The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1879-01-09
Home Saturday Night.

1t is Saturday night and father is
coming home; his weeks work ended,
and a day of sweet rest ahead. Inside
the house there is an indefinable agita-
ton. The ears of the children, if not
their eyes, are turned toward the door.
They are listening for footstep on the
walk. In the dark man is hurrying
along as fast as his membranes will
allow him. For he has q basket in one
hand so full that the lid won't more
than half shut down, and several bum
dies under either arm. The pockets on
either side are bullying. 1t is as if his
very garments had become generous.
His step is lighter than on any other
night in the week. The WEAKNESS of
the man has partially, at least, let 60 of
him, and he feels coed deal like a
boy. He would whistle if he wasn't so
old, and his lips had not for
gotten the youthful quicker. He
reaches the gate. His hands are
full; but with the help of his foot and
an elbow he manages to lift the latch
and swing the gate inward. The doors
between the palcr and sitting room are
open, and the light streams through,
reaching even the front windows. With
in one step of the stair he stops. What
has his eye caught? In one Ut the panes
of the window a little face, with two
hands on either side, and flow of gold
en- hair. An instant the face at the
pane and the face in the gloom front
each other, land then the little eounte
nance is jumped back from the glass
against which it is pressed, and the lit
tie hands come together, and, with hair
streaming behind, she goes springing
through the length of the parlor into the
sitting room, crying: "Papa's come!
papa's come!''
And then, what rush for the door?
Tom, and Dick, and Susie, and the lit
tie one, and the mother pretending to
hold them back, and more anxious than
either to be at the door first. And when
the door is plucked open by the half
dozen little hands, all eager to lift the
latch first, and the light of the hall
streams out on the man, and the bun
dies, and the coat with the bullying
pockets, and the face that shines as the
face of an angel because of its happi-
ness
| Well, well, what is the use of dsscrib-
ing such scene? The happy noises !;
the clamoring and chattering; the greet
ings and the laughing, and the chair in
front of the CRATE. 1t takes no wit to
guess who put it there. And the slip
pers by the chairp Yes, that was Gold
en- Heads work.
And what greeting the dog gives
his master. How much welcome dog
can wag out of his tail! And even the
family cat humps her back and rubs
against the chair leg, purring benevo-
lently.
All, friends! do you think the king
dom of Heaven is far off, and that you
must pass through what men call death,
and go, as poor ghost, a long journey
before you enter it? Know you not
that the kingdom of heaven is within
you; and that all the glories that John
dreamed of are but the splendors of a
nature made rich and magnificent by
the development of its affectionsp
Compared with this, how poor Religious
! pride
In all the pomp of method and of art,
| When men display to congregations wide,
i Deyotions every grace, except the heart!
The Power, incensed, the pageant will de.
+ Sert,
The pompous strain, the sacerdotal stole;
But, happily, in some cottage far apart,
May hear, well pleased, the language of the
soul;
And in his Book of Life the inmates poor en-
roll.
Golden Rule.