Democratic messenger., 1881-09-17

the tiny, fragile thing than the old blind
grandfather.
For Caleb was fast becoming a prema.
turely old man now. He lacked the
first of youths greatest preservers-
honest, steady, constant work and he
lacked also the second-good, plain,
wholesome food. What wonder if his
back was bent, his brow wrinkled, and
his hair thin and erey
How they managed to struggle
through another five years he did not
know, no ole quite knew. The furni-
ture in their little room (they had only
one room now grew less and less; also
their bread was often eaten without
butter; also when the winter came
round Matte began to have a cough
and complain of a pain at her chest.
Then Caleb whispertd d something in lit
tie Mattie's ear, and the child led him
down the stairs and along the streets to
a bright sunshiny wall in the big city,
where people were passing backward
and forward all day long, and where, if
the old blind man held out his hat,
there might be chance of finding a
few stray pence in it at the end of the
day.
The poor people in the house where
they lived felt their hearts touched
when they saw the old man and the
small white child creeping down the
stairs together, and heard the poor suf-
fering daughter coughing as she stopped
over her dresses and skirts. They shook
their heads at each other: 1T can't go
on much longer" said one to the other;
"and what they'll do without her, God
only knows" So they would give little
Matte cup of tea or bit of cheese to
take to her mother, and the mother
would drink the tea, and give the cheese
to the little one, and smile and shake
her head and say she couldn't eat.
And one day small rough boy in the
house brought to little Matte white
terrier pup. Father was going to
drown it" he said, but I told him l
thought you would like it and may be
by and by twill help to lead the old man
along" Little Matte took the puppy
gratefully and called him Jack after her
boy friend. They knotted a piece of
cord together and put it round Jacks
neck, and every day the old man, the
child and the terrier pup were to be
seen finding their way along the streets
to the bright sunshiny wall.
Once as they stood thus in the bleak
March weather with northeast wind
sweeping the streets and drifting the
dust into clouds that shut out the spring
sunbeams, poor woman came hurried
ly up to them. "You'd best make haste
home, Caleb" she said, eff you want
to see your daughter again alive" She
did not think for the moment that Caleb
had not seen his daughter for ten years
or more, and never could-in this life
at any rate-see her again. But poor
people, you know, haven't much
time TO spend in choosing their words,
and they don't expect other people to
be very nice in the matter either.
So Matte and Jack and the grand
father trudged through the streets, and
for once iu way got home by daylight,
to find Matte the elder (poor child, she
wasn't five-and-twenty them lying on
her bed, the sheet stained with blood,
and her hands and feet growing damp
and cold.
"She's goin' fast" said one of the
women about the bedside.
so God" cried Caleb, kneeling down
on the bare boards, "if only for one
moment might see those blue eyes be-
fore they close forever" Useless the
prayer, the beating of the hands against
the closed barred doors Mattie's life
ebbed out on that day-before the twi-
light fell, and-well-tw days after,
there was another mound in the big
pauper burial place outside the city.
That was all.
yet live on" said Caleb, as day
after day he took his stand at the sun
shiny wall, Matte by his side and Jack
on his launches little in front. Mat
ties clothes were very thin now, and
her shoes almost dropping from her
feet. One by one the little odd COM
forts the dead mother had bought her
were taken to the pawn-shop, and a few
coppers, or at most sixpence,
brought back in return. As win
ter crept on she began to grow
white and shiver as the mother had
done, and then cough and draw her
breath in, as though to let it out gave
her pain. The neighbors began to shake
their heads again as they had over the
mother. "She's going the same way"
they said, whispering together, " and
God help the old man then p Going
the same way, was she? Before the
first winters snow had settled on
the mothers grave, she was gone. And
Caleb? Well, he had his dog left him,
and hls old clothes, and his sunshiuy
wall, and what would you more? Poor
people can't have everything they want,
you know, in this life.
When little Matte lay stretched
white and cold on the mattress on the
floor (the bedstead had long since dis
appeared) on which her mother had
died, the poor people came in and did
the best they could for her-poor peo-
pie are not always thrashing horses and
kicking dogs to death, as some think :;
they sometimes do little kindnesses one
for the other, and show refinement
which people in higher ranks OCCASION
ally forget. So one brought clean
white sheet and wrapped the little girl
in it, another combed out her long fair
hair, and a third Ga flower girD put a
spray of fern and geranium into her
small, thin hand.
"She's looking that lovely, Caleb,
she is" said brown old woman of
sixty with handkerchief tied over her
head.
"Lord, for this oncer' pleaded
Caleb, lifting his hands high above his
head. ''For one moment only let my
eyes be opened, that they may see the