The Beaufort tribune and Port Royal commercial. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1877-1879, 1877-10-04
Moses Williamss Bo1."!

The other night when the dark cbuds
rolled up in the West and the muttr of
distant thunder warned pedestrian to
seek shelter, a man sat on his bet OF
straw and rags in the basement of anold
house on Franklin street. His wife ras
buried four weeks before-dead FINN
kicks, cuffs, starvation and broken
heart, and the four children who hid
come to his knee had each lived loig
enough to realize that they had wild
beast for q father, and had then ben
starved out of the world. The wife wa,
perhaps, glad to die. Heaven and th
children were beyond the grave, sh,
hoped, while life was simply dark mid
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, and when he goes his death will
be an awful thing to see I"
"You lie-I'1 live fifty years yet !"
he growled as he looked around to see
who had dared speak thus plainly to
such burly big brute as he was. He
marked the speaker. It was 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
he could not grasp him nor kick him nor
hit him with missiles.
"The 'tremors' are coming on him !"
whispered one to another, and they
began to draw away out of his sight.
"I'n 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.
Deliriun trenens 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 batting step and red eyes, and
the family above moved out one day for
fear he might become insane and murder
them. Some days he slept tie 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 a red-hot iron
as it gurgles down the throat ]"
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 aud 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.
eve are awful poor, but we must
have light on this night !" 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 a dull glare when
lighted.
"Boy I'll kill you |" muttered Big
Nose, as he recovered from his first sur
prise.
"That wouldn't be your first MUIR
derip coolly answered the child, as he
drew the only chair in the room up to
the bed and sat down.
The drunkard raised his axt and struck
with all bis naight, but the boy sat there
ast the same Q saa Look upon his face