Connecticut western news., 1883-07-11
THE SHADOWS WE CAST
BY T. S. ARTHUR.


 child was playing with some build ing blocks, and, as the mimic castle rose before his eyes in graceful proportions, a new pleasure swelled in his heart. He felt himself to be the creator of "thing of beauty" and was conscious of 8 new born power. Arch, wall, buttress, gate way, drawbridge, lofty tower, and battle ment were all the work of his hands. He was in wonder at his own skill in thus creating from an unseemly pile of blocks structure of such rare design.
 Silently he stood and gazed upon his castle with something of the pride of an architect, who sees, after months or years of skillfully applied labor, some grand conception in his art embodied in inn perishable stone. Then he moved around, viewing it on every side. It did not seem to him 8 toy, reaching only a few inches in height and covering but square foot of ground, but real castle lifting itself hundreds of feet upward to- ward the blue sky and spreading wide upon the earth its ample foundations. As the Idea grew more and more perfect. ms strange pleasure increased. Now he stood with folded arms, wrapped in the overmastering illusions-now walked slowly around, viewing the structure on all sides and noting every minute particu. lar-and now sat down and bent over it with the fondness of mother bending over her child. Again he arose, pur- posing to attain another and more dis tant view of his work. But his foot struck against one of the buttresses and instantly, with aesrash, wall, tower, and battlement fell in hopeless ruin. 2 In the room with the boy sat his father, reading. The crash disturbed him and he uttered sharp, angry re- buke, glancing, for moment, toward the startled child, and then returning his eyes to the attractive page before him, unconscious of the shadow he had cast upon the heart of his child. Tears came into those fair blue orbs, dancing in light 8 moment before. From the frowning face of his father to which his glance was suddenly turned, the child looked back to the shapeless ruins of his castle. Is it any wonder that he bowed his face in silence upon them and wet them with bis tears?
 For moresthan five minutes he sat as still as if sleeping. then, in mournful kind of way, yet almost noiselessly, he commenced restoring to the box from which he had taken them the many shaped pieces that, ftly joined together, had grown into a noble building. After the box was filled he replaced the cover and laid 1t carefully upon a shelf in the closet.
 Poor child That shadow was deep one, and long in passing away. His mother found him, half an hour after ward, asleep on the floor, with cheeks flushed to an unusual brightness. She knew nothing of that troubled passage Tn his young life; and the father had forgotten, in the attractions of the book he read, the momentary annoyance ex- pressed in words and tones, with power In them to shadow the heart of his child.
 A young wife had busied herself for many days ln preparing pleasant sur prise for her husband. The work was finished at last; and now she awaited his return, with heart full of warm emo- tions. A dressing gown and a pair of elegantly embroidered slippers, wrought by her own skillful fingers, were the gifts with which she meant..to delight him. What troop of pleasant fancies was in her heart !! How, almost impa- tiently, did she wait for the coming twi hgEt, which was to be dawn, not ap- preaching darkness, to her.
 At last she heard the step of her hus- band in the passage, and her pulses leaped with fiuttering delight. Like bird upon the wing, she almost flew down to meet him, impatient for the kiss that awaited her.
 To men In the world of business few days pass without their disappointments and perplexlties. It is mems business - ~ A |" hAauly Spu1G. They form but portion of life's discipline. and should make them stronger, brayer and more enduring. Unwisely, and we may say uniustly, too many men fail to leave their business cares and troubles in their stores, workshops, or counting rooms, at the days decline. They wrap them in bundles, and carry them home to shadow their households.
 It was so with tine young husband on this particular occasion. The stream of business had taken an eddying whirl and thrown his vessel backward instead of onward, for brief space, and, though 1t was still in the current and gliding safely onward again, the jar and disap- pointment had fretted his mind severely. There was no heart warmth in the kiss he gave his wife, not because love had failed in any degree, but because he had let care overshadow love. He drew his arm around her; but she was conscious of diminished pressure in that embrac- ing arm.
 Are you not well ?"