Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1875-12-30

| looked at each other meaningly; then the
latter turned away with little pang at
her heart These two were made for each
other, handsome Charley and pale,
| frightened Charlotte; but how would it be
with them if evil in the shape Of Hiram
briggs stepped between? When she
reached her own door Mrs Bsmber was
not only disturbed and distressed, as she
had been all day, but thoroughly out of
temper. She would have liked to set the
world to rights, ami had only succeeded
| in ruffling her own amour propre in the
interview with brusque, rude million
| aire. Perhaps it was this mood that made
her shake her head at the three pictures
in her window.
"Oh, there you are! only wish
could recover the sum your frames cost
me. Old masters, forsooth!"
The pictures were small and dark, as if
some shadow obscured their original
meaning, even as brambles and moss
might have oversrown the artists grave
The sun shot a golden arrow in the win
dow as Mrs. Bamber paused, and illumi.
mated the dim canvas. Perhaps the rad-
ance OF revelation reached her soul in
that glimpse, however family, the CLEAN
of an angels wing cleaying the sky, the
wonder Of the Virgins upturned face;
but the sunset faded, and Mrs. Bamber
was left to sorrowful contemplation OF
the garish frames. "SOme papist trash"
she soliloquized. whatever possessed
me to get 'em new frames? shall never
see the money back, I'll be boundl I'm
sure l would be thankful to get twenty
five dollars apiece, allowing twenty tor
the frames and l suppose the pictures
are worth five, if they amount to any
thing Nobody will give that, though"
A year before the shop bell had brought
Mrs. Bamber from her supper to the con-
temptation of thin, cadaverous stranger
OF the brigand type, wrapped in cloak,
and with broad hat drawn over his
brows. The man was faint with cold, and
coughed dolcfully; he had no money and
no friends Mrs. Bamber was not the
person to send away such waif empty
handed. She placed HIM before the fire
in her own tiny kitchen, and made Nanny,
her small hand maiden, serve him with
hot tea she wrote note to the clergy
man who dispensed charity to find a
lodging; and she finally dispatched him
with bottle of Bamber's Drops as a gift.
The stranger fingered in the garnet fur.
nished him, reserved, a trihe sinister and
only known to smile when Mrs Bamber
preached to him in language which he
but impertectly understood.
There came a day in rude March, when
so many leaves drop from the tree of life,
that the foreigner sent for Mrs Bamber,
bequeathing to her solemnly three small
pictures set in carved wood.
"They are worth their weight in gold"
he had whispered, and turned his nscruta-
bic face-in which there fingered tri-
umph to the end-to the wall
Mrs Bamber had shed few tears and
carried her gifts home cautiously, as if she
held some explosive projectile. The Aer-
gyman surveyed the pictures through his
spectacles, and chilled the possessor's en-
thusiasm somewhat by expressing pref.
erence for engravings. He recommended
replacing the quaint olivc-wood frames
with new ones and exposing them for sale
in the window. Clergymen are not al
ways the best financial advisers. Mrs.
Bamber's face grew very long when she
saw the trainers bill StonepOrt was
skeptical of these daubs; besides the wild
ow asked fabulous price for them.
Stoneport knew chrome and a modern
landscape full of lively coloring, but such
dismal things were not to its TASTE
The last night of the year closed in
sadly. Mrs. Bamber sat long beside the
Morning glory stove in the parlor back OF
the shop, slipping her tea, in which bever-
age alone lay consolation. A portrait of
DR.. Bamber, representing him as a some
what wall-eyed gentleman, hung above
her, and opposite cabinet displayed
among other relics several skulls pre-
pared by the lamented Archibald Her
thoughts went back to a drcary day on an
emigrant wharf when she landed with her
husband, who had been injured by a fall
on the voyage. The sense Of desolate
inconsistencies again swept over her now,
twelve years later, and "A gentleman with
good rosy face spoke TO her
kindly. Could she ever forget that this
Samaritan was DR.. Plat, of Stoneport,
now gone to his rewardg He had asked
few questions, but had brought the friend
less chemist to his own town and estab-
lished him in business. No one knew
the cost Of it all. 1t was not the good
physicians way TO make his charity a
burden. Mrs. Bamber wiped her eyes as
she slipped her tea by the stove and the
night closed in.
Up on the hill the old Plat homestead
was shrouded in gloom, and revealed only
one dim light in the dining -foom. 1t was
brick house, with white pillars support
ing projecting root, shaded IN summer
by large trees, and seemed in the clear,
crisp evening surrounded by tender mem
cries. Now it was all to be swept away,
Tor the doctors purse had been ever
open, and he had left wife and son in
straitened circumstances. The lovers
stood in the window, hand clasped in
hand, as if claiming silent mutual
support, while Mrs. Plat, a stout lady
with u querulous mouth, wandered from
room to room gazing at her precious house
hnld e,,1c