The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1877-10-19
but that he has had one from heaven

but that he has had one from heaven l
think none of you will deny"
To Will this news was wonderful; he
could think of nothing else, and was in
his weakness as impatient as child for
Sunday to come. Rex, too, was not de-
void of curiosity. Billy Dawson as q
boxer, wrestler and sporting-man, had
been, he knew, kind of authority on
such subjects, even with men far above
him in station. So, when Sunday came
he went willingly enough with VIII to
chapel.
The preachers face struck him in a
peculiar manner; he had q remem-
brancc of it, and yet he was quite sure
he had never before seen Billy Dawson.
lie thought over all the sporting-haunts
he knew, and failed to place him.
Twenty years later he would have dis
missed the subject with the assurance
sporting paper," but then illustrated
papers were hardly in existence.
lie heard but little of the sermon,
though the sobs and calculations around
him testified as to its powr,e until the
preacher, in telling the story of his own
conversion, said: "Just beyont Work
ington | met a young chap as seemed
inclined to be friendly-like. The road
were lonely, an I'd naught again crack,
special as he knew about dogs, all
game-birds, an wrastling. lie were a
handsome, frce-spokcn lad, an when
we came to Martha Dian's public, he
said: We've all o. three miles to walk
yet; let us have warm bite, and I'll
pay the lawing.'"
Here Rex looked intently at the
preacher, and then dropped his head
again.
"Well lads, we had some steak an
brandy. The steak did me good, the
brandy put the devil in me. When we
went on again were full o. my brag,
an sooni shifted talk from games to
game. | boasted o. my poaching, an
told VII many jeer o. the quality l
took my rights from l noticed the
lad got silent, an when he did speak he
said: 'Yo're a ripe rascar five hadn't
cat out tn same dish I'd thrash yo' well,
an then send yo' to Botany Bay"
Again Rex looked queerly up, and be-
came very excited and restless.
"Thcn were mad as mad, an | said,
'Tll gle yo' n throw as 'ull settle yo,' my
lad, an then Pm going straight to Lev
ems Woods. That silly young squire
an his vixen O. a mother have kept me
pretty we'll in hares an pheasants for
three ycars-an' be DANCED to them!'
"Then | knew naught more-the lad
must have fclled me at once. Three
weeks afterward came to my senses in
the Methody preachers house. l were
in his bed, am his wife an he were nur-
I'll ha1 - &r,
the gates O. death an hell. Well, I'd
better company coming back from, than
/ had going there-an' so I'm saved
man; thanks be to God an the preach
cr, an the lad who fclled me-whocver
he be! !"
Rex stood up, and sat down, and then
stood up again.
"Billy Dawson" he said, "Fm the
lad that felled you. lam Squire Wrex-
ham Levens, of Levens's Park; and by
your mouth tonight the heaviest bur-
den has been lifted from me that man
ever bore. thought had killed you,
and went home and told my mother
what had done. She is wise wo-
man, and she said: Rex, go to the
Lowther Pit; if the man is dead, and
you were recognized as his last compan-
ion, L shall-nonsense! you are i'm
France, and no one will look for Lev
ems of Lcvens in pitman's village and
dress There have waited ever since,
partly because it was too soon to show
myself, and partly because | hoped
was i'll some degree atoning for the
knock -kown gave you, by the help /
have been able to render these poor
souls in their great calamity"
swell, Levcns, forgive yO' wi all
my heart for the knock-down gotten
fro yo'. 1t raised me up, an made a
man of me-"
Rex walked up to him, and with q
frank smile offered his hand, which was
promptly and cordially shaken amid the
outspoken sympathy of all present.
"Pit-boys are no FOOLS" said Jim
Banks, as he walked home amid crowd
of them, sam yo'll all mind now, that
at the very first we nicknamed him
Gentleman Rexr"
The next day, Madame Levens, sit
ting thinking of her son, and devising
means to bring home her banishcd, was
amazed to see him walk into the house
in his proper clothing and his old jovial
spirits.
sit has turned out better than ex-
pectcd, Rex" she said, when he had
told her all "now let MS hear no more
about it,"
But that was just the thing impossi-
BILE for Rex. That nine months in the
Lowther Pit was intended to color and
form his future life, and he was far too
conscientious to avoid it. In the first
place Will and Phoebe were removed to
a lovely country cottage, where Will
grew pansies and played dolorous tunes,
and led class-meeting to the end of his
innocent life. There Bessie had teachers
and dressmakers, and when, at the end
of Two years, Rex took her home as his
wife, every one confessed that there had
never been a fairer Lady of Levens.
But the advantages did not stop with
Rex or Rex's wife or kindred; they
have touched with blessing every pit
man, and every pit-man's wife and
children in England. For by his pen
and purse, and, more than all, by his
powerful pleading in Parliament, Rex
has abolished so many of the pitmen's
wrongs, and procured them so many adj
vantages, that the great coal-lords
nickname him with polite scorn, "Our
Great Coal Commonwealth Appleton's
Journal.