Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-01-05

| strom. The center to which they
were all sucked up was steadfast
rock with churning fists and yell
low top.
"Bill!'' I shouted in fury, "comc
here, you young scoundrel!''
Hearing my voice over the broil,
he dashed through the boys and
came, crying, bloody and rufiied.
"What are you fighting about?"
asked, standing in tremulous judg-
mcnt over him.
II can't tell you, father" he an
swered brayely.
What! Even the boy despised and
dared me! lifted my hand and felt
that I could kill him.
"Take that, then-and that, you
little wretch; I'll show you how to
be bully, aud turn against your
own father"
My muscular hand brought a
frightful blood gush out Of his
bruised face. l thought that he
should feel that his father was a
solid man in one respect, if the rest
of my body was mass Of moist
wretchedness.
The boy, the boy! I,groan, when
l remember it.
"Oh don't, father" he begged,
wringing his dirty little hands,
"Oh, father, please don't strike me,
and I'll tell you all about it. The
boys said you were drunken old
bloat. And I'll fight anybody who
calls you that, father; will if you
kill me for it,"
l sat prone down on the ground.
That was the hardest blow l ever
had.
"Gct up, father" said Billy, cast
ing bloody and warlike glance be.
hind him, "and I'll help you along" :"
I took hold of him, but weakness
not born of rum, kept me at his
cracked, stubby little feet. There
was no one in the world who cared
whether / arose or went down, but
him. He cared. put my arms
around the boy and cried against
him. No more drunken, glazing
repentance for me. Every tear was
hard as pearl with resolution
The good Christ appeared that in
stant in his love and long suffering,
through the boy, as plainly as he
appeared to dying Sir Launfal
through the leper. When on earth,
He was always going about picking
up the unfortunate, and since He
has left the earth, He sends for
them by messengers they cannot
help but know.
Men should respect in me that
spark which tho boy respected. l
would show him what a grand and
overmastering thing is that soul
which the God of glory values.
''Don't cry, father" requested
Billy, while he ceased not to paint
bloody sunrise on his face. Better
than sunrise was that little face to
me. His eyes looked blucr and
more heavenly than the sky.
"Do you love your father?" ask
ed, holding to him like a woman.
"Yes, sir; I'll lick anybody that
calls you names;" the bright, ten
der firmaments in his face gushing
with another shower.
A horizontal hail Of mud and
pebbles hit us while he was speak
ing. Billy reared up like a charger
snuffing the battle afar off. But /
made him retreat from the enemy's
lines.
When the boy and / were laid at
night in low tavern, which was
our only home, l asked, with my
face turned from him, "Billy, will
you help your father to try once
more:" Upon which be bounded up
and pumped my arm with all the
'vigor and familiarity that the street
had put in him.
"Yes-sir-ee! l will that, you bet" !"
vowed Billy.
A very few minutes after he had
subsidized, / heard his soft breath
going in and out the doors of his
lips in soft cadences. While he
slept and started up to fight his
skirmishes over, flogged my weak
brain 10 work, and planned, and
planned, and planned.
When l look back to that wretch
in soilcd tavern sheets, glaring into
darkness with watery eyes, my legs
tremble under me, though they have
gone stoutly these many years. 1t
was such very straight path up
from that place, and l came SO near
falling, time after time.
The next day l got work OH the
railroad. From the gutter | could
not 60 directly back to the b&,
since drunkenness is one of the
vices which is not tolerated in law
ycrs. 1t was hard to shovel dirt in
the hot sun. l sat down half faint
ing. A good-natured Patrick came
slyly with a bottle, and bade me
"whist at it," which l pat forth
the will to do-like weak beast
when Billy swooped down from a
passing freight and squared himself
before that Irishman, while the
very tatters at his elbow bristled
with wrath.
"Look here, now!' threatened he
sending the bottle far over the
track, "if you get my father to
drinkin' again, I'll kick YOU"
1t would have been SO very hard
for him to fulfil his threat with his
baby legs, on Patrick's high brccch-
es, that my 1rishman took jolly
compassion on him, and roared a
vow never more to put his Shiny
temptation to my face.
After / had dclved awhile, Billy
had new suit, a set Of books and
school privileges. Then situation
as copyist was opened to me. The
boy and me got into the habit of
Strikinu hands and voinr fO church