The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1879-07-11

I summer ike y uimuue'
The next night that little bed was va
cant, and bands Of men were searching
the country far and wide for Cyrus; the
father rode, half frantic, from one place
to another; the mother, after the first,
staid At home and wrung her hands, the
other children clinging dumb and awe
struck to her skirts. The boy had been
stolen.
Only those that clasp their own ba-
bies, and think Of what might befall the
darlings in some such dreadful unknown,
can realize the agony that night and
day brought TO those parents for weeks
and months. II is idle to tell Of that
grief, Of the forts that were made, Of
the fortune that was spent, Of the use
lessness Of it all. The picture Of the
little head on its pillow that last night
hung constantly before the mothers
eyes; all his charming little sayings we're
in her mind; she could see him tearing
up bits Of paper as he leaned out Of the
windows, and, as each one softly floated
away, repeating the lines about the DEATH
song Of the swan" Fwoating down by
herself to die;'' she remembered the
absorbed way in which he would look
up, declaring, +" buzhy now" the in-
souciance with which, when she remon-
strated upon his naughtiness. he babe
her to stake it eazhy;" his " volerble
papers;n in short, all the things in
which he had been just one trifie more
charming than the other children the
other children who would not put one
of that child's playthings out of sight,
and would not even suffer the little I'M
couth characters upon the blackboard
to be wiped out.
But one year followed another. and
another followed that, and although Mr..
Dean had agents everywhere through
out the country, and was constantly on
the alert himself, no word came OF his
little son. Yet any thing seemed better
than that be should be growing up in
the hands OF those vile enough TO abb
duct him. No reason for the stealing
had ever appeared no message or mes
senger from the wretches had ever made
any overture to the father for ransom
They began to hope that the dear child
had died Sometimes his mother feared
that she could no longer control her rca-
SON; her health was breaking down;
and she could hardly allow the other
children out Of her sight. She knew
well that 1t would be better for her If she
could 90 about among people; il she
could visit the poor; II she could lose
her own sorrows in trying to assuage
those of Others. But it seemed to her
that the sight of the trouble Of others
would but aggravate her own trouble.
Nor had she any thing to give in char
ity; she felt that every dollar mnst be
saved for spending in the search for her
little one; she was ready and eager
TO sell her great white diamonds, each
one Of which was small fortune,
and all the family plate, the accumula-
ton of generations, that had used to
delight the children with its great ring
ing vibrations before the butler put il
away after any more stately banquet
than usual. That she would have part
ed with every thing and have gone to
live in . garnet at hard labor, there is
no need Of saying, II that would have
given her back her boy again. She
knew what it was to live in a garnet,
too. for in the beginning she had gone
with her husband and certain members
Of the police though scores and scores
Of garrets and cellars in the black heart
Of the city. Only one OF them all,
though, she remembered in particular,
ii had made her shudder SO; there was
an old crone with sinister laugh,
smoking the stump of q pipe there !;
there were some children asleep in q
huddle Of rags on the floor; the officers
had shaken them, one and all, but they
we're none OF hers. The place was not
more filthy and squalid, not more loath-
some to the senses and oppressive to the
soul, than others she had seen; but it
seemed to make her heart stand still as
she entered, and she had not spoken q
dozen words with the old bag before she
tainted. And after that her husband
was reluctant to have her continue such
visits.
But the visit made, perhaps, no more
impression on her than 1t made on the
jewellers Of that den. The day 1.-THE
pretty lady came with the cop" was a
day in the calendar Of those children,
who, doubtless, were all thieves after
their kind. They remembered it, per-
haps, the more particularly. too, be-
cause, when the callers had been gone q
little while, old Hannah, the crone afore
said, knocked the ashes out Of her pipe
lifted the loose board in the floor, and
took Sam out of his bed there "a bed In
which most Of them had slept, and u
which fresh air came from q chimney
fiue; and then there had been smoth
cred outcry, for 1t looked as though San
was dead. But it turned out that San
was alive, after all he was only sound
er asleep than usual. He slept almos
all the time, as they used to wish the!
} might, instead of being sent out on thei
beats-a dark little creature, with close
} ly-shaved head, and with vacant star
in his stupid eyes whenever he opened