The Labor enquirer., 1882-12-23


at the other sidesof the town, had drawn
in all struggling passengers; only Sam's
heavy, clog nailed shoes rung on the
pavement, as he passed down under the
fiickering street lamps and turned at last
into an oblique alley. y "He said he
would take that short CUT" she MUIR
INJURED to herself, watching him out of
sight for want Of something better to do.
She stood there just FIVE minutes, for
the clock struck s, and timed her, when
another, lighter step went down the
street. "It's Robert Fullmer," peering
out. He is going to speak tonight"
watching him too, turn down Ford's
lane. He'll be late. I wonder what it
is Sam had against him she said, pok-
ing the fire into a cheerful blaze and
getting out her sewing.
The girl was nervous; body and mind
were strained and irritable Long after
her usual bed hour had passed, there
fore, she remained in the family room,
pacing reStlessly up and down, her sew
ing strewed on the floor. It was some
muslin she was making up for her we'd
ding, it tired her, it was part Of the dull
outlook into the future. Had this New
Year, laden with life and death to
myriads, nothing for her but the old
stagnatiOn?
The night had grown colder and more
stormy with every hour; blasts Of hail
beat sharply against the windows and
the wind howled at intervals through
the silence, more iercely, she fancied
than ever before. 1t might have been
the tension Of her own brain, but there
was strange wailing in its sound, mean
ing in its abrupt pause, as though the
whole night waited for some untold sor-
row. Even the dull thud of some be-
lated passengers step on the frozen snow
without, had an Ominous sound, as
| though he were the messenger Of evil
| tidngs.
Lam hysteric as any fine lady," she
said, arresting herself as she turned to-
ward the window and lighting a night
lamp, 1T would be more to the pur-
pose to consider what is for breakfast to-
morrow, than to abandon myself to these
fanries.'
She stopped, however, before leaving
the room. hearing a sudden noise with
out, They we're bringing in a prisoner
through the hall outside, the same front
! door being used as an entrance to the
jail and dwelling house. AS much as was
possible Martha avoided all contact with
/ the prisoners, however; it was the only
means she had Of preserving any refine
ment, she thought, This was a woman
they were bringing in now she heard
| Phil HOyt, the constable say so, when
her father went to unbolt the door; and
! the woman had been arrested for nothing
more than vagranCy, she knew, for they
were putting her into one Of the more
decent cells. Almost all the women
brought in made some outcry, but this
one was perfectly silent the only noise
heard was the shuffling Of the mems
feet on the hempen carpet and their
voices in an anxious whisper. What is
1t ." she said to herself, holding the edoor
latch in her hand impatientlyS
The next moment her father opened
the door, in his shirt sleeves and trousers,
holding tlaring candle
"Eou up, Matty?" he cried. That's
lucky. Bring US some warm milk for
this child, dear. It's starving, think, :"
going back to the prisoner, who stood
leaning against the wall, holding baby
in her arms.
The men were used to sights of crime
and pain, so the wOman's face did not
move them; and if the child had died
then and there, they would have looked
on it, probably, as a deliverance, it was
such a wizened, diseased-looking little
wretch, bearing such unmistakable marks
of its birth in vice. But it made Martha
sick to look at it and at its mother; with
an under thought of how coarse and
vulgar the life was which subjected her
to such sights and sounds.
The woman had been young and beau
tiful but year or two ago it might be-
but months tell like years on such as she
Yet her face, under the dirt and tangled
hair, was fresh tinted and dimpled, and