The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1883-09-20

lluUy luCiC lSuG NO a. cDttllCO vi CulCulllS
a few stray pence in it at the eH Id Of the
day.
The poor people in the house where
they lived felt their hearts touched as
they saw the old man and the small,
white child creeping down til stairs
together, and heard the poor suffering
daughter coughing as she stooB bed over
her dresses and shirts. They shook their
heads at each other; alt can't go on
much longer" said one to the 9th er; ''and
what they'll do without her, God only
knows" SO they would give little Mat
tie cup of tea or bit of cheese to take
to her mother, and the mother would
drink the tea and give the cheese to the
little one, and smile and shake her head
and say she couldn't eat.
And one day small rough fellow in
the house brought to little Matte white
terrier pup.
"Father was going to drown it," he
said, "but | told him you would like it,
and may be by and by twill help to lead
the old man along" Little Matti took
the puppy gratefully, and call ed him
Jack, after her boy friend Thd knot
ted a piece of cord together and put it
round Jacks neck, and every day the
old man the child and the terrier pup
were seen finding their way along the
streets to the bright sunshiny WALL
Once, us they stood thus in THE bleak
March weather, with northeast wind
sweeping the streets and drifting the
dust into clouds that shut out thd spring
sunbeams, a poor woman came h4 4rriedly
up to them. "You'd best mako haste
home, Caleb" she said, ''if You want to
see your daughter again alive" She for
got, poor soul, for the moment that
! Caleb hadn't seen his daughter for ten
years or more, and would never, lin this
life, at any rate,-see her agaln But
poor people, you know. haven't much
time to spend in choosing their words,
and they don't expect other people to be
very nice in manner either.
SO Matte and Jack and the grand
father trudged through the streets, and
for once in way they got home by day
llght, to IND Matte, the elder, (poor
child, she wasn't fiveand twenty then)
lying on the bed, the sheet stainel I with
| blood, and her feet and hands growing
damp and cold.
"She's goin' fast" said one bf the
women about the bedside.
20 God" cried Caleb, kneelng down
on the bare boards, ''if only for one
moment | might see those blue eye les be
fore they close forever :" Useless the
prayer, the beating of the hands u sainst
the close barred doors Matte 5 life
ebbed out that day before the tW light
fell, and-well days after, there
was another mound in the BIC pA upper
burial place, outside the city. That was
all
"Yet | live" said Caleb, as day after
day he took his stand 10y the sun shiny
wall, Matte by his side and Jack N his
launches a little in front Ma tiles
clothes were very thin now and her
shoes almost dropping from her feet.
One by Ole the little odd comfort tE the
mother had bought her were tax in to
the paWnshOp, and few cOppers, pr at
most Il siXpence, brought back In re urn.
AS winter crept on, she began to grow
white and shver as the mother had done,
and then cough and draw her breath n as
though to let it out gave her pain. The
neighUors began to shake their heads
again, as they had over the mot her.
"She's going the same way" they Said,
whispering together, "and God help the
old man them" Going the same Way,
was she Before the first winter S how
had settled on the mothers grave, she
was gone, And Caleb? Well, he had
the dog left him, and his old clothes, and
his sunshiny wall, and what would you
more Poor people can't have every
thing they want, YOU know, in this life.
When little Matte lay stretched white
and cold on the mattress on the floor,
! (the bedstead had long since disappear
ed) on which her mother had died, the
poor people came in and did the best
they could for her; poor people are not
always thrashing horses and kicking
dogs to death, as some think; they sol 1ne-
| time do little kindnesses one for the
other, and show a refinement which p CO.
| pie in higher ranks occasionally forget
so one brought clean white sheet and
wrapped the little girl in it, another
combed out her long, fair hair, and
third Ga tower-girl) put a spray of fern
and geranlum in her small, thin hand.
''She's looking that lovely, Caleb, She
ls,' said a brown old woman of 81 &ty
with a handkerchief tied over her held
'Lord for this once !" pleaded Cal leb
lifting his hands high above his head.
"For one moment only let my eyes be
opened, that they may see the face |
| have loved and never known" The
poor people stood back as they heard his
prayer, with their breath drawn in AL
most they expected a miracle to be pc r.
formed-had they not heard of su th
things in the churches ?-and for film
to be lifted from Calebs eyes, that the dy
might rest on the face he had loved 30
well, before the cold earth shut it in
| forever.
All in vain. No answering EphphA
tina was breathed down from the silent,
everlasting heavens. Caleb's hands fdl
down helplessly to his side, and jack
crept out of q corner and licked them,
and then the parish people sent the +
undertakers to carry Matte away to tile
same big cemetery where her mothdr
was sleeping.
All gone but Jack. Well, dog Is
something after all, to have left one|
and when one is old, and poor, and blind
one doesn't expect great deal in lit4,
| you know, but is just thankful for h
crust of bread to eat, some straw or OLD
clothes to lie down on at night. and d
a sunshiny wall to lean against in the
way of merces.
GLOW he do live on is a MARVEL" one
to another would wonder, watching tho
old man creeping down stairs day after
day to take his stand in the streets; and
"The dog is like a child to him now, y
they would say as they noted Jack sit
ting on his stump TAIL watching for d
gap in the crush of carts and carriages
before he would venture to lead his mas
ter across the busy high-road. 1t was il
those days that Jack first began to 'fend
for himself" AS long as the two Mat
ties lived, there was always plate OF
odds and ends of some sort-scrape it to-
gether how they might waiting for him
inside the door when he came in from his
mornings walk; but after they were
gone things were different. 1t was hard
work enough for Caleb to get his own
daily bread and collect the eighteen
pennies which paid for his miserable lit
tie cupboard (attic it was supposed to
be) at the top of the house so, when he
| Il