but how
vivid was his memory for her now! He
could see her moving round tine house,
noiseless as a shadow, never intruding
on MIN after he had once or twice re-
pulsed her grufay, but going on her
own meek ways, with her face growing
whittier every day. Hs began to under
stand, as he looked back, why her
strength had failed and she had been
ready, when her baby came, to float out
on the tide and let it drift her into Gods
haven. She had had enough to eat and
to drink, but he saw now that he had
left her heart to starve. Heaven what
a hard man he had been He seemed to
see her white, still face, as he looked at
it the last time before they screwed
down the coffin-lid, with the dumb re-
proaoh frozen on it; the eyes that would
never plead vainly any more, closed for
ever.
He recalled passionately the three
days old baby that had cried in another
room just at that moment, moving all
the people gathered together for the
funeral with thrill of pity for the poor
little motherless morsel She toas pas
sionate, willful baby, all through her
babyhood; he remembered that. She
wanted-missed knowing what the lack
was-the love and sustenance which her
mother would have given her, and pro-
tested against fate with all the might of
her infant lungs. But, as soon as she
grew old enough to understand how USE
less it was, he had grown quiet, too ;
Just like her mother. He recalled her,
!, Il through her girlhood, a shy, still girl,
always obedient and submissive, but
never drawing very near him. Why 7
Because he would have repulsed her as
he repulsed her mother. He could see it
now. 1t was very strange these facts
should come back to him to-day, and
their naked truth with them. He had
been cold, hard, ungenial man, with
out sympathy for any one human be-
ing; absorbed utterly in the pursuit of
money-making. And so the c!ild,
Amy, had grown up in shadow without
him.
But suddenly, when she was eighteen,
the old passionate spirit that had made
her cry 80 when baby must have
awakened again, he thought; for she
fell in love then, and wished to marry.
To marry in defiance of his wishes. He
remembered her standing proudly before
him after one of their quarrels, where he
had been harsh and bitter, and abusive
of the man he wanted to call husband.
She had borne in silence reproach of her
self; but not Of him who had become to
her as her best existence. Her words
came back to the old man now:
Father, do you know anything
against Harry Church 7"
"Yes," he had answered, wrathfully
"I know that he is as poor as Job was
when he sat among the ashes. He can
not keep wife as daughter of mine
must be kept"
Anything else, father ?" she asked
looking him steadily in the eye.