Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-05-16
It's been o good lesson to

! Archie Cavert was drank again. ana
again he promised I'd be careful and
keep ont Of ,hsway OF temptation. But
the promise was broken more than once
before the summer came and brought
the anniversary of their marriage.
Poor Ruth she had hoped SO much ;
she had dreamed OF such sweet things
that life might hold for them. But the
shadow was over all.
In the still. bright days Of June .
baby came to them-s fair, blue-eyed
child, with Archie's hair and her sor-
royfuI eyes. There was something
very touching in the little strangers
glance. She wondered if it knew of
the shadow that was over its little life?
Had her sorrows woven itself into the
baby soul, and left its bitterness there
to tell itself in the sad. beseechiDg look
that filed the eyes her baby lifted to
her?
After the baby came Archie kept
away from the village for long time,
and Ruth began to hope again. For
that matter she was always hoping; but
now she began to hope with some little
ground to stand upon. ',4
Archie was very proud of his boy,
and the little life knit itself firmly
about his heart, and helped to keep him
true to his manhood for awhile.
Months went by, and Ruth's face was
bright with a subdued happiness. She
never dared to be too happy; the
thought of What might happen kept her
from that.
One day the baby was taken sick.
Archie went down to the village for
some medicine. It was midnight be-
fore he came back. She knew we'll
enough what to expect before he came.
All the brightness was gone out OF her
face when she heard him coming. He
came in with a Keeling step, and the
soul in him was completely hidden
from sight by the shameful leer upon
his face.
"Ah I! Archie, why have you been
gone so long ?" she cried. Baby is
very, very sick"
"Sick, hey?" he repeated with o
drunken laugh. "Lemme see him !;
I'll help take care of him."
Don't wake him." she said, plead
ingly, trying to keep her husband back
from the cradle; "he's just gone to
sleep"
Mind your business y he cried,
angrily.
The brute was stronger than the man
in him now. He struck her across the
face-a cruel, shameful blow. She
sank down in white, shuddering heap
at his feet. And it had come to this |!
He took up the baby; it began to
cry piteously.
"Stop your noise I" he said, tossing
IL up and down in his arms. "There
isn't anything the matter with you but
crossness, guess. Hey, hey you're
pretty baby, amt you p and he tried
to be playful with the poor little sick
thing, who only cried the harder. Get
up, Ruth. he said, pretty soon, weary
ing of the role of nurse. Take the
baby I can't stop Ills cryingw
Ruth had been weeping Asilently,
with her head upon the cradle. God
only knew how deep the blow had gone.
and reached out her arms for her child.
He came toward her, rseling to and
fro. His foot caught on something,
ana tnen--
She saw it all like one in a horrible
dream. The baby slipped from his
hold, and the little head struck the
corner of the cradle with sound that
seemed louder and more terrible to her
than the shock of any earthquake.
There was a sharp, bitter cry of agony
from the child, sharper, wilder one
OF terror from its mother, and then she
had it on her breast, calling to it in
fierce frenzy of fear. But it never
answered. The little life was over.
Her baby with the sorrowful eyes had
passed out of the shadow forevermors.
For days and days after that she
knew nothing more. They told her,
when she came back to consciousness,
that the grass was growing green on
the baby's grave, and that she had been
very near to death.
1t was pitiful to see Archie Cavert's
remorse. He came and knelt down by
her silently. ALI the shadow the baby's
ayes had held had come into his.
You didn't mean to-" she said,
with great sob in her voice, and got
hold of his hand and laid her face upon
it silently.
He could feel the tears dropping
over it from her eyes, and he hid his
face in the pillow and wspt. And tha'
was oil she ever said to him about that
terrible night. Once he began to talk
OF it, but she shut her eyes fast to keep
out the sight of the baby's CHASTITY face.
and said. sharply:
Don't r. ,f-r..
And after that the thought of it was
kept 70 each other. ~.
1t seemed as if Archie had learned
lesson now that he would not forget
A year went by. and the end OF it
found him with the promise he, had
made to himself aad God, beside his
baby's grave, unbroken.
1t was in the late fall when the
shadow of the curse dropped down
upon their lives again. Anu this time
the shadow was the sLedow of death to
one of them. ~ v44
Archie went down to the village on
an GRAND. He meant to come home
as soon as the errand was done. But
he met an old friend he had not seen
for years, and an hour or two went by
rapidly in talking over old times.
\ rChia Iaa1srnI