Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1877-06-08

the name of your own; take him back
give him one more trial, for the sake Q
this ~ and she placed her hand on tn
FURNISHED heap of curls, in which wer
lights of gold.
The child looked up with his sweet fac
full of bewilderment. Something in tn
tender, solemn face of his mother SCENE,
to impress him. He reached out his fat
dimpled hands to his father, and cried, il
his pretty child voice
sTake him back, papa-take him back =
Mr. Randolph was moved. He ben
down swiftly, and kissed the small speake
and fancied himself guilty of very un
manly weakness when he said
20 Mary, you women, with your chill
dren, are enough to turn a mans brain
It's against my lifelong principles to dc
what you ASK
But after all, the speech conceded much
more than it denied and Mrs. Randolph
knew that if Tom WAS not beyond recall
he might have another chance with his
master.
Three days had passed, and the year bad
stepped softly from November into winter
and the last month opened with smiles as
radiant as those which kindled the face OF
June; with winds as balmy as Mays, and
with no sign nor whisper of the long path
of storm and darkness through which the
road lay toward the spring, just as some
lives lie in sweet warmth and security on
the border land of awful experiences of
sorrow and pain and loss, through which
their feet must walk into eternal rest be-
yond.
And one morning of this Sunshine out
of season. a youth, somewhere about his
seventeenth year, might have been seeH
making his way slowly along one of the
principal thorough-fares of the city. If
you had looked in his face, you would have
found it bright, intelligent one, with
eyes that held usually plenty of fire and
spirit in them, but now carried some
gloom OF sadness, or both. So did the step
slow and respondent, so did the slender
boy figure, with the idle hands listlessly
in the pockets, for want of some better
employment.
CHOW, Tom Haynes buzzed the busy
brain of this youth. YOU'RE done in this
city, and the sooner you clear out and go
off to sea the better for you. The best
thing you can do is to ship as a common
deck hand, for good long voyage round
the world. You'll have chance to see
something of the world before you get
back, and, perhaps, you'll get into good
berth, and be a captain some day. It'll be
hard enough at first, and you must make
up your mind to plenty Of knocks and
rough associations but it will be better
than loafing around the city, with your
hands in your pockets, and your last dollar
going. Theirs no chance for you here,
with your character gone, and your situa-
ton lost, and you've nobody to thank for
it all but yourself, as the fellow told you
when he sent you off. All your fine Wis
ions and pretty dreams of making money
and setting up the folks at home are gone
now. But poor mother, and little Ruth ~
All, there was a tWinge then, that made
the boy start and shrink, as one might at
the touch of a coal of fire; he knew the
poor, broken-doWn mother, the bright lit
tie sister, just three y ears his junior had
set all their hopes and trust on him and
when they should come to hear the truth.
that he was discharged and disgraced, and
had run off to sea, they would never hold
up their heads again.
All, if he could go back to the day on
which he left them Then the tears sprang
up into his eyes; he was thinking of their
last Words-his mothers and little Ruth's.
There was only one thought harder than
that, and this as going back md looking
in their faces and telling them the truth.
And so reasoning after the fearful logic
of evil the one wrong always involving
into another, he told himself, in despair
and desperation, that there was no help
for it; he must s'run off now and go to
sea-
And he who had been too weak to resist
the temptation Of the land, would expose
himself to those increased a hundred-fold,
on board the ship, among coarse and bru-
companions, amid the lack of all moral re-
straint and influences which a long sea
voyage necessarily involves.
Just at that moment carriage turned
the corner, and drew up before the door of
a dry goods establishment, and lady
alighted in some haste, and the long silk
scarf, which trailed down her cloak,
dropped suddenly to the pavement:
Tom Haynes was instinctively courteous.
He caught up the bright, floating fabric,
and sprang forward.
''You have dropped your scarf, ma 'am.''
Thus arrested, the lady turned sud-
denly.
ooh, thank you',-then a look Of amazed
recognition changed her sentence, and
ended in, 'Why, Tom is that you?"
The boys face was fierce crimson. He
wished that moment that the earth would
crumb!e beneath and take him In.
eyes, Mrs. Randolph he family ar
ticulated.
She looked at him with her eyes full of
sad pity, and said, sorrowfully:
ooh, Tom, 1 would not have believed it
of you.''
He tried to speak, but instead there
came swift, smothered sob, beating out
from his throat, before he could crush it
down again.
She looked at him, this lady, with the
gentle, motherly heart, and the pity was
strong in it now.
"Tom, "she said, laying her hand on his