The Newtown bee., 1879-07-16
Undressing Little Ned.

W HCIc iS " "iloh's A'AAf' 'AN~ drive tbat old white horse In front Of a twenty-five cent express wagon ?" repeat ed the man su tones o$ surprise.
 'Yss."
 .WelI. now, it's a curious case, he slowly continued. We ali thought he'd gone to the dogs, for sure. for he was drinking a pint of whiskey day; but few months ago he braced right up stop ped drinking, and nov hear he's tn good business, and saving money It beats all, for the last tsnIu l saw him he seemed half underground.
 When you go home at night and find that all Is we'll with your own flesh and blood do you 20 to sleep reasoning that the rest of the world must care for itself? Do you ever shut your eyes and call up the hundreds of faces you have met dur ing the day and wonder if the paleness of death will cover any of them before the morrow? When you have once been attracted to face, even If 1t be strang- CTS, do you let it drop from memory with your dreams, or do you call it up again and again as night comes down, and hope it may lose none of its brightness In the whirling mists ot timer
 So "Whiskey Bill" was hunted down. An inquiry here and there finally traced him to 6 little brown cottage on a by street He sat on the step in the twill ght a burly, broad shouldered man of fifty, and in the house three or four children gathered around the lamp to look over picture book.
 "Yes, they used to call me 'Whiskey Bill down town. he replied, as he nov. ed along and made room, but 1t Is weeks since heard the name. No wonder they think me dead for I've not set eyes the old crowd for months, and l don't want to for months to come.'
 They tell me you have quit drinking. One could see that by your face"
 I hope SO; haven't touched 8 drop since February. Before that I was half drunk day in and day ont, and more of a brute than a man. I don't mind saying my wifc's death set me to thinking, but l didn't stop my liquor. God forgive me, but I was drunk when she died half drunk at the grave, aud I meant to go on "A regular spree that night. I was low down, sir, but I was no better than a brute those days"
 And Sd you left your motherless chil- dren at home and went out and got drunk?"
 No. I said I meant to, but I didn't The poor things were crying all day, and after coming home from the burial I thought to get 'em tucked away in bet. before I went out. Drunk or sober, I never struck one of em a blow, and they never ran from me when I staggered home. There's four of 'em in there, and tho youngest isn't quite four years yet. got the older ones in bed all right, and then came little Ned. He had cried him. self to sleep, and he called for mother as soon as I woke him. Until that night I never had that boy on my knee, to say nothing of putting him to bed, and you can guess these big fingers made slow work with the hooks and buttons. Every minute he kept saying mother didn't do that way, and mother done this way, and AhC "tIS IiGiHB tlitlI nesiuS under the quilts to drown their SC bs When had his clothee off and his night gown on, l was ashamed and put him down, and when the oldest saw tears in my eyes and jumped out of bed to put her arms round my neck, I dropped the name of .Whiskey Bill right then and forever
 
 And little Ned ?''
 ''Mebbe I'd have weakened but for him, replied the man as he wiped his eyes. After got the child's night-gown on, what did he do but kneel right down besile me and wait for me to say the Lords Prayer to him Why, sir you might have knocked me down with 6 feather There I was, mother and father to him, and I couldn't say four words of that Prayer to save my life He waited and waited for me to begin, as hls mother waiting, and when took him in my arms and kissed him, called Heaven to wit 1 ness that my life should change from that 1 hour. And so it did, sir, and I've been trying hard to lead sober, honost life l God helping me. no one shall can me 'Whiskey Bill again."
 The four children, little Ned and his | right-gown, came out for a goodnight | kiss, and the boy cuddled in his fathers arms for q moment and said
 Goodnight, pa goodnight, every body in the goodnight, ma, up in Heaven-and don't put out the light till we get to sleep. ."-Detron Free Press.