The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1881-03-03

'.Aha, Miss Lucy, how do you do?" and the
mans face was illumined for the moment
with good; will. Are you ready for the
battle to- day?" ''Jim, her voice breaking
as she spoke, losing itself in sobs; mothers
sick and the work is short and the devil
kves," the last words spoken through tight
" closed teeth. ''Amd God also, murmured
the man, so solemnly that. the girl started.
She had singularly beautiful face, but
pinched with pain; the battle with perjury
and want is no pleasure boat; q young girl
with the dover of beauty needs to be COM
passed about with angels. Lucy" continu-
sharp point of his cane on the icy walk,
GLOSSY knows all about it," she had died
with diphtheria but few months before,
the ideal of her sisters heart; gathered in
the arms of the Good Master, she will be-
seech Him for you" There was great pa
thos in the mans words and the confidence
of entire certainty. Her face was wet with
tears and she shook with ill concealed emo
ton, my dear child, hold on" And when
she looked up the ungainly figure was hob
bling down the street. Could he have seen
her eyes as they followed him, he might
have thought her some saint worshipping
before the Virgin Mother. II will she
whispered softly.
CROOK II.
And now Crooked Jim" has begun his
days work. On the sunnyside Of great
building, shutting in roomy angle, he has
his stand. The very best mollsses candy
is found here; every child knows this, and
all the children we're his friends, from the
dirty ragmufin of the alley to the charming
little Amy with her nurse. What bevy
surround him at i'nes!--the pinched face
girl in her ragged shawl, half-fed, and the
elegant little daughter of the banker, smoth-
cred in furs.: They stood here on common
ground, and Crooked Jim" beamed upon
them with story and song and humor, while
men. and women, passing hurriedly by,
would linger at the strange scene.
well. Ned" said Jim, singing out the
most ragged unkempt canon before him,
shave ye saved yer money this month";
IAN shure I have, Mister jim, and not a
drop have me drank this blessed time" He
could not have been ten years old, and
yet he had been in the station house for
drunkenness: Ned don't ye disappoint us, :"
eying him sharply; don't disappoint Him, :"
naturally he did it, that all the crowd we're
strangely awed This same Ned had once
said that Crooked Jim was blessed saint,
and he didn't see why the governor knock
ed him into SO many pieces; it was darned
shame"
and, Miss McKim, how is Pat to- day?"
asked our cripple Of burly Irishwoman
hurrying by. ''And faith. me man, he
slept all night since ye prayed with him; ye
are as good as a priest
Ned was not the only one that wondered
at this mans trials, asking: Ibid this man
sin, or his parents?" And perchance the
crowds to whom he ministered in silent
ways was learning that the old reply to the
question was again verified. Their certain
~ was ''glory" in his life. He seemed to
have an instinct which discovered the suf-
fering in others, and he had {. gentle
courtesy, bold wisdom in approaching one,
often wanting in more pretenhous healers.
This man who had been the sport of for
tune, bound to the iron wheel of cruel
fate, was not dashed to death, but out of
the broken fragments of his life gathered
up basketfuls of hungry souls. He had a
chance to study life, and he improved it
better than many knew. The huuying
business man. stopped a moment to select
an apple, the banker for his morning paper.
the shop girl for her bag of freshly popped
corn. They always got something beside
their purchase; they learned to expect ia
CHEEKY word, a witty caution, a strong, help
full opinion. "Crooked Jim's words, like
the varied notions he had for sale, were
done up in small parcels; but they never
seemed to be drug in market. He preached
to large audience, and every one Of them
man. This days work is nearly done.
"Jim" has been we'll patronized, and he is
packing away his various belongings, pre-
paratory to locking them up for the nj ght.
A carriage draws mp to the curbstone, and
from it Mrs. Col. De Lancy leans forth,
Jim" approaches. MY Percy is very sick, :"
she said, and there is tremor in her usually
we'll modulated voice. could. you come
up and see him; he has been calling for you
all day." "Yes, Madame, he said, as he
stood with hat removed by the coach, I'll
come round that way"
Up the wide steps to the elegant home he
painfully makes his way, the footman adj
mits him and he is taken to the luxuriant
room of the little sufferer. It is in strange
contrast to his tenement house home, but
Crooks jim" is not over-awed by these
outer trappings of easy living. "Well, Per-
cy," to the little white faced figure on the
bed, s'you have not been down to see Crook
ed Jim lately. and so he came up to see
YOU" Jim" said the boy family, I'm
going to die; mother don't know it; do you
think the Lord you've told me SO much
about will let such little fellow in if he
comes alone?" my dear boy, the streets
are full Of them up there, haven't told you,
and the door is always open.'
But, Jim," persisted the child, and SO
low he said it. that the cripple bent his ear
to listen, "who will carry me over the river?"
There was a river near his home, and be-
You'd that the sea. <'The Angels of the
King will carry you, child" The mother
had come in, the doctor had but just gone;
he could do nothing more. my dear
Madame, said the cripple, "vour boy will
soon be with the angels" ''Jim I can't
have it SO. It is cruel to rob me of my
child His eyes rested on the heavy drap-