The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1886-04-09

uGI 1Ouus EOdESb VOICE SHUWETIag DdtIlS
and imprecations after him as he fled
from her terrible presence. But he did
| not, for it was quite two years since
| the night she and the man who occa-
sionally came to their Wretched home
quarreled so fiercely, and when the
brief bitter fight was over the woman
| lay dead on the floor and the man stag
| gered sullen and muttering from th /;
| place. He never came again, and the
wake which followed was another
thing Patsy remembered well. Since
then he and his grandmother had
shared together, unmolested, the
| gloomy cellar room which was what he
called home.
"Big Granny as this. ancestral rel
alive of his was called, was at once the
pride and terror of the alley. She was
old, nobody knew how old, but 50 old
that had she walked she would have
tottered with the weight of years; mas
| much, however, as she always stag
gered from the burden of liquor she
was carrying, the infrmity Of age was
unnoticed. Her hair was white and
thin, and struggled in neglected dis
order away from her temples, the long
er locks twisted in a Wispy coil in the
nape of her neck. Summer and VIM
ter she went unbonneted, her one outer
garment Gotten wrapper that hung in
shapeless drapery about her tall, lean
figure. Her face was scanned and
| brown and whithered like the skin Of a
baked apple, and on her long throat,
which the loose fit of her dress barred
| to the collar bone, the wrinkled flesh
hung in fabby folds. There was no
voice in the alley more shrill and
piercing than hers, no speech more
foul, and no ribald wit so quick and
scathing as that which fell from her
toothless lips.
A curious pair they were, the pale,
starved child, weak and puny, and the
gaunt, weather-beaten woman, but in
their way they got on. Big Granny did
not beat Patsy. She let him alone, and
in return his was the one voice of all
the children in the alley which was still
when the old woman shuffied and stag
gered through the street for her daily
portion of stimulant. Hoots and ieers,
SCOTS and bowls the other urchins
hurled at her and after her as she
walked, but Patsy never Joined this
! juvenile mob. He did not take up cud-
gels in her defense; that would have
been useless; he simply responded to
an intangible sense of family obliga-
ton which he felt without recognizing
and refrained from offensive measures.
And Big Granny in her sober moments
felt SO much affection for the boy as
her capabilities permitted and in her
drunken moments never abused him.
So. as has been said, they got on.
In general, that is. On one particu-
lar morning, raw, damp day Of recent
date, there was not the usual entente
cordiGle between them. Big Granny
felt the east wind in her old bones
doubtless, and was averse to the tramp
outside for beer. She babe Patsy 90
to the corner for her, which the child,
covering over the few Goals in the
stove, refused to do. This aroused the
always alert wrath of the old woman.
and she poured forth volley Of Bill
lingsgate and vituperation frightful to
hear, but which seemed to fall upon
deaf ears, so passive did the child sit
under it. Then she took the broken
nosed pitcher herself and started in a
burst OF savage anger for the mecca of
all her pilgrimages.
Patsy crouched closer to the smolder-
ing fire as the door opened and drew
his ragged jacket tighter about his
shivering form. He had felt i'll and
miserable for two or three DAYS, but
there was neither medicine nor doctors
in Pearl alley and the healing of the
| sick was not considered in the ethics of
| the community. This morning his
head and throat ached and throbbed
with pain, his tongue was dry, and his
| lips were parched and hot. A curious
fancy possessed him, too. Every once
in while the little rusty stove with its
handful of Goals widened into great
fireplace, blazing with heat, and he
saw along room with rows of white,
! doWny beds, every one of which
seemed to invite his tired and aching
frame to rest within it. It was an old
memory, revived in the semi-delirium
OF the fever which was upon him, of a
visit long before to hospital, why or
with whom he could not recall. While
he pondered the vision faded and the
dreary reality was before him again
the cold, dark room, the breakfastless
table, and the bundle of rags in the
corner which made his uninviting bed
Suddenly he heard din in the street
and he knew that Big Granny was
! close at hand. Dreading somehow the
clash and clamor of her noisy entrance
he slipped through the dark passage
way and out into the narrow court or
yard in the rear of the tenement. A
group of children were playing there
and his advent was greeted with a
shout: Come along wild we, Patsy,
its a wake we're havin'' piped one
urchin. Patsy looked at them duly.
| but did not stir from the threshold
near which he stood.
| Come on wild ye," they cried again,
''git up, AIicky Shannon, and lave
Patsy be the corpse. Which post of
honor in the CHASTITY game seemed to
tempt the trembling boy from his place.
He suffered himself to be drawn among
| his companions, and the former corpse.
reluctantly yielding his privilege, Patsy
stretched out on the wet stones where
Micky had lain. Then the bows straight
ened the bricks at the four corners chat
had toppled over during the change,
put the bottles, serving as candlesticks,
upon them again, and after vainly en-
deavoring to light the bits of wet wood
which they held for candles, gave up
the attempt and began the ceremonies
suited in their minds to the proper
keeping of wake. In solemn Silence
they first marched about Patsy's pros
trate form. The boy lay still, his
hands crossed upon his breast as they
had been placed, and his gaze went
straight upward to the patch of cold
| sky visible between the roofs. Micky
Shannon Indignantly discovered his
condition.
''It's q foine corpse We are, Patsy
Flynn, wild yer peppers wide open like
a windy. Shut EN- up, will We. he
shouted roughly, and Patsy slowly
closed his eyes. AS he did SO the IA
miliar vision came back. Of the hospital
hall and cheerful fireplace, with the