The Newtown bee., 1880-01-21
PEARLS GOLD PIECE.
|" Red wins !"

"Red wins!'
 It was the croupier's hoanse cry, again and again reiterated, only diversified by that of "Red loses!" which broke the stiffness in the superbly appointed room at Hamburg, with the gaming table in the center. round which was gathered its eager votarles, behind whom were the scarcely less interested group of lockers on.
 slorely woman among the spectators, in low whisper to her husband. sI am sorry we came. This is no place for Pearl" indicating, with nod of the head as she spoke, an exquisitely beau- titul girl, scarcely more than a child of some twelve or thirteen summers, who stood beside them.
 "Come, Pearlr' the father said.
 But the girl stood entranced, her eyes fixed upon a mans face seated at the farthest end of the table. It was a strikingly handsome face, even when wearing, as it now did, an expression of calm, born of desperation. No tinge of color was in either cheek or lips. His eyes shone with strang6 and hard glitter, and were fixed upon the balls as they swung round, as though on tie color uppermost hung his hope of life or death.
 And so it was! He had sat down pos sessed of a fortune; he rose beggar Fate had pursued him with his mocking fopelessness, until he had played his last stake, only to see it swept merci- essly from him.
 He half rose from the table. What more was to be done, save to go out somewhere in the still night air. and send a bullet through his heart and brain?
 It was at this moment the girl, with flushed cheeks and half parted lips, darted to his side.
 "Take this," she pleaded, 'f for my sake" and pressed a gold piece into his cold hand.
 He turned. To his excited imagina- tion she seemed scarcely mortal, in her pure child-like loveliness. His first inn pulse was to return her offering-he was not yet an alms-taker; but again rang out the croupier's cry of command to take the stakes
 The child stood breahtless in her ex- pectancy, her eyes burning with fever ish interest.
 A sudden impulse overmastered him. Without speaking a word he placed the gold upon the table.
 The next minute small pile of gold was at his elbow. He staked it all again. Again he won. A bright spot of scarlet replaced the pallor on his cheek, which spread and deepened as Dame Fortune, who had so consistently frowned upon him, now reserved for him only her smiles.
 Morning was breaking when he arose from the table, no longer a desperate man, but with his fortune three- fold re. turned to him.
 After the first Winning he had turned to return the child her offering, but she had vanished. Should he ever find her, ever repay the debt He knew not; but standing out under the clear blue sky, with great weight lifted from heart and brain, Harry Clayton vowed that it should be his life search, but that the lesson taught him should never be tor gotten, and the gaming tables should know him never more.
 Six years passed, and Harry Clayton was winning name and fame in his own land in his profession as an artist.
 Standing one night in crowded as- sembly some one in passing touched him lightly on the shoulder with her fan, and glancing around, he met the smiling ace his hostess.
 Come" she said, ssI want to pre- sent you to my belle. If you can pre- vail upon her to give you sitting, and transfer her coloring to canvas, you will render yourself immortal.
 Is she then so beautiful" he ques- toned.
 Judge for yourself" she lightly re- joined, leading him to a little group doing homage to the fair girl in it's cen