The Newtown bee., 1880-11-24

o'clock tea. After tea Rodney and his
 friends went out for stroll, and when
 at eleven o'clock the Thanksgiving party
 broke up, the young men had not re-
 turned. Mrs. Cleveland had been grow 1 ing steadily anxious, and when twelve
 came without any signs of the truants,
 sine was sure that the worst had hap
 pened. If she could only induce the judge to go to bed, then there might be
 possibility that the belated party could
 come in and retire without being seen;
 for the judge was good sleeper, usually 1 dropped off as soon as his head touched
 the pillow. But no the judge had made
 up his mind, and nothing thatf his wife
 could say was of the slightest avail At
 last he exclaimed, irritably: " Go to bed Ii you want to and let me alone. l tell
 you l am going to sit up and find out
 what has kept those boys out so late. It
 looks very suspicious to me. and if any
 thing has happened you know the result,
 wife; for I've been pretty careful for the
 last ten years to see that you and Rodney
 understood"
 The clock chimed out one, two, and
 still the judge sat erect in his chair,
 while his wife, pale as ghost with ter TOT, fitted from room to room, and win | dow to window, peering out into the
 darkness, listening for some sign, until
 it seemed to her as if the very blood
 stood still in her veins. It was almost
 three o'clock when her quick ear caught
 the sound of mufied voices by the back
 door. The judges hearing was as keen
 as his wife's on this occasion, and he
 immediately sprang to the door and threw it wide open. It needed but a
 glance to see that all of the young men
 had been drinking heavily. The judge
 cast one glance of supreme disgust at the
 unsteady group, then said, in tones of
 thunder: ''Get out of here, the whole
 raft of youi You can send messenger 1 for your traps in the morning-you,
 Rodney, with the rest; and never, as
 long as you live, do you dare to cross my
 threshold, for from this to the day otny
 death you are no son of mine." "Oh!
 husband!" shrieked the wretched
 mother, let them come int oh, for
 my sake let them come in! Do not turn
 your son from his home for this his first
 offense" Here the door was slammed
 in the five, by this tine, almost sobered
 faces, and Judge Cleveland with an iron
 grip led his wife to the library. Then
 his hold relaxed, and the heartbroken
 woman fell to the floor in merciful
 trance.
 A whole year passed after this dread
 ful affair, and Mrs. Cleveland had re-
 ceiVed but one letter from her son
 This was sent under cover to neigh
 bor. Rodney was going abroad with 8
 friend, in hopes of getting something to
 do, so that he might continue his
 studies. At this time Mrs Cleveland
 sent her son all the money she could
 raise without her husbands knowledge,
 and now another Thanksgiving day had
 rolled round without any more news of
 him. Judge Cleveland kept open house
 as usual, and his wife sat at the head of
 his table and entertained his guests;
 but they all knew that her heart was not in the festivities, and when tue wine
 sparkled in the glasses, and talk flowed
 freely around the table, the mothers
 face was as ashen as when, on that
 awful night, she waited her sons re-
 turn. There was no wineglass at her
 plate, and when the judge insisted on
 tive occasions, his wife replied, with un-
 expected spirit: tNo, I thank you,
 judge. I am not thankful for wine,
 therefore you must always excuse me-" AS this was the first time in married 1 life of twenty-two years that Mrs.
 Cleveland had ever, in public or pri-
 vate, addressed pointed remark to her
 husband, perhaps it was not strange
 that the judge had no answer ready.
 A few montha after this Judge Cleye-
 land died very suddenly; and when his ! will was opened, it was found that he
 had rot only disinherited his son, but
 had arranged his property so that, in the
 event of his widows recalling her child,
 sine should have only two-thirds of the
 estate, and this under q protest of such
 m indammatory nature. that the lawyer who read the document stopped short
 several times, and looked round wonder ingly on the assembled company. A third of the estate would be more than enough to support the widow comfort ably; but in case that she accepted the amount, which the testator seemed to think very doubtful, she was to be driven from the homestead, and in
 every possible way straitened and an noyed. All those who knew Judge Cleveland well, felt sure that he would be hard to the last, but no one supposed l as this. Friends f1ocked around to sympathize with this doubly bereaved
 woman. To the numerous questions of what she would do, Mrs. Cleveland made but one answer, and this was: ssHelp me to find my son;'' and all understood from this that the property-the whole !, or third-was to her but a trihing con- sideration. For dhree months every. ]. body did help. Letters and telegrams effort mace that human ingenuity could r invent; but all to no purpose. Rodney Cleveland was either dead, or purposely s keeping out of the way. The news oi Judge Cleveland's will had spread fa1 e and wide, and 9 few of Rodney's inti- : mate friends were convinced that the . last theory was correct. He would never return to impoverish his mother, , 7 they said; for, although Rodney had possessed considerable of his father; ! doggedness, and would doubtless die z rather than bring poverty to the mother T he so idolized.
 ! At last still another Thanksgivina ' day dawned upon the earth, and tht z widow. childless and forsaken, sat alone 2 in her home. She drove to church as ], usual in the morning. and there was
 hardly dry eye in the house, when tht | lonely woman, clad in the deepes T mourning, walked slowly up the aisle 2 and took her seat in the deserted pew U Oh! how she prayed for help, and aov far away seemed the divine hand! Aftel ,r the service was over, her friends pressed Il round to speak to hsr, but her eye, q seemed looking far away, and her man 2 ner was so strange, that it was not to b, l. wondered at-they all thought the poo Il lady was losing her mind. At noon sh, , sat down to her solitary dinner, but sh, l. could not bear the great dining-rOom 0 with it's memories of former Thanks d givings. and the dinner was taken ava, t untasted. In the afternoon several o st the neighbors dropped in, but sh, 2 refused herself to all, and when nigh is came, she had tea made in the little sit ting-room, where she and Rodney uset IS sometimes to take their supper when tn, e judge was away. "Oh! do, for mercy
 sake said one of the servants, who hat r lived with Mrs. Cleveland ever sine, }, she was married, let me go and invit, }. somebody to come in and have tea witt }, you It breaks my heart to see vol