The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1883-10-31

She was tired, of course, and there
was little exhilaration in kissing a
scrap of a face that was black with
dirt and generally blue with bruises
so Miss Mulaney never did it--and the
child, whose love for his eldest sister,
like the brilliant red flower of the cac-
tus, was the one passion of his thorny
little life, would accept his defeat with
something shining in his sightless eyes
that ought to have brought tears to
her own, and go scuttling about the
floor squealing worse than ever. 1t
counted for little that the sudAstains
meant so much of her mothers
strength; she only knew that she was
spending her youth with neither pleas
ure nor profit, that Tins alteration
was the torment of her life, and that
Grandfather MulaDeys playing fast
and loose with the proprietor of the
red lamp at one corner of the alley and
the savage at the other, getting his
drinks and smoke free and welcome in
change for the hopes, so lavishly given
in pay. was nearly driving her frantic,
as if she would ever, ever
"Av' coorse not, Jewell" chuckled
the dissipated old villain; "sure, it's
choosin' twixt the byes would spile me
game intoirely."
That ended everything. For year
she had been plotting and planning to
get rid of it all, the poverty and dirt
and disgrace of Slum Alley, and now
her grandfather had opened a way
with wide gate and an easy road, and
so Kitty stalked off dead-white with
rage and engaged board with her
friend. the Lace Counter, big, snowy
girl with black eyes and yellow hair,
whose mother let lodgings in shabby
genteel house uptown.
"Of course 1 didn't want to leave
you, mother" Kitty managed to ex-
plain, and she had the grace to lower
her eyes as she did it, "but madam
complains so of the distance"
1t was a comforting falsehood, for
the faded blue in the poor creatures
eyes leaped into sudden, smiling life.
Yis, darlint, an it's wrong yez are
intoirely. Sez to yez granfather the
mornin', Kitty Mulaney's niver the
gurrel to forsake the mother that
borned her, sez 1, an sure it's home
the child will be afther comm the
Saturday noights to keep the babby
from frettin', Mr.. Mulaney; moind
that, sez l."
eyes, certainly-but indeed, mother,
you should not let Tim go on so" with
an impatient shove that freed her
rullles from his baby clasp. 81 can't
come in the house but what he sticks
to me like a burr-selfish little ruff
| FAM
Tim accepted his usual rebuke with
solemn eyes and quivering lips till
Miss Mulaney had given her mother a
gingerly kiss and each of the odds and
ends its sparse duplicate; then siding
up to her departing skirts, clutched
them recklessly and said, with a
wheedling ring in his baby voice:
"kitty, does yez want Tins little
pig?"
Heavens, mol Miss Mulaney had
seen quite enough of pigs to last her a
lifetime; so shaking the dust OF Stun
Alley from her dainty feet she went
away TO commence a new life in a
cuddy under the caves of house that
boasted of barn, of a parlor strung
around with cheap art in tarnished
frames, cheap carpets, cheap chairs and
time-blurred glass over the mantel-
cheap, yes, but it meant Oriental ele-
gance to the pleasure-cheated girl, and
so for month or more she sold gloves
and matched ribbons with a self-ap-
proving smile.
In the meantime something had
happened.
1t is not often that Fate drives to
the door of impoverished beauty be-
hind two cloud-gray horses with long
drab tails; but romantic things do
happen sometimes, even outside of
story-booEs, and so, when DR.. Jones
stepped out of his polished gig one
evening, stepped in the shabby-genteel
house to feel sick lodger's pulse, and
stepping out again stepped right into
the brilliant focus of two Irish blue
eyes shining in the doorway, Fate
! stepped in herself and managed the
rest after the emost approved Of modern
fashions that begins with the orthodox
introduction and winds up with a
ring.
Then remorseful memory startled
the girls conscience and nerved her
to a dutiful visit home, and the way
had never seemed so long nor the place
so shameless as on that summer even
ing, after reyeling in the respectability
of a life up.own.
Grandfather Mulaney was suffering
from the effects of an understanding
Letween the two corners; the children
were laid up-Or down, rather, on
fiabby pallets-with the mumps, and
in the middle of it all-the miserable
poverty and dirt-there sat Mother
Mulaney, with Baby Tim stretched like
a burning coal across her tired lap
Shpake low, mavOurneen," whis-
pered the poor creature, wiping the