The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1884-12-24

you."
keep Quiet, Luke, demonstrated Brooks.
1 and do not risk your dust on an uncer-
tainty.' After a minute Lindsay caught ms
by the arm. My prayer is answered. be
| said my family needs this-come quicki
| and he pulled me after him, almost on q
run. An hour later, when he had expressed
the money to his wife. John Lindsay was
| the hsppiest man in Omaha.
| "On New Years evening letter reached
| me from Mrs. Lindsay, and enclosed with it
1 was one for John. / carried both to the
room where he was doing some writing for
| me.n
Brooks paused for q momept-the shadow
| again rested on his face. Again the far away
look was tracing the picture OF happiness
| that had faded out of his life. Boys" he
| resumed, when you are welded, may each
| possess wife but approaching In grandeur
| of character the woman who wrote those
| letters. Dispute his dissipation and his de-
| sertiOn of her, despite all the suffering he
| had caused her, she still chung to him, hop
| ing and praying for his reformation. l re-
member one part of her letter to him. BE
stesdfast in your good resolve my dear hus-
| band it read, If not on your own account,
for the sake of our children; for your little
Annie, who never fOrgets, but is continually
talking of you. One night-it was the 9th
Il woke about midnight to find Annie
kueelipg in bed, her sightless eyes raised
| HeavenT ard, her little hands clasped aud
/ uplifted. Good God, she prayed, send
back to me my papa She lay down, not
knowing that had heard her prayer, and
was soon sweetly sleeping again. The next
l day, Christmas, we had a scanty dinner, for
which ] spologized to the children,
sng them On OF t the store ne o o.
visions, when Annie said, we will not need
| TO do that long, mamma asked why she
said that. Last night she answered, while
You were asleep, prayed to God, and He
told me papa was coming home again, bring
ing with him whole bushels Of nice things to
eat, and trunks full of pretty dresses
There was scene in our room, boys, while
that letter was being read, we both broke
down in trying to read it aloud"
BY this time the cups the boys had been
holding had somehow become too heavy for
their knees, and one by one been set on the
table. Three or four other faces were imita-
ting Joe Hutchinson's In the contortion
line and were turned to the walls. MacAl-
pine was putting like small engine,
seemingly not aware that he was making
no smoke, the fire having gone out from his
pipe minutes before. Brooks, who had risen
for drink of water, returned to his camp
stool and resumed:
"Of Lindsay's coming to the mines with
me you all know, and OF his life, for nearly
q % ar with us, how be worked and saved,
a. what valuable assistant had in him.
Somehow, that little blind child and that
true -hearted wife OF his were forever before
me-, Il Was for them that, as you know,
made him my partner in the Pelican
lode, the sale of which brought
him in $4,000 He had sent home
800 every month, his last remittance going
of on the 10th of last December, just as he
! and started East We journeyed together
/ to New York, where l stopped; he went di-
rectly on to Baltimore to make some pur-
oh "a hah in VII 4 an hnTI
with him in that city on the night OF the
| 2lst.
"On the morning OF the 22d, a stranger,
| who had just arrived in the little town
| where Lindsay's family lived, enQuired the
| direction to the place which had once been
| LiEdssy's home. Recent painting and other
renOvations had made the premises very
pretty, which the stranger remarked to the
owner who CHANGED TO be standing at the
gate. The stranger asked If the place was
| for sale; the owner answered that 1t was.
| The price was asked and promptly named
$4,000. Would the owner, on payment of
that sum, give possession that same after
nOon2 He would. The owner was invited to
walk TO q lawyers office. The owner didn't
move his eyes off the stranger during that
walk nor the succeeding half hour; he was
almost sure he was locking upon an escaped
lunatic. He was sure of it when he and the
lawyer were required to pledge themselves
to any person before Christmas morn
ing: But those two were the daft faces
when, as tie money was laid before them,
the name was given to whom the deed
should be made.
Early the following day wagons brought
from the railway station the household
goods Lindsay had purchased IN Baltimore,
which comprised parlor, bedroom and
kitchen furniture, carpets (alresdy made up)
and full supplies for the pantry. These
goods bore a fictitious shipping address
which had assumed for the purpose of
Lindsay's plans.
Lindsay was still at she mines, but earn
ing comfortable support was what his
wife believed, and told to friends, and so q
neighbor of the family said to heavily
bearded man by whom he was
seated on the train which ct 8
o'clock that night, the 23d, drew
up at the station. The neighbor, who left
the car by the front, did not notice that he
with the heavy beard went out from the
rear door. Without stopping to ask any di-
rectiOns, the latter person walked directly
to the house, which the day before had
changed ownership, and as he stepped upon
the threshold Lindsay received from my
band the deed which made the home again
his own.'
AS Brooks paused Lille uttered a shout that
might have been heard mile away. "Ex-
cuse me, boys" he spologized. "but
wanted Lindsay TO hear now glad we are
over il. No let up there, old man; give Us
the whole lay oCt," Brooks resumed:
Lindsay said he wanted to see his wife's
happiness at being installed in the old home
again, before he disclosed himself. The plan
required this one more night of separation
from her, 60 we sat smoking and talking till
near midnight, as we had done many night
before in the camp. The next day, Christ
mas eve, was bright and cold, light snow
sovering the ground. The cook, q former
servant OF Mrs. Lindsay's, had no suspicion
OF who the bearded man was, under
whose direction she set the house in
order. l went out to purchase g
horse for the carrisge, which had
not yet been moved from the depot. When
returned everything was disposed as though
a family already occupied the house. Two
little chairs were in the sitting room, two
high chairs at the dining table, while toys
lay here and there as il children had but
now been at play. A large music box on a
table in the sitting-room bore q plate with
an inscription in raised letters. Trunks
filled with dress goods occupied the best bed
room, over the mantel in which hung por-
trait of the wife, enlarged from photo
graph she had mailed to him months be-
fore.
Our great perplexity was as to how we
should get the family to the house. We