Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1884-11-12
ltrtm the Illustrated Weeky.l
DEACON M'NAB'S PRODIGAL,

(trtm the Illustrated Weekly.]
DEACON M'NAB'S PR0DlGAL
The deacon watched anxiously TO
his sons reply to his letter. He fell
sure that Alexander would reply. H,
Judged from his own standpoint, ani
from his knowledge of the disputa
tlous young man. He forgot to tax,
into account the influence of marriage
and of living in community wher,
men have to he careful in matters Of
contradiction. He was ignorant O
many circumstances in his sons lift
which made this letter of less impor.
lance to him than it was to the lonely
anxious sender of it. He was sorry a.
its tone, and he said to his wife: 81
have been little premature. Scotch
men have long memories for an offense
as we'll as for kindness. will wait 8
year and write again"
But the year passed and he did not
write; two and three years and then he
began to think he could hardly write
again unless his father requested it
He might be suspected, if he did, Of
mercenary motives. He had better lei
things alone. So year after year passed
away, and the silence was unbroken.
In the meantime great change had
taken place in the deacon; but il
had been SO gradual that his oldest
friends rather thought their estimate Of
MIN had been wrong than that his char.
acter had altered. "He is hard when
you first know him, but he mellows az
your friendship grows" said McLaurin
who had been familiar friend fol
forty years. But it was something more
than the mellowing of time. As drops
OF water will wear away granite, so the
preaching of Dominic Frazier had told
upon the deacon's spiritual nature
There had indeed been times when he
had seriously disapproved him, when be
had even feared he had been listening
to something very like Arminianism
but through it all very few Sabbaths
when the words of Jesus han not found
his soul, even in it's most secret places.
In the ninth year of his sons absence
he began to remember him very tender
~ and to find excuses for him. HE was
very young, and he had my ain high
temper and quick tongue. I ken weel
l haze a gunpowdery temper, and the
laddie was like flash O. fire; in the
vera nature o. things mischief would
come. I wish kent where he is at a..
Perhaps ought. 1 mean, perhaps it
would be kind like to look after him. I
wculdna like to meet his mother in an
other warld if I had failed in mercy to
the lad. Whatever way can I make it
up wi him."
It was in mood of this kind he went
to church one morning. His thoughts
wandered great deal until they fitted
into the words which the dominic was
reading-the words in which the wise
woman of Tekoah urged David to bring
back his banished son Absalom. He
pointed out the imperfection of David's
forgiveness, in that, though he brought
back, he suffered him not to see his face.
Then he turned to the father of the
newer dispensation, imned in Christ
like colors, running to meet his prodi-
gal when afar off, taking him to his
breast with kisses of forgiveness, calling
together his friends to rejoice with him
over his son that was lost and found.
When the deacon left the church it
was with one fixed purpose-to go and
find his son.
"And you'll do right, deacon" said
the dominic. "You are hale and vieor-
GUS, and medina fear the travel. You
haze plenty O. siller to 60 to the lad ;
maybe he hasna q bawbee to come to
you. He may haze fallen very low-hae
you thought of that?"
"Ay, have I. If I can find him,
however low he has fallen, I'll lift him
up and gle him sons portion in a.
things"
IF that is the spirit you are in 80
your ways, deacon, and the Lord 20 with
you. Where to first?"
He wrote me letter frae q town on
the Gulf o. Mexico in Texas; but I haze
written twice to that place and got no
answer back, for I bid him leave it on
pain O. my displeasure, and he'll haze
game, but whichever way is MAR than I
can tell"
In month the deacon was in New
Orleans, and from there he went to
Corpus Christi; but since Alexander
McNab had lived there it had been
visited by an epidemic of yellow fever,
and the population had been q constant
~ shifting one. No one remembered
him.
It'll go up to the seat of govern
ment," he said to himself; "where
there is law-making there'u be law
yers. Maybe I'll find the lad among
them"
So he bought horse and buggy and
went leisurely through the country,
It was in the first week of June and he
was lost in amazement and delight.
There was pomp and glory in the
sunshine and flowers which he never
dreamed of; and as he rode through
miles of blowing grasses and saw the
countless herds Of cattle and felt all
the lonely beauty and peace sank into
his soul he said rapturously, "Here one
kens that the earth is the Lords" The
highly oxygenized atmosphere gave him
feeling of exhilaration; he found him.
self singing lines of his favorite hymns
" 6A0tOAo0 VI DOCA 0UtuO11H0O songs as
'Auld Lang 6yne," or "Scots who haze
wi Wallace bled." But the strange
happiness in his heart he put entirely
down to the credit Of his conscience.
TITS gran thing" he thought, ito be
on an errand O. mercy. dinna wonder
now there are rae many philanthro-
pists."
However, on the fourth day he left
the open parties and got into the pine
woods. The heat increased, unknown
insects troubled him, he saw huge
snakes gliding away into the under
brush, there were strange sounds oil
around, and q sense Of awful solemnity
came over him. He was alone with
God in the thick woods, and he feared
Him e. he had never done before. All
day the prayer Of contrition and adora-
ton was on his lips. Toward the