Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1879-02-13

ana low QuarrelS OF the degraded meI
and women, and the reeking air wa:
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
view of all up and down the street.
lay on a straw pallet on the floor, bare
ly covered with an old patchwork quilt
boy of about IA, who, Judging from
his constant cough, labored breathing
and emaciated limbs, was in the last
stages of consumption. Beside him or
the narrow bed lay girl a few year:
older than her brother, fast asleep. She
was pale and dirty; but there was rare
beauty in the low, broad brow, up from
which was swept q 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 hel
face.
'She can allus dream, and escape
to the beautiful world she tells me
about" he muttered, with a wistful
impatient sigh, "and [ can never even
Sleep"
Yes, she was dreaming, but not Sc
deeply, but that the movement and
sigh Of her brother woke her. whats
the trouble, Harry, dear? Be you worse
tonight"
ooh, no." he said, and sighed again.
Il 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 l could go, too" Here he was
interrupted by terrible fits of coughing,
which only left him strength to gasp
feebly for 'water."
a cracked cup without a handle stood
on the window-sill, and in it was 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 drunken fit of senseless pas
sion struck the girl a 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
brute!" she said
None O. yer SARGE, gal, or I'll kill
| W nd ho oY1a OF h. 10,
with an arm upiifted to strike.
Father, father !" commanded, rather
than implored, the sick boy, sitting up
with an effort, while hectic red bIazed
in his cheeks and vivid light shown in
his sunken blue eyes. Don't yer
strike her, or God will strike yoi"
There was d strange, almost unearthly
look in the boys spirituaIzed, 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
toue, ''yo've hurt her-yo have, and
she's SO good to you"
The man shifted uneasily from one
foot to the other, land looked up so at his
daughter, who 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
quivered. 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: Its 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 wistful,
longing look in his eyes and the half
sigh he could not repress showed how
much he needed the water. The man
looked anthem for a 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 a 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-
tably as she could, then rose from her
knees and went to the window, which
she partly opened. The moon was
high and full, and the street without
locked as bright as day. A sudden idea
seemed to strike her, for she smiled
brightly as she went softly to the bed
and stood gazing at the brother she
loved so we'll and knew she would be
able to keep SO short time.
My boy" she said, with an inten-
sity of pitiful love in her face, and
stretching his clasped hands out over
him as though she would keep him with
her in spite of everything. "My boy!
he is all 1 have" she murmured.
Dear God, take care of him till [ come
back" and with the love still in her face
she softly left the room.
She went out into the brilliant sum-
mer night, and walked swiftly down the
street toward the lovely valley beyond,
looking up at the quiet stars as she
went, something of whose peace and
rest seemed to be reflected the
depths of her usually troubled eyes.
After while she left the town behind
her, and walked rapidly through the
fields and lanes and woods till she came
to the rivers brink How lovely it
looked The trees and flowers and
grasses seemed outlined in purest, palest
silver-a very fairy network. And the
quietly flowing river sparkled and shone
with the glorious radiance Of the moon
and the stars. The girl sat down on a
stone that projected into the river. and
filled jug she had brought with the
cold, sparkling water which she had
come to fetch for her brother. She
| snn1nn ed Snnll- hn,1,nG with tho hon,,t,- q