The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1872-12-26

and reproach called to him, Robert
Hammond, where is thy father and
thy sister," He might have answered.
81 am not their keeper" but he never
thought of such an excuse.
'EMary," he said to his wife, in
tones so solemn and earnest that she
opened her eyes with start, "Mary,
where do you think father and Lucy
are?"
"God knows, Robert-and that is
one comfort-but 1 was just thinking
about them"
"Were you? That is strange"
Then, after few minutes intense
thought he got up and walked up and
down the room, pushing in his pre-
occupation chairs and ottomans out
of his way.
Mrs. Hammond waited quietly, tax
ing stitch after stitch, and glancing
occasionally into the troubled face of
her husband
Presently he stopped before her
and said:
''Mary, the river is dead-locked
with ice. I can leave my business
now better than I could ever have
done the last ten years. If I start at
once, I can be in New York by Christ
mas. What do you say?"
'God go with you, Robert, dearl
1 think you are right"
So the next morning Robert Ham
mond set his face Eastward, and, in
due time, trod the familiar walks of
New York City. But he found his
fathers office in strange name, and
his memory had passed from the con-
stantly changing financial world
The old home was empty, and fall
ing into that look of decayed gentili-
ty which is so much worse than hon
est poverty.
Then he suddenly remembered a lit
tie farm not far from Paterson, which
had been a part of his mothers for
tune; and, hiring horse and buggy,
he tried to find it. 1t was only low,
stone cottage, surrounded by cherry
trees that were now old and bare
The fields around were white and
still, the little stream bound in icy
fetters, the cattle staring piteously on
the earth, and dumb in their cold
hunger and comfortless life.
A rude, unpainted fence divided a
small garden and yard from the gen
eral waste of desolation and, walking
slowly across the yard, was q figure
which, in spite of shabby clothes and
aging years, Robert easily recogniz-
ed as his father.
The old man saw the approaching
buggy, and going to the gate, called
out in querulous tones: ''You need
not aight, sir; we have no room to
entertain strangers. We never do it,
sirI No, indeed!"
He kept up his protestations the
more fervently as he saw the stranger
did not pay any attention to them,
meanwhile standing inhospitably at
the closed gate.
Robert saw pale, weary-loohng
woman come for a moment to the
door, and then, after vacant stare,
close it again. It was al very dis
couraging, but he never for one mo-
ment hesitated in his intentions.
Leaving the horse tied to the fence,
he walked up to the closed gate, and
stretching his hand across it said,
''Father."
The old mans face got suddenly
gray, and the lines about the mouth
deepened involuntarily; he dropped
his eyes, but raised them quickly to
say ....
'1 am poor man now, Robert,
there is nothing to be got by seeking
me out"
Il want nothing, father, but your
forgiveness and love. 7 am a rich
man now, unless you shut your door
against me. In that case [ shall feel
poor enough"
"Come in, then" The tone was
not gracious one, but Robert knew
what it had cost the old man to hum
BILE SO far, and he accepted the invita-
ton with "Thank you, sir."
Earnestly, as they walked up the
little path, Robert spoke to his father,
and what he said must have had some
effect, for when they reached the
house-door he opened it with nervous
haste, and in much softened tones
called out: 'Iucy, here is your
brother Robert !"
Lucy's welcome made up for all de-
linquencies, and the evening which
had promised so little, ended in such
confidence as had never before exist
ed between this father and his children.
They spent few days together in
New York, before leaving for the
West, and the elder Hammond, attir-
ed once more in irreproachable broad
cloth, visited such of his haunts as
were willing to know him, making
no small boast of the immense wealth
of his "son Robert, and the gigantic
business they were going to do to
gether in Chicago.
I should do very wrong if I led my
readers to infer that Ralph Ham
mond's character essentially and i'm
mediately changed. His avarice new
er left him until his dying day. But
=, +ba boo,,+;f,I Ioo,o,,o,;o,,.L;,, &c -;