Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1877-11-07

VI hIIa' NhnuOllH nature. Ialnt SnauON
crept into her face, fainter sigh from her
lips. Perhaps, for almost the first time in
her life, her womanly intuitions warned her
of some latent hardness aud selfshuess in
her husbands nature. She did not, how
ever, attempt to argue with him, although
he knew that his reasoning was in some
sense false and superficial. Her question
did not even touch his late remarks, but
went straight to the discharged office boy.
How came Tom to fall into this bad
company Luther 2"
"The answer is easy enough Mary. II
all came of that cheap boarding house, and
the folks inside of it. 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
neither afford to be exclusive with regard TO
the class they take in, nor to offer an at
tractive home to their boarders.
Tom, like the rest, bolted his food, /
suppose, and had no place but the streets to
pass his evenings in, and of course green
boy from the country afforded fine chance
to his fellow-odgers to induct him into all
sorts of follies aud sins, and he hadn't sense
or strength to resist them"
Poor boyl All, Luther, if he were ours =
and the mothers 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 melted out of them now,
and he said fervently -
"God forbid | would rather lay my boy
in his grave this hour, than know he should
live to be turned adrift in his youth, in this
great city, with no friends to protect, and
with temptations lying in wait on every side
to devour him."
" Aud Tom had mother, too, and she
must have loved him once as we do ours,
Luther. ! almost hope she isn't alive now,
for | can judge by my own heart that it
must break hers to know that her boy
is lost
"Yes, she is living" Mr.. Randolph an
Swered almost reluctantly. al remember
Tom told me so, and that she was widow
and that he was her only son although he
had little sister beside Foolish boy. TO
run his neck straight into that trapl" added
The gentleman, half angry at himself to find
that his heart was beginning to relent toward
the culprit
Tears brimmed the eyes of Mrs. Randolph.
From the first she had taken a fancy to, an
unusual interest in, the bright-faced little
office boy, whom her husband frequently de
spatched up to the house with some note or
message for its mistress.
The boys bright, prompt, pleasant man-
ner, his quick Intelligence, the courtesy of
speech aud bearing, which indicated careful
home cultivation, had all attracted the lady.
And now her mother heart was touched
to its centre, thinking of that other mother,
lonely aud widowed, whose pride, and Joy,
and strength had been this one boy now
turned out on the world in shame and dis
srace. She thought how smoothly the down
ward road winds along the days ;she thought
now the proud young spirit stung with re-
morse and shame, would he likely to flash up
into fierce recklessness, or settle down into
,ullen defiance. The lady's heart, looking
IN her own son, ached and yearned over this
Jther mothers.
She rose up, she took her little boy in her
arms and set him on his fathers knee. Luz
ther," she said, % will not argue or reason
With you, for you will get the best of me
here; but plead for this boy in the name
If your own, take him back; give him one
more trial, for the sake of this l'' and she
placed her hands on the chid's head.
The child looked up with his sweet face
tull of bewilderment. Something in the
tender, solemn face of his mother seemed to
impress him. He reached out his fat dim
pled hands to his father, and cried, in his
pretty child voice, "Take him back, papa,
take him back"
Mr.. Randolph was moved. He bent down
swiftly and kissed the small speaker, and
fancied himself guilty of great unmanly
weakness when he said, 40, Mary, you
women, with your children, are enough to
turn a mans brain. It's against my life
long principles to do what you ask
But after all the speech conceded much
more than it denied, and Mrs. Randolph
knew that if Tom was not gone beyond re-
call he might have another chance with his
master.
Three days had passed, and the year had
topped softly from November into winter,
md the last month opened with smiles as ra-
liant as those which kiudle the face of June,
With winds balmy as Mays and with no
sign nor whisper of the long path of storm
md darkness through which the road lay
coward the spring, just as some lives lie in
,weet warmth and security on the border
and of awful experience of sorrow and pain
md loss, through which their feet must walk
INTO the eternal crest beyond
And one morning of this "sunshine out
If season. youth somewhere about his
seventeenth year might have been seen max
ing his way slowly along one of the princi-
pal thorouehfares of the city.
If YOU had looked in his face you would
have found it bright, intelligent one, with
.yes that held usually plenty of fire and
spirit in them but now carried some gloom
lr sadness, or both. So did the step, slow
md despondent, so did the slender boy fig
lre, with the idle hands listlessly in the
pockets, for want OF some better employ
nent.
"Now, Tom Haynes" buzzed the busy
brain of this youth, you're done for in this
iity, and the sooner you clear out and go of
20 sea, the better for you. The best thing
you can do is to ship as common decl
hand, for good long voyage round thu
world. You'll have chance to see some
thing of the world before you get back, and
perhaps You'll get into good berth and b,
a captain some day. tn be hard enough a
tirst, and you must make up your mind Il
plenty of knocks; but it will be better thai
.oaing around the city, with your hands il
your pockets and your last dollar going
| There's no chance for you here, with you
character gone and your situation lost, am
you've nobody to thank but yourself, as tn
old fellow told you when he sent you of
/ All your fine visions aud pretty dreams o
making money and setting up the folk "A
home are gone now.
Poor mother, aud little Ruth ~ All
there was twinge then, that made the bo
start and shrink as one might at the touc
Of a coal fire he knew the poor, broken
down mother, the bright little sister, jus
three years his junior, had set all their hope
aud pride on him that he was their on
hope and trust, and when they should com
to hear the truth, that he was discharge
aud disgraced, and had run off TO sea, the
would never hold up their heads again.
All, if he could go back to the day o
which he left them. Then the tears spran
up into his eyes he was thinking OF thei
last words-his mothers and little Ruth
There was only one thought which wa
harder than that, and this was going bac
and looking in their faces and telling thel
the truth. And so reasoning after the fea
ful logic of evil" the one wrong always il
yolving another, he told himself, in despa
and desperation, that there was no help tt
it he must " run off now and go to sea"
And he who had been so weak to resi-
the temptations of the land, would expos
himself TO those increased huudred-fol'
on board the ship, among coarse aud bruti
companions, amid the lack of all moral r
straint aud influence which long sea vo,
age necessarily involves.
Just at that moment carriage turned I'll
corner and drew up before the door OF
large dry-goods establishment, and lad
llighted, in some haste, aud the long sil
scarf, which trailed down her cloak droppe
suddenly to the pavement.
-