Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-02-13
The Light in the Window.

I'll! keep the light burning in the
window for you until You come back, >
said the wife, as she went to the door
with her husband. It's all the light
you'll have, think, for there's storm
coming up, and the moons gone al
ready. You'd better stay at home.
Will"
And she looked anxiously into her
husbands face, for she knew that there
was one temptation at the inn that he
found it hard to resist, and it was hard
to tell what might happen in some of
those Wild moments which followed
his drinking bouts.
Blu, now, sober and steady, he turned
and looked into her eyes with the old
smile that had won her heart.
I'm be back soon, Katie" he said.
"I'll remember you and the light"
And then he kissed her, ami she lis
tened to his firm step going down the
road until it died away in the dis
lance.
Then with the hope that always hides
somewhere in loving womans heart,
she sat at her sewing, building pretty
castles in the air.
William was to leave off drink en-
.irely and they We're to prosper as they
had never done before; the farm would
flourish; the home grow pretty under
her cheerful hands.
They would put by a penny for a
rainy day, and when they We're old,
Will and she would be a nice, cozy,
church going old couple, with their
children and grandchildren about
them.
Other children would come, though
their only little one lay in the church
yard, and then tear fell upon the
work the mother held in her hands.
1t was once when Will had taken too
much that he would dandle the child,
and let it fall and hurt it.
She knew he had killed it, though he
loved 1t as much as she did; he never
guessed it, and he never should know.
Poor William he had only one fault,
and that-oh, yes, he would rid him
self of that. and all would be we'll.
So she stitched and thought and
thought and stitched, until the candle,
sinklng in its socket, warned her how
time had flown, and, turning to the
CLOCK, she saw that it was three hours
since William had left her.
Saddened, but not terrified as vet,
the wife set new candle in the socket
and bound back the curtain, that none
of the light might be lost from the
road.
Then she folded her work and sat
waiting aud watching.
Alas she watched the night away,
William never came at all.
He had been in good company at the
inn, and he had been urged to drink
until his senses left him, ana when
dawn broke, was staggering arm in
arm with another as senseless as him
self, amongst the docks and wharves of
the seaside town which was the nearest
10 his home.
How it happened he never knew any
more than how it was that he let his
baby fall, but he had shipped himself
Tor a sailor for a years voyage, and
when he came sufficiently to himself to
remember home and Katie, he was out
at sea, and to those about him the tale
vas nothing but a Joke.
He wrote Katie a penitent letter, end.
ing with vow to return to her sober
man; but she never got it.
Perhaps it was lost, as letter is now
anu then. However it was, it never
gladdened the poor wife's aching
heart.
All she knew was that her husband
had disappeared-where, no one knew;
why, no one guessed.
The other men at the inn were not
more sober than he, and the man who
served them had his hands full.
That he was drowned seemed to be the
popular belief, for the water was very
near, and drunken men had walked into
it before. But at last word fell on
Katie's ear that gave her one straw to
hold by.
The miller, who had been at his
work when he might, had been at the
mill that night.
Men had passed his gate, and he
" believed he heard Mullers voice"
And | saw one one of 'em, Mrs.
Muller he said, "and he was sailor
with one of them wide collars turned
down. lie was sailor, and they were
going 10 the town."
Then Katie began to hope. She
had heard Of men thus carried of to
sea on long voyages. Not every man
desired to be sailor, and crews were
sometimes short.
William will come back" she said !;
and at night, when clouds overcast
the sky, she put her candle in the
window as on the night he left her with
kiss. II he ever came he should know
khe mad waited for him.
She found some work to do-sewing.
At which she could earn her bread, and
people were kind to her, and she
owned the little cottage AMI its acre of
ground.
There was no danger OF starving, at
least her body was il no danger, but
her heart-her aching, anxious heart
nov hungry that was or all the
world she loved but one being. Her
Kindred we're all dead. Her babe Law
under the willows, within the white
p@lings Of the church. yard. She had
NO love for gossip or tea drinkirgs, no
heart for talking things over. Her
hopes were bligLted, her heart was
crushed.