The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1886-02-06

Thursday in the month ard Conse-
quently pay day. For the last four
weeks he had been doing double work,
and there was the pay for it folded
away safe and sound, and in his heart
was a secret just ready to be told. He
was as tired as a hardworking man
could be, but he forgot his aching back
and hurried as fast as he could 90 to-
ward home along the dusty, half built
streets that made the outskirts of the
town.
The evening grew hotter and hotter,
but he did not mind It, and he felt as
if he could not wait another minute be
fore he turned into the new bit of street
where there was a row of eight small
houses, all alike, and looking as if they
were set in there in the sand to be sold
and carried away elsewhere, and es-
tablished among trees and made homes
of-only one had bit of garden al
ready in this temporary-looking spot,
and it was toward that door that John
Weber went. With all the sand, and
no fence for shelter except row of
stakes made from split dry goods box,
he had managed to make some flowers
grow like those his mother had in her
little front yard when he was a boy.
There was an invisible wall about this
plain, dull, little dwelling which sepa.
rated it from all the rest of the world.
AS he glanced at the rest Of the houses
as he passed them, they all looked in
ferior to his own, which really belonged
to him and his wife and baby. He had
chosen it because there was a tree in
the small back yard, a silver poplar that
had persisted in growing in spite of
many disCouragements. John Weber
had felt very much disappointed because
his wife had complained that 1t cut off
her view of another road, which was a
thoroughfare, from the kitchen window.
The master of this little house looked
eagerly up at that window as he came
along, because when Hattie was good
natured and felt like it she used to
stand there and watch for him and hold
the baby up for him to see. Anybody
else must have been forced to recognize
the fact that the baby was not beauty
but there was nothing in the world SO
lovely,the young father thought, and he
mistook the round, fat, pinkish face and
mperceptible whitish hair and faded
blue eyes for the best good looks that
any baby in the world could have. His
own eyes were beaming full of love and
pride and changed sadly at the moment
when he made sure that nobody was
looking out for him that evening. Some
how foreboding sense of disappoint-
ment filled his heart as he mounted the
step to the back door and found it
l0ckcd'
Yes; and when he raped the house
echoed the sound from its empty cor
ners. There is a difference between
the sound of knock that somebody
hears and that beats against the recog
nizing ears of some housekeeper and
an unanswered summons like this.
What could have become of Hattie and
the baby7 John Weber stopped to
think. She would not have locked the
door and shut the windows if she had
only gone to see one of the neighbors.
All perhaps she had gone to her sis
ter's two miles further out in the coun-
try, thinking it might be cooler there
They had been meaning to so out to
spend day or two, though John HIM
self had protested craftily, being proudly
conscious of another plan which he had
been keeping secret. 1t was too far
away from his work, and he had pleaded
that and his real tiredness in this dog
day weather. He lived too far away
|
from the works already, but he knew
that the air here was so much better for
Hattie and the baby than it would be
in the heart of the town. That very
morning Hattie herself had been COM
planning of various maladies, and said
that she felt too i'll to be out of her bed
perhaps her sister had come in and
insisted upon taking her home. John
did not like this sister; she was always
making Hattie see faults and failings in
people and things, and wondered why
he had bought house just here; in
fact, she seemed to question everything
he did. Hattie had seemed dreadfully
dissatisfied lately, but perhaps it was
only the hot weather.
He had found the key under the
doormat and gone into the deserted,
cherries, hot little house he put away
his dinner pail and sat down in the
rocking chair. He was tired and hun
cry, and he did not know whether to
60 out and join his wife or not. There
was nobody to tell his secret to, and he
had been counting for weeks the hap
piness he would have this very even
ing. Well, he must cool off awhile
anyhow, and then he would take the
rest of his long walk. How still it
seemed without the baby The little
fellow took up more room than any
body in the house already, and John
reached to the table for rubber rattle
that lay there and held it in his hand a
minute before he began to strike his
knee with it and make the bell ring as
if the baby were there to hear.
PART II.
Halo there is a folded niece 81