The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-01-27
SELECTED STORY.
THE BOY.

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nIe 80 h,no and clear. Though was doz-
my ON a saloon step. this day OF beauty got
avon tbouob nv wavering sight. perhaps
I sat there an hour perhaps an age, in which
the blinks 1 got were the recurring days.
1t suddenly occurred to me that such long
of fine weather ought to be en-
loved more actively. But the world whirls,
as everybody knows. mumbled number
of Jokes on nature as staggered abroad Al
ter a tiresome journey, came upon an aley
and group of boys travelling through
game of marbles on their knees, like penltents
stamping through Jerusalem. And IN tnelr
midst was Billy. Billy was noble iookllle
boy. paused and tried to get in positl00nn 10
look at him. / felt maudlin pride In Billy:
He had Morals blue eyes. blessed Nora!
She was gone where she couldn't be cursed
any more; poor little broken-hearted thng)
As Billy photographed himself in my eyes,
his bright hair blowing, his lusty fingers
gouging pit for the centre marble, the CON
trast between what he and were born to De-
and what we were, struck me like punet.
had tried to reform. Oh, yes. anu es.
cry failure was a link in my chain: was
utterly given over to the snakes and the lu-
res.
Now here was Bill, walking in my vagrant
steps; vicious Arab, under beautiful Cau-
casian guise.
eSay, Bill" begged one of the tribe, cast
''let me chaw yuor wax awhile"
Bill, with graceful generosity and contempt
of gain, tossed it over, saying:
''There; you can take it and keep it;
don't want it no more''
While stood in drunken dolor against the
fence, the group whirled up suddenly into
maelstrom. The centre to which they were
all sucked, was a steadfast rock with churning
fists and yellow top.
"Bilv' / shouted in fury, "come here, you
young scoundrelP'
Hearing my voice over the broil, he dash
ed through the boys and came, crying, bloody
and ruffled.
''What are you fighting about?" asked,
standing in tremulous judgment over him.
81 can't tell you, father" he answered
bravely.
What! Even the boy despised and dared
me! l lifted my hand and felt that could
kill him.
''Take that, then-and that, you little
wretch; I'll show you how to be bully, and
turn against your own father
My muscular hand brought frightful
blood gush out of his bruised face. / thought
he should feel that his father was solid man
in one respect, if the rest of my body was a
mass of moist wretchedness.
The boy, the boy! groan, when l remem-
Der it.
''Oh, don't father" he begged, wrnging
his dirty little hands. "Oh, father please
don't strike me, and I'll tell you all about it,
The boys said you was drunken old boat.
And I'll fight anybody that calls you that, IA
ther; l will if you kill me for it,
sat prone down upon the ground. That
was the hardest blow 1 ever had.
sect up, father,'' said Billy, casting a
bloody and warlike glance behind him, ''and
I'll help you along''
took hold of him, but a weakness moi
born of rum, kept me at his cracked, stubby
little feet. There was no one in the world
who cared whether l rose or went on down
but him. He cared. l 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 instant in hi
love and long suffering, through the boy a.
plainly as he appeard to dying Sir Launfa
through the leper. When on earth, He wa.
always going about picking up the abomina
bic, and since He has left the earth, He send
Tor them by messengers they canot hell
knowing.
Men should respect in me that spark which
the boy respected. would show him what {
grand and over-mastering thing is that sou
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 bluer and more
heaven-like than the sky.
'sDo you love your father?'' | as
holding to him like a woman.
Eyes, sir, I'll lick any body that calls yo,
names, the bright, tender lineaments, in hi
face gushing with another shower
A horizontal hail of mud and pebbles hit IL,
while he was speaking. Billy reared up like
charger snufiing the battle affair 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, | asked
with my face turned from him: ''Billy, viii
you help your father to try once more 81 Up
on which he bounded up pumped nv arm
with all the vigor and familiarity that tn
street had put in him.
"Yes-sir-ee! will that, you bet,' vowe,
Billy.
very few minutes after he subsidized,
heard his soft breath going in and out tn,
doors of his lips in regular cadences While h,
slept and started up to fight his skirmisher
over, logged my weak brain to work, anC
planned, and planned, and planned.
When look back at that wretch in soile(
tavern sheets, glaring into darkness with wa
terry eyes, my legs tremble under me, though
they have gone stoutly these many years. i
was such very straight path up from thai
place, and L came so near falling, time aftel
time.
The next day got work on the railroad
From the gutter could not go directly back
to the bar, since drunkenness is one of the
vices which is not tolerated in LAWYERS. II
was hard to shovel dirt in the hot sun. I sal
down half fainting A good-natured Patrick
came slyly with a bottle, and babe me
.'whisht at it, which put forth the will tc
do-llke weak beast-when Billy swoOned
down from passing freight and squared him
self before that Irishman, while the very tat.
tiers at his elbow bristled with wrath
look here, nowp' threatened he, sending
the bottle far over the track, eff you get my
father to drnkin' again, I'll kick you.''
1t would have been so very hard for the boy
to fulfil the threat with his baby legs, on Pat
rick's high breeches, that my Irishman took
jolly compassion on him, and roared VOW
never more to put his Shiny temptation to nv
face.
After had delved awhile, Billy had new
suit, set OF books, and school privileges
Then situation as copyist was opened to me.
The boy and fell into the habit of striking
hands and going to church on Sunday
Some of my old friends began to notice me-
Oh, tell you, it makes a mans heart swell
like green bulb to have an honest hand
come seeking his.
Finally, got into practice. Sometimes
thirst came on me and | stormed up and
down in my office, and twisted out little locks
OF hair, as if the curse hung to the roots of
that once locked the door and threw QUE
the key and was prisoner till my ASSOCIATE
came.
Passing saloon one evil time, the tinkling
OF glasses and the breath of mine enemy PEN
etrated my senses That saloon door sucked
me just through my coat-skirts and quite
knocked into the street.
''Here, father" pleaded Billy, charging me
with second jerk, ''come out of this-come
out OF this, we're going to make men of our
selves, father"
Yes, men, Billy" 1 subscribed. So
didn't run into that side track, because had
such a faithful tender.
Coming up socially, often does much, for a
man morally. Cases multiplied and seemed
to grow with my trust. The boy and had
smart lodgings up town. He rose in school
was so proud of him.
I've heard how women love their children
with close, peculiar devotion. think / must
have loved him with mothers love. There's
no other way of expressing how near the bow
is to me.
=, When he came from school and met me on
the streets, he was often carrying the satcbel
OF smooth-haired, dark-eyed girl, to whom
he would exclaim, as he Loyalty touched his
cap: That's my fatherp with such a nrond
accent that the blood leaped in nv veins.
Oh, my good fellow, it's a glorious day for
you when your child is proud of YOU.
We all live together now; Billy. his dark
haired Nora, the little rowdies and 1, in a
home with no end Of verandas and vines.
The respectable handle of Judge is set to nv
name, but Billy's children, who give the echo
to his former street training, stand in no