Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1875-11-15
waAr 4 DYING CHILD SAW.

Some people living on Maeomb street
entered house to find father and moth
er beastly drunk on the floor and their
child, boy four years old, dead in his
cradle. Ths parents looked like beasts.
The child wore the sweetest tenderest
smile Oh its whitc face that any Of them
ever saw It had been ailing for days.
aud its brief life had been full Of bitter
woe, but yet the women cried as they
bent over the old cradle and kissed its
cold cheeks and felt Of it, icy hands.
Father and mother lay down at dark
the evening before, aud people passing
by heard the child crying and wailing.
1t was too weak to crawl out Of the era
die, and its voice was not strong enough
to break the chains Of drunken stupor.
When the sun went down and the even
ing shadows danced across the floor and
seemed to grasp at him, the boy grew
afraid and cried. The shadows came
faster and faster, and as they raced
around the room and seowled darkly at
the lone child, he nestled down and
drew the ragged blanket over his head
to keep the revengeful shadows from
siezing him. He must have thought his
parents dead, and how still the house
seemed to him.
Its dark, mother,-it's dark !" the
neighbor's heard him wall but no one
went in TO comfort him and to drive the
shadows away. The night grew colder
the feet Of the pedestrians ceased to
echo, aud the heavy breathing Of the
drunkards made the child tremble and
draw the blanket still closer His lit
tie bare feet were curled up, and he
shut his eyes tightly to keep from seeing
the black darkness.
By-and-by the ragged blanket was gent
ly pulled away, and the child opened
his eyes and saw great light in the
room.
"ls it morning?" he whispered, but
the drunkards on the floor slept on.
Sweet, tender music came to the
child's ears, and the light had driven
every shadow away. He was no longer
afraid The aches and the pains he had
suffered for days past went away all at
once.
Mother mother hear the music p
he cried, and from out the soft, white
light came an angel.
II am thy MOTHER" she softly said.
He was not afraid. He had never
seen her before, but she looked 50 good
and beautiful that he held up his vast
ed hands and said
Il viii 60 with you.
The music grew yet softer, and the
melody was so sad and tender, and yet
SO full Of love and rejoicing, that the
drunkards ON the floor moved little
and muttered broken words.
Other angels came, and the light fell
upon the boys face in a blazing shower
turning his curls to threads of gold. He
held up his hands and laughed for joy.
Heaven wants you !" the angel whis-
pered. Earth has no more sorrow-no
further misery. Come p
And he hoated away with them, leav-
ing the sleepers lying as if dead. The
golden light faded out, the music died
away, and the old house was again filled
with the grim, threatening shadows,
which sat around the sleepers and touch
ed their bloated faces with their gaunt,
skeleton fingers, and laughed horribly
when the drunkards groaned in their
uneasy slumber.
When the people came in the shadows
went out. The sleepers still slept their
sodden sleep, and no one minded them.
Men and women bent low over the dead
child, smoothed back VI curls and whiS-
pered
/ Poor dead boy p
They knew not that he had seen the
angels, and that they had borne him to
heavens gfte.-Detroit Free Press.