Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-08-02

even to fancy himself standing in the fel-
Ions dock.
Never did the trembling fingers of that
man work faster than in applying the key,
turning the bolt, and forcing open the door
of that palatial mansion.
Then he seized the child and the basket,
sprang into the marble vestibule, and shut
the world out, just as those merry young
bloods went singing, laughing, shouting,
reeling and rollicking past the dark frown-
ing windows of his bachelor abode.
fastening to his own elegant sitting
room, where his sister sat waiting for him,
Abiel Grimes fairly burst into the apart
ment, white and trembling, with the living
and wailing bundle in one hand and the
basket in the other.
"Here, Griselda," cried he, as the sur
prised sister started up in alarm, "here's
some beggar's child that want you to see
if killed it,"
He did not dare to say he had kicked it
over, even to her.
The poor sister had kind heart-she had
been wife and mother, and had lost both
father and child-and she tenderly took
the poor little wait, unrolled it, examined
it and then soothed, and kissed, and hug
ged, and fondled it, till it opened it's sweet
little blue eyes, and fairly laughed in her
face.
"Oh, you dear little darling!" she cried,
completely oblivious in her absorbed de-
light to the presence of her ogreish brother.
"Well," he snapped out at length, "is the
child hurt? 2"
Abiel.''
"Then throw the she into the fire." he
cried, with savage stamp of his foot.
Of course he did not mean to have his
sister literally obey his murderous order,
but only to understand that the child must
be put out Of his way, and that ne would
"Oh, Abiel, brother, let me keep it, and
rear it, and call it mine," pleaded the lone
hearted sister. 81 want something to love
in my declining years. Let me have this.
See, dear Abiel, how sweet the darling
looks, and how it smiles, even now upon
YOU"
And the little baby did at that moment
chance to throw out it's little hands towards
the iron man, and did seem to smile at him,
just as babies have before now been known
to smile upon their murderers.
"Bah" grunted Abiel Grimes, as he turn
ed away.
But he had not escaped seathless.
A beam. from the baby's eyes had darted
into his, and that beam had carried ray of
right straight down into his, warming one
tiny little spot, and exciting one of the
strongest sensations of his life.
Abiel hurried off to bed, without putting
on his slippers or making his punch, ieav-
ing his sister Griselda alone with the child.
She found and prepared some milk for it,
and secretly avowed it should never leave
her.
That night Abiel Grimes dreamed that
blue baby-eyes were looking at him and he
got up and hurried off the next morning, as
if to escape from the little one and himself.
AS he made no further protest his sister
kept the child in the mansion, but out of his
sight, and told the servants it was an unex-
pected Christmas present, which she priced
more highly than gold.
One day, seven or eight months later,
Abiel came unexpectedly into his own sit
ting-room, and found the bright and playful
little one tied in a chair, hammering its lit
tie chubby fists on the cushion before it, and
talking to itself in the unknown language
of babydom.
"Hello % said Abiel Grimes, halting in
front of it "you here yet, madame ?"
"Ja! ia! goo, goow answered baby, look
ing up with laugh, and making both
hands and feet fly up and down as ifattach-
ed to springs. -,
Again something shot from that pure lit
tie soul into the dark hard soul OF Abiel
Grimes.
"Confound it," he muttered, 81 believe
you're witch ~
"Ja! ia goo goo! ja-goo" laughed ba-
by, all full of springs.
The next moment she was up in those
strong arms, and her little velvet cheek was
softly pressed against his lips.
81 am glad didn't kill you J" he said.
At that moment his sister came hurrying
into the room, but paused with fright and
astOnishment on seeing her brother present,
and baby the in his arms.
''The only child l ever saw that | could
bear to handle" he observed, with kind of
sheepish look, as he placed the little one in
her arms.
ooh, Abel, she is an angel sent from
heaven for the comfort of us both ~ crled
Griselda with warming enthusiasm.
The brother did not answer, and the sister
felt happy that he did not storm and rave.
The secret work of heaven had begun.
From that time forward, there was a
change in Abiel Grimes.
The iron began to melt, the stone began to
soften, the soul began to humanize, and peO-
pie who had known Abiel Grimes for years,
began to wonder.
One day poor man came to plead for a
little more time in which to pay his rent.
"N1y little girls very SICK" he said, in a
voice of distress, with fearful eyes, "and
I've been obliged to lose time, and take the
money which I'd saved for you to buy med
icine with for her."
+ "YOu owe me months rent ~ said
Abel, taking up his pen and beginning to
write.
"And if you give me time -"
uNou will never nav me ~ INTERRUPTED
Abiel, at the same time handing the poor
fellow receipt in full for the amount, and
tive-pound note.
"Take that, and 60 home and nurse your
darling; and, if not enough for your distress,
come back to me again !"
"God bless youn cried the poor man,
bursting into tears.
"He has already" murmured Abiel to
himself "He did it one Christmas night,
when he sent me little angel"
81 come to tell you that my husband is
dead, and that cannot at present satisfy
the mortgage you hold" said a weeping
widow to him at another time.
'Take the mortgage itself down to the re-
corder of deeds, madame, and let him write
satisfied on it, was the reply of the once
hard-hearted man, as he handed the docu-
ment, together with an order for satisfac-
ton, to his astonished visitor.
Like to the pent-up waters of stream
when the distractions give way, SO flowed
forth the charities of Abiel Grimes, and all
who knew him marveled and said:
"Behold a miracle !"
Years rolled on, and thousand places
felt the secret influence of that baby darling
who had come SO mySteriously on that cold
Christmas night to the then hard, cherries
-,