The daily gazette., 1879-08-01
FIRST EDITION.
Turned from the Door.

the door in his face, l did. The wind
blew so could hsrdly do II, and the
sleet was beating up the panes, and the
bare trees were groaning and moaning
as If they suffered in the storm. "No
tramps here; Pm lone woman, and I'm
afraid of EN-"
The man hadn't seen yet, for the
da *, went away from the door. Champ,
champ, champ, came the man back again
and knocked at the dOor-knocked not
half so loud as he did beforehand /
opened it, hot and angry. This time
saw his 'ace--a pale ghost of a face
with yellow-brown hair, cropped close,
and great staring blue eyes, and he put
his hand against the door and held it
open.
"How near is the next house, ma'am?"
said lie.
"Three miles or more," said /; ono
drinks to be got there; it is Miss Nit
ems, and she's as set agn tramps as |
am"
81 don't want drink" said the man,
'though l do want food. You needn't
be afraid to let me IN, ma'am. I've
been wounded, and am not abe to walk
far, and my clothes are thin, and it's
bitter cold. I've been trying to get to
my parents at Greenbank, where can
rest till I'm better; all my money was
stolen from me three days ago. You
needn't be afraid let me lie just before
the fire, and only give me a crust, the
stalest crust, to keep me from starving,
and the Lord will bless you for it,"
And then he looked at me with his
mild blue eyes in a way that would have
made me do it If 1t hadn't been I'd seen
so much of these impostOrs. The war
was just over, and every beggar that
came along said he was soldier and
travelling home, and had been wounded
and robbed. One that had been f Oh
ish enolght to help limped away ont of
sight, as he thought, and then-fOr l
was at the garret windOw-shOuldered
his crutches and trampcd with the strong
est.
"No doubt your pockets are full OF
money!" said l, 'and you only want a
chance to rob and murder me. Get away
with YOU"
Druslla, that's my niece, was baking
cakes in the kitchen. Just then she
she came to the door and motioned with
her mouth to me. 'DO let hIm stay,
auntie," and i'll hadn't had good sense
might, but knew better than chick
| of sixteen.
"Go away with you !" says 1, louder
than before. 81 won't have this any
longer"
And he gave kind of groan, and took
his hand from the latch, and went
champ, champ, through the frozen snow
again /; and thought him gone when
there he was once more, hardly with a
knock at ala faint touch, like a child's
now.
And when opened again he came
quite in and stood leaning on his cane,
pale as ghost, his eyes bigger than ever,
swell, of all impudence p said l
He looked at me and said: "Madam,
/ have mother at Greenbank. want
to live to see her. / shall not if try to
60 any further tonight"
"They all want to see their mothers"
and Just then it came to my mind and /
hoped that my son Charlie, who had
been a real soldier, an officer he had
come to be, mind you, wanted to see his,
and would soon.
81 have been wounded, as you see,"
said he.
"Don't 60 showing me your hurts"
said l i; "they buy 'em, so they told me,
to go begging with now. ! read the
papers, tell ye, and Pm principled, and
so is our clergyman, agn giving any
thing unless it's through some well Or
ganized society. Tramps are my abom-
ination. And as to keeping them all
night, you can't expest that of decent
folks-gow
Drusilla came to the door and said,
.Let him stay, auntie," with her lips
again, but took no notice.
| So he went, and this time he did not
come back, and sat down by the fire,
smelt the baking cakes and the apples
stewing, and the tea drawing on the
kitchen stove, and l ought to have been
very comfortable. but wasn't. Some
thing seemed tugging at my heart all the
time.
/ give the fire poke, and lit another
candle to cheer myself up, and went to
the work-basket to get a sock had been
huntington my Charlie, and as / went
to get it 1 saw something lying on the
floor. picked 1t up. l was an old to-
bacco pouch, ever so much like the one
gave Charlie with the fringe around it,
and written on it in ink, "From &. F.
to r. H." and on the inside was bit OF
tobacco, and an old pipe, and letter, a
rumpled old letter; and when Ispread it
out l saw on top. "My dear son."
knew the beggar must have dropped it,
and my heart gave one light thllmp, as
though it had been turned into a ham,
mer. ltA F. b..
Perhaps the story was true and he had
a mother. shivered all over, and the
fire and candles and the nice comfortable
smells might as well not have been at all
l / was cold and wretched.
And over and over again had to say
to myself what heard our pastor say
I often: "Never give anything to chance
beggars, my dear friends; always bestow
your aims ON worthy persons, through
well-organized societies." before / coulf
get q bit of comfort. And what an ole
fool was to cry,I thought, when fount
nv cheeks wet.
but j did not cry long, for as I sa
there, dash and crash and jingle came
sleigh over the road, and 1t stopped a
our gate, and 1 heard nv Charles voic'
CRYING, "H alloa, motherl" And went t.
the door, and had him In my arms-m,
great, tall, handsome brown son. Ant
there he was in his uniform, with hi
, pretty shoulder straps, and AZ handsome
as II he had never been through any
bardships. He had to leave me to pu
the horse up, and then had Dy the nr'
nav own son. And Drusilla, who hat
been up stairs and had been crying-why
wonder?-came down all in a fiutter-
for they were like brother and sister-ant
. he kissed her and she kissed him, ant
!, thar oba want, to set the table and how