Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1876-02-10
7 HI 10 I CIRCLE
ONLY A CHILD.

who is poor with his Golfers full of gold
there is no earthly help-none, unless some
thing can get doWn into his heart and open
the way for the incoming of sunlight and
warmth. Such a transformation [ once
knew, and | will tell you how it was
wrought. 1t was lone by only a little
child.
Rufus Grote was really and truly a miser.
though he had probably never acknowl-
edged that fact to himself. At the aee of
sixty he lived in a close, small, shabby
house in a narrow street, though where the
streets were broad he owned a whole row.
the rental of which yielded what might
have been a muniticent income for any
asaan. @
In early life Rufus Grote had been disap-
pointed, so while yet a young man he had
shut himself up within his shell, and
through all the years of his manhood he
had neither asked nor given love Or friend
ship. He took his usance, even to the
pound of flesh if it was due him by the bono
and he was as ready to discharge all his
bonded obligations.
PCOPIO WIZ AuCW L. VIOGC
wished to point to a man without a heart,
they pointed to him. They declared that he
loved no human being, not even himself.
That he did not love himself was evident to
them from the fact that he gave to himself
not a single comfort of life which he could
avoid giving and at the same time live.
One evening just at dusk a coach stopped
at Rufus Grote's door, and a lady dressed in
black and accompanied by a child alighted
therefrom and piled the old and rusty iron
knocker. #
The miser answered the mmon and de-
manded to know the applicants business.
"Uncle Rufus, - said the woman. 81 am
Mary Sanford, and this is my child. Will
you give me shelter until / can find work ?"
Mary Sanford was the only daughter of
Rufus Grote's dead sister. He had heard Of
her husbands death, and he had shudder-
ingly asked himself more than once if it
might not be possible that his widowed
niece would call upon him for assistance.
And now the dreaded blow had fallen, what
was he to do? Had he followed the first
impulse he would nave turned the woman
and child away with a word but that
would haye been inhuman. He was caught
in a trap. He had to open his door wider,
and let them in. And when they were in.
he was forced, in common decency, to go
out and buy a loaf of bread and some
cheese.
Mary Sanford was thirty-fve-a slight,
pale-faced, pretty woman; and what OF
beauty she possessed was due more to the
reflex action upon her face and matner of
her native goodness than to any outward
form of feature.
Her child-a girl of nine years-Was called
Flora. She was a plump, dimpled, sunny
haired and srmny-faced child, with the light
of u tender, loving heart sparkling in every
feature. She was truly a thing of beauty
and a perfect joy.
After eating the bread and cheese, and
drinking cold water with it, Mary Sanford
told to Rufus Grote the story OF her hus-
bands death-hoW he had suffered long,
and how he had LETT her in utter restitution.
"But," she concluded, as she saw a cloud
upon her uncle's face, 81 am not come to be
a burden upon you. Mrs. Maynard will be
III town in a few days and will give me
work.
ugh! What kind of work." grunted
Rufus.
81 shall keep house for her."
Later II the evening by the dim light of a
single tallow candle, little Flora crept to the
old mans side and climbed up into his lap.
$500, &E re