Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1877-10-29
The Light in the Window

window for you until you come back,
said the wife, as she went to the door
with her husband. "It's all the light
you'll have, l think, for there's storm
coming up, and the moons gone already.
You'd better stay at home, Will"
And she looked anxiously into her
husbands face, for she knew that there
was one temptation at the inn that he
found it hard to resist, and it was hard
to tell what might happen in some of
those wild moments which followed his
drinking bouts.
But now, sober and steady, he turned
and looked into her eyes with the old
smile that had won her heart.
"I'll be back soon, Katie" he said.
I'll remember you and the light"
And then he kissed her, and she lis
tened to his firm step going down the
road until it died away in the distance.
Then with the hope that always hides
somewhere in loving woman's heart,
she sat at her sewing, building pretty
castles in the air.
William was to leave off drinking en-
tirely and they were to prosper as they
had never done before the farm would
flourish the home grow pretty under
her cheerful hands.
They would put by penny for a
rainy day, and when they were old, Will
and she would be nice, cozy, church.
going old couple, with their children and
grand children about them.
Other children would come, though
their only little one lay in the church.
yard, and then tear fell upon the work
the mother held in her hands.
1t was once when Will had taken too
much that he would dandle the child,
and let it fall and hurt it.
She knew he had killed it, though he
loved it as much as she did he never
guessed it, and he never should know.
Poor William he had only one fault,
and that-Oh, yes, he would rid himself
of that, and all would be well.
So she stitched and thought and
thought and stitched. until the candle,
sinking in its socket, warned her how
time had flown, and, turning to the clock,
she saw that it was three hours since
William had left her.
Saddened, but not terrified as yet, the
wife set new candle in the socket and
bound back the curtain that mono nf4L~
light might be lost from the road.
Then she folded her work and sat
waiting and watching.
Alas she watched the night away,
William never came at all.
He had been in good company at the
Inn, and he had been urged to drink un-
til his senses left him, and when dawn
broke, was staggering arm in arm with
another as senseless as himself amongst
the docks and wharves of the seaside
town which was the nearest to his home.
How it happened he never knew any
more than how it was that he let his ba-
by fall, but he had shipped himself for
sailor for years voyage, and when
he came sufficiently to himself to re-
member home and Katie, he was out at
: sea, and to those about him the tale was
nothing but joke.
He wrote to Katie penitent letter
| ending with VOW to return to her a So
Der man but she never got it.
t Perhaps it was lost, as letter is nov
and then. However it was, it nevel
! gladdened the poor wife's aching heart.
All she knew was that her husband
t had disappeared-where, no one knew
why, no one guessed.
: The other men at the inn were no
!. more sober than he, and the man VIII
served them had his hands full.
: That he was drowned seemed to b
|. the popular belief, for the water wa
very near, and drunken men had walke
It into it before. But at last a word fel
on Katie's ear that gave her one stra'
! to hold by.
4 The miller, who had been at his wor
k when he might, had been at the mi
that night.
g Men had passed his gate, and he "b'
Oi lieved he heard Muller's voice."
~ "And l saw one of 'em, Mrs. Muller,
]" he said, land he was sailor-with or
a of them wide collars turned down. H
:. was sailor, and they were going to tt
er town."
n, Then Katie began to hope. She ha
~ heard of men thus carried off to sea {
., long voyages. Not every man desire
/ to be sailor, and crews were sometim
in short
OK civilian will come back" she said
and at night. when clouds overcast Il
- sky, she put her candle in the windc
he as she had on the night he left her wi
Ill. kiss. If he ever came he should knC
ng she had waited for him.
ny She found some work to do--sewin
80 80 at which she could earn her bread, a.
e's people were kind to her, and she own
ne. the little cottage and its acre of grour
of There was no danger of starving,