The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-11-10
he passed hand across his sightless

he passed hand across his sightless
eyes
Eyes, signor, he is dead these many
years past, and perhaps it is as well.
But, all me the way Of it, the way OF
it--ihere 10 nay grief. Could IL have
been that / had been 10y, and have
known that there was ever 80 little re-
pentance in his heart, there would have
been some little comfort for me, per
haps but, as it was, it is too probable
that lie went unshryen, unrepeniant,
suddenly to his account"
"Tell me, tell me" said quickly,
"the way of his death :" Bot the pad
rome was not to be hurried. He seemed
to like TO finger on the pain his slowly
uttered words brought with them, little
guessing how they were paining me
also.
He went on: "Ever n prodigal from
his youth upward, my boy grew worse
and worse as he reached manhood. L
had locked that he should inherit my
business and good name, for they were
both worth inheriting at o2e time. l
kept hotel at Bergamo, Ond for awhile
he waJ my chief waiter, but his vicious
course brought ruin on us both. He
contracted debts which had to pay;
ran away in evil company, and | heard
nothing from him for years.
"When l did, il was, as usual, with q
demand for money. He was then in
Switzerland, as a waiter, / believe, at
tie hotel of Les Trois Sages--the signor
knows i, OF course; al the English know
il; and there, | afterward heard, it was
that he, in the act probably of sttempt.
ing some desperate crime, fell one night
into the Rhine, and WAS picked up dead,
as appeared. Only by q miracle could
it have been that his body was not car.
ried straight away down over the falls at
Schaifhausen; but it seems that be got
entangled with the chain of the ferry
which crosses the Rhine, as you know, a
little below the hotel. Here again, by d
miracle, it chanccd that he was seen by
some women who We're carly working at
some timber rats, and was by them car
ried ashore, as I have said, for dead !"
:" But was hel" l inquired, with an
anxiety 1 could jill disguise, as the old
man paused.
"No, signor it was not his destiny
for then he would have been saved from
the commission of his greatest crime.
No; he was restored, TO return to me
and pie upon me further anguish.
" He came back to Bergamo year or
two after to smaller inn, which l was
keeping, and, in O drunken brawl with
some OF his loose companions, he used
his knife with fatal result upon an IN
married man, whose friend, on the in
slant, stabbed my son to the heart.
That is all, signor but the remeul-
brance OF his career has been far worse
for me than the darkness"
"And the WATCH" suggested, with q
sense of relief quite inexpressibie, twas
found IN his possession
yes, signor; but dora)t If he had
come by it honestly, for they tell me
there are device and letters Oh the
back in no way belonging to him. But
still [ treasure it for his sake, or rather
for his mothers. for he was all that re-
NAMED to mo of her, and she idoiized
him for tue five years that she was
spared after his birth and" added the
old man, in somewhat more CHEEKY
tone, as if the recital of his troubles had
relieved him, ga good English watch is
useful to blind man"
Most assuredly the last thing in my
thoughts was to deprive him of his
treasure. was only too we'll repaid fol
my loss Ivy what had just heard-only
too grateful for being able after all to
look back with complacency upon what
1 nevertheless still call my Murder.