The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1884-07-24

on that 'ammering.n
.sMind your own business" saws the
other, with growing excitement.
That's what 1 shall have to do If
you don'tlook out, - is the retort. ssWill
you move on before 1 make youP"
"But, SAY" protests Rolleston, sI'm
not joking; l give you my word I'm
not; l do live here. Why, I've just
come back from school, and I can't get
i'm
..Pretty school you came FRONT"
growls the policeman; candles on tc
your lesson books, if I knows anything.
ERE, out you go!"
Rol1eston's fears increases. 6 I won't!
I won't" he cries frantically, and rush
ing back to the door beats upon itwild-
w. On the other side of it are love
and shelter, and it will not open to him.
He is cold and hungry and tired after
his walk; why do they keep him out
like thisp"
"Mother!!' he calls hoarsely. stCan't
you hear me, mother? It's .Wilfred;
let me inr
The other takes him, not roughly, by
the shoulder. "Now you take my adj
vice." he says. "You amt quite your
self you're making a mistake. 1 don't
want to get you in trouble If you don't
force me to it. Drop this ere tomfool
game, and go home quiet to wherever
it is you do live"
81 tell YOU I live here, you foolf'
shrieks Wilfred, in deadly terror lest he
should be forced away before the door
is opened.
"And 1 tell you you don't do nothing
of the Sort" says the policeman, be-
ginning to lose his temper. "No one
don't live ere, nor amt done not since
I've bin on the beat. Use your eyes if
you're not too far gone"
For the first time Rolleston seems to
see things plainly as they are; he
chances around the ~square-that is just
as it always is on foggy winter even
ings, with its central Enclosure a
glimmer, beyond which the lighted
windows of the houses glow in yellow
bars of varying length and tint.
But this house, his ~own-why, it is all
suffered and dark; some of the
window-panes are broken; there is a
pale gray patch in one that looks like q
screwed from the door, and on its
scraped panels some one has scribbled
words and rough c~aricatures that were
surely not there when he lett that
morning.
Can anything-any frightful disaster
have come in that short timer No,
he will not think of it; he will not let
himself be terrified all for nothing.
..Now, are you goin'?" says the po-
liceman, after a pause.
Rolleston puts his back against the
door and clings to the sides. mo"
he shouts. II don't ARE what you say;
| don't believe you; they are all in
there-they are, l tell you, they are
they aren!
In a second he is in the constable's
strong grasp, and being dragged, strug-
Cling violently, to the gate, when a soft
voice-a ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS for him.
"What is the matter? o, don't
don't be so rough with him, poor crea-
turel" it cries, pItifully.
I'm only exercisin' my duty, num-"
says the officer; she wants to create a
disturbance 'ere."
.No!" cries Wilfred, che lies! I only
want to get into my own house, and no
one seems to hear me. You don't think
anything is wrong, do your"
1t is a lady who has been pleading for
him. As he wrests himself from his
captor and comes forward she sees his
face and her own grows white and
startled, "Wilfred?'' she exclaims.
"Why, you know my name!n he says.
.'Then you can tell him it's all right.
Do 1 know you? You speak like is it
-Ethelpn
"Yes," she says. and her voice is low
and trembling, 81 am Ethel"
He is silent for an instant; then he
says slowly: 'tYou are not the same
nothing is the same; it is all changed
changed-and oh, mytiod, what am I?n
Slowly the truth is borne in upon his
brain, muddled and disordered by long
excess. and the last shred of the illu-
sion which had possessed him drifts
away.
He knows now that his boyhood, with
such possibilities of happiness as it had
ever held, has gone forever. He has
been knocking at a door which will
open for him never again, and the
mother by whose side he had meant to
spend the evening died long years ago.
The past, blotted out completely for
an hour by some freak of the memory,
comes back to him, and he sees his sui
len, morbid boyhood changing into
something worse still, until by slow de-
grees he became what he is now-dis-
sipated, degraded, lost.
At first the shock, the awful loneli-
ness he awakes to, and the shame OF
being found thus by the woman for
whom he had felt the only pure love he
had known, overwhelmed him utterly,
4-1 L. I~x.,, liz L~. .,n L.,
he clutches the ratings, and sobs with
a grief that is terrible in its abandon
ment.
The very policeman is silent and
awed by what he feels TO be a scene
from the tragedy of life, though he
may not be able to describe it 10 HIM
self by any more suitable phase than
ga rum start
"You can go now, policeman" says
the lady. putting money in his hand.
..You see I know this this gentleman.
Leave him to me; he will give you no
trouble now"
And the constable goes. taking care,
however, to keep an eye occasionally
on the corner where this has taken
place. He has not gone long before
Rolleston raises his head with o husky
laugh; his ann has changed now;
he is no longer the boy in thought and
expression that he was a short time be-
fore. and speaks as might be expected
from his appearance.
81 remember it all now" he says,
''You are Ethel Gordon; of course you
are, and you wouldn't have anything
to do with me-and quite right, too
and then you married my. brother
Lionel. You see I'm as clear as a bell
again, now. So you came up and found
me battering at the old door, ehg Do
you know, l got the fancy l was a boy
again and coming home to-bah, what
does all that matter to you? Odd sort
of fancy though, wasn't it? Drink is
always playing me some cursed trick
now. A pretty fool l must have made
of myselfr'
OF -zxl-- IL l. Il-l L.