The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1871-02-05

= caono Grace" he said wildly, "iet NJ ;;
: ling loving bov nave killed my SOD, my d.
'1 Ha i Saanee for his life" 1here
cIasned dI u thrown himself on his lsneos -,
a'oad In the bitterness of his T.n mnlle he erie
him ne moaned, "I would ba~a do, 8,
meant to s.n;, MN better than my life. nevo
never spoken an ann anar,, my darling boy. hav,
| Know what was doing wh No MN. did no
MHn aen upon his little head.U 'o"ard'J
{" do ns. she said in the same we,r, 4
dies what You 'V Wi b '6i,ngs Remember he
4o ,shonid hear you saS Won ,ad I.:m II any
told lie Bertrand said i'd he aa% %a klied him
and oaysely No one knows the truth save Con IN
~ % But she could not soothe him 11;.-
"a nv something terrible to witness. LIS femofse
mad ,oa nave told me" he cried !" that
me- Grn ssacn should do some deadly act Pity
little head g la n oe m; my boy my darling
httie Sasu tell the sorrow, the dis ss n,gnt.
told thas.sst fell upon that houseboIdy ana ana
%;. re- yay 1900 by all, and when il ,rne
hs s nle 9o'n'ng 0 and injured bis BRAIN was
The miserable fathers d I'LL, little hope of
1 claent was only known to his ~, "''oh was
looked ten 1 ye ans' ol Ssseni ngs Berata &C.
3ad seemed to CLEAN wildly in his white zoe
70 words can tell his sorrow !: he inved
i ~ ona with passionate tenderness and vel
croeily struck the defanceleas iiffie faII1 So
was playing with him. In the denths If H.
f haa ne reprosS6e1 tho dead parents who
@-atrot saasss. = Ssd Ssfpssixsa child,
his chrfuisn szz4 i6ssion and til cir fauY 49,;
it,. All that weary night he paced the library,
and so unconscious near him. No food had
passed his lips since morning; he was weak,
faint and exhausted. Still they kept watch
round the bed, hanging on each faint breath
that each would, be the last, and yet half
hoping, as the dreary hours passed, that mercy
might be shown, and the little life spared.
Grace never moved. When she left Bertrand,
one of the feeble little hands in her own. Twice
the housekeeper brought o glass of wine and
held it to her lips, but she turned from it sick
and shuddering. She could not remove her
eyes from the face of her darling.
In after years no ono could ever remember
how the weary hours of that long night passed.
No one thought of sleep, yet the dead silence
of the house was unbroken, save by the
never-ceasing, rapid footstep of tho father,
and the faint moan that ever and anon broke
from the white lips of little Paul.
The child did not die. The punishment of
the father was even harder to bear than that.
He recovered his health and strength, but his
reason was utterly destroyed. The injury the
brain had received was fatal one. He was
simple as he had been when an infant, but the
light of Intelligence that had beamed in his
little face was distinguished for ever.
1t was heavy punishment. heavier almost
than the wrctched father could bear. The care
of little Paul became his one object in life. His
sorrow and his most bitter remorse could never
be told, but they changed him. During the rest
of his life no one ever heard a hasty or angry
word from Bertrand Winters lips. With his
boy he was as gentle and loving as the most
tender woman could have been. Before he was
| thirty years old his hair was white as snow
people said he grieved much for his sons
misfortune. Grace and he alone knew how
that misfortune had been brought>on, and that
knowledge embittered his life. AS ears passed
on the first and most bitter pain of his anguish
became deadened, but his was a lifelong sor-
row. Grace, whom the blow had fallen
still more heavily, never quite recovered from
it's effect. She hardly know her once impetu.
ous husband in the humble, saddened man, who
seemed though he could not do enough to
atone for the sorrow he had brought upon her
Maude married happily, and rosy, Laughing
children played about them, wondering always
why grandmamma was 50 sad, and grandpapa
never smiled. He never smiled but he would
take them on his knee and warn them, as he
himself had never been warned, of the evil and
misery caused by indulgence in bad temper.