The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1878-03-26
HOW KEID,s PRAYER WAS
ANSE Erred,

Elizabeth A. s. Chester, in Sunday Afternoon for
April.
Spring came. A mile up the river, on
the farther bank, lived q mar who had
been Converted during the winter.
Whatever that term may mean in theo-
logical p%srlance or metaphysical analysis,
It meant in this case food and fuel, gentle
words, thoughtful provision, the sacred
essence OF the word "home," which even
poverty and ignorance may gather to
themselves and hold in linked arms with
their own ienacity. 1,
The biscuits are baked and the polished
stove door stands sjar; the floor boards
are scarcely dry from securing, and the
lamp.climney g%listens; the first aroma Of
OF The tea il just rising from the new lin
not on the stove. Two children play with
he cat on the floor, and a third sleeps in
a ~settee.like cradle. The woman stands
with her face close pressed against The
upper pane in the lower sash, and a little
girl stands with hers against a lower pane.
The attitudes Of mother and child are
precisely similar, and both are silent
How early, to he sure, they learn the trick
Of anxious watching!
A bar Of light from the kerosene lamp
strikes across the strip oil turf and into
the road, but not as far as the river on
The other side. Just 40 q luminous bar
from the grog.shop will shine across Joe's
way home; enticing odors will hoat Out;
-four children, and not q penny laid upl
But that luminous bar, O, anxious watch.
erlhas already lain before Joe, fallen over
him, dropped behind him. The danger
lies nearer home, for the river ia swollen
and the foot.bridge our Of repair.
This has been one Of three warm days;
and on the hills sloping toward the south
only here and there remain snow.patches:.
Al sunset and early twilight the road-bed
and spongy fields are s%titfening. Up and
down The uneven, gray mosaic oil bowlders
and pebbles, lust below the toot.bridge
strides Reid. BE had come in on the D
o'clock train from Tenderen, the Sussex
county seat. He had spent the afternoon
in the courtroom.
The law had been Reid's chosen probes.
sion, one Of those rare instances oil q pur.
suit 40 instinctiyely grasped by all the
faculties az 10 make the use Of the debat.
ale word choice seem more than ever q
misnomer. Success in any pursuit In NE
depends upon vital energy, and, In yield
ing 10 bis mothers wishes, Reid had spar.
ed himself the risk Of enlightenment
through failure. Harcroft had been man.
aging q case this afternoon. Az Eastman
preparatory school Harcrott had been
Reids classmate; at Abercrombie had
chummed with him; they had sometimes
spoken Of practicing together. To-day
Harcroit had undertaken proving TOO
many points to leave any one sharply
defined; exhausted the attention OF Tue
court on unimportant details; confused
bis own witnesses, and cross.qnestioned
The other party's weakly; made aditiusiyei
encountered plea, and Lost his case.
Reid was, IRON the FIRST conscious vi q
comnrehensiye grasp and q clear percep'
tion Of ends and Observation-Disclosures. Every
exssperated nerve protested at Harcsolrd
bungling. Heaven alone knew his long:
inR, but instantly the slight excitement
sent sharp pain darling up his lelt arm
de caught his necktie with a sense o. SUI
location, and they bore him fainting from
the room. -
image Of his own face; thin,pale, eneryale,
the pair, at his heart now heavier lhan
any solely physical. BE couldn't wen
watch the world In its struggle, let alone
having, himself, 4 grip. BE was but .