The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-09-27
Moses Williams's Boy."

The other night when the dark clouds
rolled up in the West and the mutter of
distant thunder warned pedestrians to
seek shelter, man sat on his bed OF
straw and rags in the basement of an old
house on Franklin street. His wife was
buried four weeks before-deal from
kicks, cuffs, starvation and broken
heart, and the four children who had
come to his knee had each lived long
enough to realize that they had wild
beast for q father, and had then been
starved ont OF the world The wife was,
perhaps, glad to die. Heaven and the
children were beyond the grave, she
hoped, while life was simply a dark mil
night The husband lay drunk in the
house when she died, and he had not one
word OF sorrow or regret. AS the body
was being taken out of the house for
burial voice called out
Moses Williams won't live three
months, aud when he goes his death will
be an awful thing to see -
"You lie-Ill live fifty years yet !"
he growled as he looked around to see
who had dared speak thus plainly to
such a burly big brute as he was. He
marked the speaker. 1t was a boy some
ten years old, having great blue eyes
and an old-manish dignity. He saw that
boy before him as plainly as you see
these words, and yet no boy was there !
No one else saw him, and when Big
Nose advanced to grasp the youth he
shut his fingers on nothing but air. The
boy was in plain sight of Nose, and yet
hit him with missiles.
Tho Gf.n,,an..o, i,,o, Il,
whispered one to another, and they
began to draw away out of his sight.
"Tll come and sit by you in your
dying hour % said the white-faced boy
to Big Nose, and the half drunken giant
was observed to run across the street
and strike at the air with savage ven
geance.
Deliriuna tremens did not come, as
predicted. The man was still stout and
strong, and perhaps he drank less for
few days. He crept in and out of his
den with halting step and red eyes, and
the family above moved ont one day for
fear he might become insane and murder
them. Some days he slept the heavy
sleep of drunkard, and then again he
leaned over the-bar of some low dive
and hoarsely said:
Give me something stronger-some-
thing that will burn like red-hot iron
as it gurgles down the throat! I"
And the rumbling of the thunder the
other night broke sleep which had
lasted for thirty hours-such sleep as
wild beasts indulge in during the weary
weeks of winter. He sat up and lis
tened, and as the flashes of lightning lit
up his face they found it deathly pale.
His eyes were wild and bloodshot, his
chin quivered, and he peered this way
and that through the gloom of the base
ment and felt afraid.
81 have come to sit with you" whis-
pered voice beside him, and Big Nose
almost screamed out in his sudden sur
prise. There was no light in the room,
but the man knew that his visitor was
the strange boy who had warned him
weeks before.
"We are awful poor, but we must
have light on this night p continued
the boy, as he moved about the room.
The light he placed on rickety old
table was piece of candle stuck into an
empty whisky bottle. The grease had
run down over the the bottle, and the
wick burned with dull glare when
lighted.
"Boy I'll kill you w muttered Big
Nose, as he recovered from his first sur
prise.
"That wouldn't be your first MUIR
deri!" coolly answered the child, as he
drew the only chair in the room up to
the bed and sat down.
The drunkard raised his fist and struck
with all his might, but the boy sat there
ust the same sad look upon his face