The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1881-05-12
"Yes, I reoollect the affair."" replied
1r. Thorne, who appeared to be suffer-

OnOulu you! 6Al0 L, 4au8uAu8 ,
"then let me crafty your curiosity. L.
Arthur Wallace, am that poor devil, doc
tor saved from ruin and despair by my
benefactor here" And then I related all
the events of the last fifteen years.
The doctor sprung to his feet and
grasped his old friends hand.
"Well and generously done !" said he !;
but Mr.. .Thorne interrupted him. ~
am not we'll, " he said, family. II suf-
fer greatly-let me go to my ROOM"
The next day he sent for me to his
private Office. found him looking pale
and haggard.
"Sit down. my dear Arthur. " said he.
in low voice, "and listen to me. For
long time I have had q confession to
make to you--one that weighs on me 80
heavily that must ease my conscience
of its load. can better bear to do so
now, that 1 have in a measure made
some amends for the trouble I once
caused you"
"The trouble you caused me, cried I.
"You have been the most generous of
men to me. 1t is through your kindness
1 occupy my present position it is to
you 1 owe my Happiness, and, more than
all, my honor.
Mr.. Thorne opened his desk, and took
from it a pocket. book.
DO you remember this ?" said he. as
he placed it in my hand.
"Yes," replied I, "it is the one I
lost but how"
1 could not finish my question. The
truth stared me in the face. I sprang to
my feet in dismay.
"Great heavens!" I cried; "you
found the money"
"Aye, and kept it," he groaned, with
anguish in his voice. "But oh do not
condemn me without hearing me. Yes.
terday you heard DR.. Ponard allude to
the great losses had sustained by the
failure in Philadelphia. I did not dare
to make my embarrassments known. as
that would have hastened my ruin-my
ruin God knows it was not for myself
that cared, but for Alice, my darling
child. It was on the 18th of December
that you lost the money Oh, I shall
never forget the date. It was on that
day that I meditated suicide. I was
short Of $4,000 to meet my liabilities,
maturing on the 18th. was soverwhelmed
with despair; the air of the Office
seemed to stihe me, and I rushed into
the street. I had hardly gone ten yards
when my foot struck something. It was
your pocket-book. I opened it, and the
sight turned me giddy and faint. Then
commenced within my breast one of
those moral struggles which, even to the
conqueror, is fearful, but in which, alas
] was miserably vanquished. The next
day satisfied all claims upon me. To
the world I was George Thorne, an hon
est, upright man to myself I was moth
ing better than malefactor. You know
the rest. Through my guilt you passed
two weeks Of indescribable anguish. 1
have since endeavored to make repara-
ton for the misery caused but 1 also
suffered. Moral atonements are the
most cruel, because they are eternal. I
have known. and yet feel the bitterness
Of expiation. Say, my son, can you for
give my crime?"
Could forgive? I looked at the pal
lid face, anguished eyes. What were
my suferings of those two terrible
weeks compared to the secret pain and
shame this man had borne for years p
this man, the victim of one solitary de-
Walton from rectitude, so upright in all
else, and whose life since had been one
long atonement. I grasped his hand,
tears filed my eyes.
Father, I cried, ''Alice's father and
mine, all is forgiven, forgotten. Do I
not owe all the happiness of my life to
that same lost pocket-book?
How to Mind Baby.
First q man must have one to take
care of. It isn't every one that is fort
unate enough to have one, and when he
does his wife is always wanting to run
over to the neighbor's five minutes, and
he has to attend to the baby. Sometimes
she caresses him, and oftener she says,
sternly, "John, take good care of the
child till I RETURN" You want to re-
monstrate, but cannot pluck up courage
while the awful female eye is upon you ;
so you prudently refrain, and merely re-
mark: "Don't stay long, my dear. I"
She is scarcely y out of sight when the
luckless babe opens it's eyes, and its
mouth also, and emits q yell which
causes the cat 70 bounce out Of the door
as if something had stung it. You tim
idly lift the cherub, and sing an operatic
air; it does not appreciate it, and yells
the louder. You try to bribe it with a
bit of sugar not bit of use, it spits it
out. You get wrathy and shake it. It
stops a second, and you venture an
other, when, good heavens! it sets up
such roar that the passers.by look up
in establishment. You feel desperate ;
your hair stands on end and the perspira-
ton oozes out Of every pore as the ago.
nizing thought comes over you, what if
the luckless child should have a fit !
You try baby talk; but "litty, ]itty
lamby" has no effect-for it stretches as
If a ,red-hot poker had been laid upon
it's spine, and still it yells. You are
afraid the neighbors will be alarmed,
and give it your gold watch as last re-
source, just in time to save your whis-
kers; though it throws down handful
of your cherished mustaches to take the
watch, and you thankfully find an easy
chair to restyour achinglimbs, whendown
comes that costly watch upon the floor,
and the cause of all the trouble breaks
into an ear-splitting roar, and you set
your teeth and prepare to administer
personal chastisement, when in rushes
the happy woman known as your wife,
snatches up the long-suffering child
from your willing arms, and, sitting
down, stills it by magic, while you gaze
mournfully at the remains of your watch
and cherished mustache, and, utterine
malediction on babykind in general,
and on the image of its father in partic-
ular, VOW never to take care of the baby
again-untl the next time.
Henry Wilson.
The late Henry Wilson was consist
ent teetotaler, and once gave at Wash
ington dinner without wine to W. E.
Forster, now Chief Secretary for Ireland
and another member of Parliament wht
was also visiting this country. Among
the other guests were one or two mem
bers of the Cabinet and several foreign
Ministers, Senators, Representatives, and
journalists. Mr.. z. L. White record.
that he was among the early arrivals
Al p =