The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1871-04-11
A Touching Incident.

The following incident took place on
II. X. train passing through N. Y
When the train halted at a station, anon
the passengers from the West came
man of about thirty years Of age elbow
ing his way through the crowd, and bear
ing in his arms child. He was a BOO
man, his clothes were poor, he locke,
poor. Around his hat was tied a nice,
Of soiled, worn Grape. 1t was evidentl,
oil the mourning his scanty nj cans woulc
permit, for the mother of the child tha,
was dead. This man was rough in exter
lor, yet his face was an honest one. He
handled the baby awkwardly, yet there
was a tenderness in his sad look tina,
showed tho purity of a fsther's love
The little fellow lay asleep on his coarse.
~ clad knee; a stray sunbeam glanced
across its tired face. They were both
tired the father and the child, for thew
had come from the far West, and as he
placed his hard, toil.worn hand to shield
1t from the golden rays, there was in his
look mixture of sadness and care, as II
his pent-up feelings had been so crowded
back into the inner cells of his heart that
even tears could have been no reliet to
the hidden anguish that was making his
life misery.
The poor child cried; it might be the
little thing was tired it might be it
missed its mother perhaps it was hung
ry perhaps it was sick, and so it cried.
The tears rolled down its baby cheeks I;
the father wiped the dewy drops as they
fell, and then tried to feed it. He was
so awkward with the bottle-his had been
life of toll and hardship-that he knew
not how to give tho darling its nourish-
ment. As he made effort after effort to
stife the cries and check the tears of his
motaerless babe, how he must have missed
her who in his life of labor and priva.
tion had been his solace and comfort !:
an unbidden tear started to his eye but
he brushed it quickly away; all who saw
him pitied him. AT length woman
richly appareled, with an infant resting
on the lap of its nnrse beside her-(she
had been watching the many said in a
6o tohS, oi'C uic tut Cullu. Inc
poor fellow looked at her with a look of
gratitude, for there was mothers ten.
derness in her voice. With a humble
resignation, as though it we're pain to
part with him, even for moment, he
gave her his boy. The woman took it
its soiled clothes rested on her costly silk,
Its tiny head was soon beneath her shawl,
and in moment all was still. Like the
Grecian daughter who through the iron
bars fed her starving father. 80 did this
high born lady from her breast feed the
hungry child, and when on her gentle
bosom the little one lay in calm sleep,
she put aside the shawl. The fathers
heart swelled with gratitude. He said,
as tear welled in his eye, and his voice
was thick with emotion "Thank you, III
take him now" Then the woman's ma.
ture spoke forth as she answered. "Not
yet you yu..ly vii! Maksvbip %a,aaduf"~ vmi'n
hnsh tist own cnnu red1iifed such nour-
ishment as only mother can give, she
gently rose and placed the stranger boy
with his father We trust that when
this noble woman shall stand before her
Jndge, it shall be said unto her, .'Inas-
much as ye have done it unto the least
of these, ye have done 1t unto me-"