Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1886-05-29

office, and knowing the many needs that
must be answered first, he refused them.
Nothing to-day! What happened is
my own mistake, made long since, In
wanting you to join me in beggary and
I should have first won my
rightful place in the world, I should
have means and position before asking
you to share my life and fortune. Now,
there is nothing left but the ceaseless
treadmill of unpaid poverty and priva-
ton for wife and child. Oh, Ruth! /
almost curse myself for my own blind
ness"
For moment Ruth stood transfixed.
A revelation, then and there, for the first
time, dawned upon her, one that she was
destined to hold and carry for long
and weary time.
'His right place. she thought. Oh
yes, it came to her SO plainly. But for
her he might even now stand on heights
toward which his ambition had so long
pointed. How weak and pitiful seemed
all the measure of her great love when
she weighed it against his bitter dlsap-
pointment.
But she put the pain away for the time,
and gently soothed him as onlya woman
can. and brought Blossom to cheer him
with her dainty ways until ne almost for
got his Respondent mood, and only re-
ferred to it that evening by saying
Ruth, it was really cruel for me to say
what l did when came home tonight
suppose it will all come out right some
way" Eut her quick ear caught the
half suppressed sigh with which he
uttered the last words even then.
After this Ruth's spirit was Otter
clouded, and every little personal want
rose before her like some silent rebuke
and stung her with its sharpness.
Seasons came and went, and little
Blossom had seen but four, when grad
ually she pined and faded, and the great
blue ewes took on look, and the waxer
hands were closed above the baby
breast that should never know earth's
grievous woe or sorrow.
For the stricken father and mother the
full bloom of existence had been rudely
blasted; it was as if the road they hao
been journeying had suddenly ceased
and all aims and objects vanished with
it.
But the needs of life know no waiting,
and daily duties clamor loudly, through
the hush of broken hearts, and so Alfred
went to his Office as of yore, albeit he
carried heavy heart, and Ruth took up
her tasks again through falling tears.
But there was so much less to do-so
much more time to think, and thoughts
would come, and memories crowded II
upon her;-and is it any wonder. sad
dest ones should stay the longest?
Often she was tortured with the self
reproach that he should have listened
less to her love, and more to the future
of her husband, before she had bound
him, through her selfshness, to Life
work so distasteful.
This bitter regret SO preyed upon her
that in time it filled her waking an6
sleeping hours, coupled with the agon
lied prayer, that she might atone il
some way for the wrong done him in bel
mistaken weakness.
One evening, about six months after
little Blossoms death, Alfred reached his
home at the usual hour, to find that Ruth
was not there. A folded letter told its
story: She, chad felt herself hopeless
weight upon his life, and the conviction
had haunted her for months, until she fell
she owed him the only reparation in hel
power, to leave him free to work out his
cherished aim"
She urged him to persevere, she pic.
tured his future triumph, and then she
told him how "worse than useless would
be all search for her, that their simple
chance of meeting lay only in the com,
ing years, when his success should be
assured"
She told him of her ceaseless love, and
how it 'should voice itself in daily pray.
ers for his we'll doing" and how ''ittle
Blossoms angel hands should lead them
both in stainless ways"
A little confession she had to make
''There were some trihes she had parted
WITH" she said. "a few pieces of old
jewelry that should help them both to-
day" He would find the money in the
bureau drawer-it was matter of lit
tie over $2O0-and this, with what the
furniture would bring, would start him
very we'll in his studies, and she had
faith to feel that when he needed more
it would be supplied"
Crushed with grief and stricken with
remorse, Alfred's heart and soul center
ed in this one being, whom he knew he
had never loved as now.
To say that he left one clue untried
in his search for her would be to do him
wrong, but hopeless, at last, in istless
way, he turned himself to the pursuit SC
coveted in former days.
At first his work seemed all mechan
ical, but by and by the interest In
creased, and strangely too; Ruth seemed
always nearer to him when his efforts
were most earnest, as if aiding him will
her brave and gentle courage.
One day he found upon his desk {
sealed envelope addressed to him, and
within two $50 notes together with the
words, Use these for your purpose
that was all, and regularly thereafter
these silent helps continued IN their
coming.
Some three years passed, and Alfred
was launched successfully on the sea o.
legal practice, when one day he received
letter from friend but recently gone
west, desiring him to come to the distant
mining town of V and assist in set.
Ting some disputed claims.
After weary journey by rail anG