Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1875-06-03

guardian. angels CT Birnyy--Graham's
home. Truly, as he had told her once,
he had not SO much peace or JOY in this
life that Alice Marlay should have
thought worth while to take that
little away from him. He had few
friends. He repealed people by his
cynical GOODNESS, and as the time
! went on he became more disagreeable
and unmerciful than ever. He said to
himself he did not care whether he had
any friends or not. He told himself a
falsehood. He did care. Nobody can
say the like and tell the truth.
He obtained another situation, not so
good as the one he had lost, but he was
glad to get even that. Then hard times
came suddenly, all the world was turned
upside.down and driven out at sea, and
Birney Graham along with it, The luck
less young man could obtain no work to
keep himself, his peevish old father and
his vixenish sister alive. The childish
complainings of his father and the nag
gings and goadings of his sister drove
him nearly frantic. 1t was not pleas
ant situation for a gentlemanly young
man to be placed in. 1t had been FIVE
years since he had the talk with Alice
Marlay, but it seemed to him that her
hate pursued him yet. Only for her he
would still have held his place at the
Thirty.first National Bank, perhaps a
better one. He felt like cursing her, and
| himself too, whenever he thought of her.
AT last, with the worry and anxiety,
| the complainings, and goading, and nag
gings, Birney Graham fell sick. AS if to
insult his pride and his sutferings, one
day an Overseer of the Poor whom Bir-
ney Graham had snubbed many time,
because he was coarse and talked bad
grammar, came in and said:
Young man, think you'd better be
took to the 'ersepital.
"Ill die first" said Birney Graham,
| desperately.
He sprang upon his feet and walked
about the room. Presently he informed
his peevish father and his vixenish sis
ter that he believed he wasn't so very
sick after all He really thought he
would take walk, and maybe some
thing would turn up. He staggered
feebly down into the street. The lamp
posts seemed doing a witches dance.
Birney Graham was half delirious with
worry and fever. He started to walk
toward the fields and the country, think
ing crafty that he would at least get out
of the city where they could not send
him to the hospital.
81 mean to walk aud walk till / fall
down and die,' said Birney Graham to
himself
The cool November air struck his
cheek and entered his lungs and stimu-
lated him unusually. He wandered on
and on, out toward the open country,
over smooth turnpike road which led
he knew not whittier. At length, whom
the sun sank slowly behind the western
hills, Birney Graham sank, too unable to
20 a step farther.
Next morning rich lady's coachman
| told his mistress that there was tramp
out in the stable, sick, and not able to
move on.
num-" said the Coachman.
The mistress was slender, petite lady,
with dellcately beautiful, though sharp,
| naughty face. 1t wasn't the sort of face
a beggar or an erring sister would have
| appealed to from choice.
Haul him to the station and put him
on the train to 60 back to the city where
he came from" said the lady, sharply.
eth kill him, mum, for to do that to
him. He's very sick, num-"
Dul Wuul ii We w Will ullu uCIt|
| asked the lady, still more sharply.
Hes very clean and decent, mum,
| and there amt no smell of liquor on
him" said the coachman, very humbly.
"OhH' said the mistress, sarcastically.
al shall air the best bedroom, shall I,
and make fire in it,"
The man looked at first as if he was
uncertain whether his mistress would
discharge him or give him whack
across the shoulders with her riding
whip If he spoke his mind, but presently
he did speak it, nevertheless:
eff you'll excuse me for saying it,
mum, he could be brought in here on the
kitchen floor and a bit of rug put under
him. He'll die before this days out If
he don't get warm and suthin' in his in
sides. You wouldn't want it said that
you let a human creetur die when you
could have saved its life, would you,
NUM-"
The lady colored family at this.
"Where is the fellow?" she asked.
The man lay on the stable floor. An
old blanket was rolled and placed under
his head. Alice Marlay followed the
coachman silently, and stood and gazed
a moment at the seemingly dying tramp.
FOR tnlS was lne country nome OF AIlCe
Marlay's father, and the lady was Alice
Marlay herself, lingering on in the coun-
try late in autumn She stood and
looked at the unconscious tramp, as |
said. He was very pale, with long black
hair and he was frightfully thin and
wasted He was entirely clean and de-
cent" as the man had said.
Eyes; have him carried into the kitch-
en-, Brown, and take care of him for the
present" said the mistress. "As soon as
be is strong enough you can send him to
the hospital"
The tramp half-openpd his ewes and