Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1879-02-12

Ol llS COlOilUS. LUIS vi FlVlU green
moss, and yellow and gray lichen, at
intervals carpeted and softened the red
tiles: and hardy clumps of orange wall
flowers filed up the gaps left by depart
ed bricks and mortar, thus throwing
over the actual decay and rotteness a
glamorous veil of picturesque beauty.
Within, this house was cruelty old and
cold and comfortless; the beauty of de-
cay was all outside, and only its stern
reality existed within the frail and
draughty walls There were ten rooms
in this house, which gave shelter to sew
en- families. The noise and Drawing
were 1ncessant, never seeming to stop
night Or day, for when at last the sickly
children were asleep the night was made
hldeous with the drunken blasphemies
and low quarrels of the degraded men
and women, and the reeking air was
thick with gin and tobacco and disease.
In one of these rooms-it was in the
projecting upper story, which, through
an unusually wide window, commanded
a view of all up and down the street
lay on a straw pallet on the floor, bare
ly covered with an old patchwork quilt.
a boy of about II, who, Judging from
his constant cough, labored breathing
and emaciated limbs, was in the last
stages of consumption. Beside him on
the narrow bed lay a girl a few years
older than her brother, fast asleep. She
was pale and dirty; but there was a rare
beauty in the low, broad brow, up from
which was swept a thick, tangled mass
of curly brown hair. Tears glistened
on the long brown lashes. and the eye.
brows were knit together in a painful
frown, which suddenly relaxed as the
boy watched her with tired, sunken eyes,
and sudden glowing fire lighted up her
face.
''She can allus dream, and escape
to the beautiful world she tells me
about" he muttered, with wistful,
impatient sigh, "and / can never even
Sleep"
Yes, she was dreaming, but not so
deeply, but that the movement aud
sigh of her brother woke her. whats
the trouble, Harry, dear? Be you worse
to-night?'
ooh, no." he said, and sighed again.
II was Just a-wonderin' where you was,
you smiled so; and longed to be there
too"
''Oh, Harry, was way off. out O. sight
O. houses an streets an such like, all
alone in the valley; an all the trees an
the flowers an the river spake to me to
give me comfort" -
"Ah! the valley" said the sick boy;
"that's where wants to go, as [ used
to fore was took bad. If [ could sleep
p'raps [ could go, too" Here he was
interrupted by terrible fits of coug hing,
which only left him strength to gasp
feebly for water"
\ cracked cup without a handle stood
on the window-sill, and in it was a little
water. The girl rose to get it, but as she
was handing it to her brother the door
opened, and their father staggered in.
For an instant he looked at his children,
and IN a drunken fit Of senseless pas
sion struck the girl savage buffet
which made her reel, and shattered the
cup into fragments in her hand.
The girls brow flushed crimson with
anger and pain, and her brown eyes
flashed fire. "You miserable, drunken
bruter' she said.
None O. yer SARGE, gal, or I'll kill
yer!" and he glared at her dangerously,
with an arm upiifted to strike.
Father, father p commanded rather
than implored, the sick boy, sitting up
with an effort, while hectic red blazed
in his cheeks and vivid light shown in
his sunken blue eyes. Don't yer
strike her, or God will strike yoi"
There was a strange, almost unearthly
look in the boys spiritualized, suffer
ing face that awed the man into tenn
porary soberness.
AS he paused, with arm uplifted,
looking at his son, an expression OF
shame and uncertainty crossed his
features. He hung his head avoided
the boys intense eyes, and his arm
slowly dropped by his side.
Father" said the boy, in a CENTER
tone. "yo've hurt her-yo have, and
she's SO good to you"
The man shifted uneasiiy from one
foot to the other,an looked I'D so at his
daughter, VINO was standing defiant and
angry with a dull red mark on her
cheek and neck. When her brother
spoke her face softened and her lips
qulvered. She knelt suddenly by the
bed and put her arms around him, say
ing. in piteous voice, as the big tear
fell On his yellow hair: "It;s up for me
| mind-it's for 20. Whaten will yo
do the night through withouten water :?
There's no drop more i the house nor
the street."
The boy said nothing as he stroked
his sisters brown head, but the wisttul,
longing look in his eyes and the half
sigh he could not repress showed how
much he needed the water. The man
looked at them for minute, and then
the fumes of the gin he had taken over
powered him again as he reeled to the
opposite corner of the room, where he
fell On to an old mattress, and in a mo-
ment was fast in deep, drunken sleep.
The boy closed his eyes YEARLY and
turned his face to the wall. The girl
kissed him and settled him as comfor-
tally as she could, then rose from her
knees and went to the window, which
she partly opened. The moon was
hIUh and fuIl and tho Stroot NTH o,,t