Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1877-06-20

however, are against him. He has
come TO the city, and it has proved toe
much for him. He has made bad
beginning, and will be very likely to
end in police court, and term at the
Tombs, and that's the. end of boy, OF
course.'
''Oh, DEAR" said the lady, with a
little start and SILVER, and an uncon.
scious glance at the mesh of brown,
FURNISHED hair that had nestled down
on the hearth rug, 'swhat a terrible
picture, Luther!"
Mr.. Randolph followed his wife's
gaze. Perhaps he OWNED the associa-
ton which suggested itself to her mind,
for his tone was certainly modified as
he answered:
THAT is true, and 1 need not have
painted it quite so black. Perhaps
Toms future may not be so bad as my
croakings. At all events, give your
pretty little head no further concern on
the subject, for the boy is unworthy of
it,"
Il can't help wishing, Luther, that
that you had given him one more trial.
said the lady. speaking more to herself
than her husband.
The gentleman turned upon his wife,
and regarded her with one of his pleas.
ant smiles, in which lurked just the
faintest tinge OF irony. @
Mary" he said, II regard you as a
most exemplary woman, in short, as
the very cream and flower of your sex.
In all your relations, as wife, and
mother, and mistress, I believe you to
be above reproach and unequaled. But
in all business matters, your judgment
and opinions wouldn't be worth a six.
pence, at least on any subject where
your interest and sympathies are en-
listed. That soft little head Of yours
would be certain to lead your good
sense captive and you'd be grossly i'm
posed upon and deceived on every 81 de.
All, my dear, man who has had to
fight the battle of life as 1 have done,
and to make his own way in the world,
knows better than all this. He may
harden and tougher himself on every
side. He can't afford to turn his store
into q reform school, nor himself into a
mere philanthropist. He must look at
these things in business point Of view
else he and they will be ruined"
Here spoke the hard, sagacious bust
ness man, looking at life from stand
point Of mere self-interest he had
broader out-looks sometime, but his
horizon now was narrowed to one of
money and gain.
The words grated along the finer in
stincts of Mrs. Randolph's nature. A
faint shadow crept into her face, faint
sigh from her lips. Perhaps for almost
the first time in her life, her womanly
intuitions warned her Of some latent
hardness and selfshness in her hus-
bands nature. She did not, however,
attempt to argue with him, although she
knew that his reasoning was in some
sense false and superficial. Her ques-
ton did not even touch his late re-
marks. but went straight to the dis
charged Office boy.
How came Tom to fall into this bad
company, Luther?"
The answer is easy enough, Mary.
1t all came of that cheap boarding
house, and the folks inside oft. Boys
with his salary have to put their heads
where they can, and people who take
them on low terms, with provisions at
these starvation prices, can never afford
to be exclusive with regard to the class
they take in. nor to offer an at
tractiye home to their boarders."
Tom, like the rest, bclted his food,
1 suppose, and had no place but the
street to pass his evenings in, and, Of
course, a green boy from the country
afforded fine chance to his fellow
dodgers to induct him into all sorts of
follies and sins, and he hadn't sense or
strength to resist them"
Poor boy!Ah Luther, if he were
ours!" and the mcther's soft brown
eyes glanced again toward the white
heap of life and brightness, and bloom,
which lay on the floor.
And again the fathers eyes followed,
hers, and the hardness was melted out
Of them now, and he said, fervently:
''God forbid! I would rather lay my
boy in his grave this hour than know he
should live to be turned adrift in his
youth on this great city, with no friend
to protect, and with temptations lying
in wait on every side to devour him."
"And Tom had a mother, too, and
she must have loved him once, as we
do ours, Luther I almost hope she isn't
alive now, for I can Judge by my own
heart that her boy is lost.
eyes, she is living" Mr.. Randolph,
answered almost reluctantly. II re-
member Tom told me so, and that she
was widow and he was her only son
although he had little sister beside
Foolish boy, to run his neck straight
into that trap" added the gentleman,
half angry at himself to find that his
heart was beginning to relent toward
the culprit.
Tears brinmed the beautiful brown
eyes of Mrs. Randolph. From the first
she had taken fancy to, an unusual
interest in, the bright-faced little Office
boy, whom her husband frequently dis
ta1,n1 ~, RI fba bouco with