Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-12-05
1E WATERBURY EVENING DEMOCRAT WEDNESDAY, DEC 1888

Sedateiy went back to hlS feeding. Scarcely had Mickey begun his hazardous undertak- ing, however, when a crowd began to gather in the road below, attracted by the unusual sight of a small boy hanging by his fingers and toes upon the face of forty foot wall. When Mickey had covered ten feet of the descent 100 persons had gathered in the road, and stood, with upturned, frightened faces, watching the climber. One motherly Irish woman was about to shout instructions to him, but another and more sensible woman interfered with:
 ''Don't holler; yell frecken him, an he'll fallm
 And so they all stood like statues waiting for the fall which each felt was surely com ing. The women covered their faces with their aprons, half afraid to look and yet spellbound with the fascination of excitement and fear. Little Mike was unconscious of the attention he was attracting, and no tre- mor shook his fingers or agitated his toes as they were thurst into crannies between the chunks of blue stone. He had covered nearly half the distance to the ground when the ce- ment company's bell rang, and his father came along the road above him on his home ward way. The crowd on the road below at tracted MT. Finns attention, and looking over the railing he saw his boy hanging be- tween earth and heaven. Mr. Finn was a strong man, ''barrin' tn rheumatiz,n but when he saw the rocks underneath his son, and realized that loose stone meant coffin and the services of the priest, a blur came over the landscape his face blanched, and his teeth snapped togather so hard that the stem of the cutty pipe between them was crushed and the bowl shot past Mickey's head and was smashed on the rocks below, scatter ing fiery sparks around. MT. Finn groped blindly around for a minute as if be had been stricken with a blindness. Then he darted down the hill like an elk in the mountains His head was thrown back and he covered the ground in great leaps. His dinner pail fell from his hand and went rattling over the wall. The crowd cried in a half suppressed whisper, as they saw the flying figure coming with Streaming hair and set lips. "Here comes the by's father!"
 In less than half minute MT. Finn stood on the pile of loose rocks underneath his boy The confused murmer of voices which greeted his fathers approach attracted the attention of little Mike. He turned his head and saw the crowd watching him. That one swift glance showed him the prayerful attitudes and the pallid faces of the men and women and the frightened glances of the little chill dren. A great fear fell upon him and the top of the wall seemed to his strained vision to loom thousand feet above him, and the rocks below him reached up their serrated edges like Alpine ridges to mangle him. The omlnous silence, too, oppressed him like a funeral pail, and the voice of the yellow bird singing in the tree only fifty feet away fell on his ear like the notes of the golden harps his mother had told him were played on by angels beyond the clouds. His lip trembled and he began to whimper, just as he had done after whipping, and shrank closer and closer to the wall. A big tear stole down his tanned cheek and fell upon the upturned face of his father, who shivered as though q bolt from crossbow had struck him at the con- tact, A groan slipped from MT. Finns lips and was echoed from the crowd below.
 At this critical time MT. Finn reached up ward his brawny arms, aching to receive a living burden, and from his lips faltered these words;
 SNow, Mickey, put yer fut in tn crack below, Aye, that's tn lad Now, hang on wid yer hands! Careful, sonny, careful"
 A piece of stone dislocated by the boy fell upon the rocks. A shudder ran through the crowd. Then the climbers foot slipped, and 0 half suppressed ''AhT" broke involuntarily from parted lips in the road But Mickey did not fall. His body swayed outward, and by lucky chance he again secured his foot ing. MT. Finn lowered his hand at intervals to cross his breast, and his lips moved, but his eyes never left the form of his boy, which was yet twenty feet above him.
 'Mickey, brave lad, stiffen yersel'!" said be- 'Luk out, now. Work yer toe we'll in An, hal Now ye hay it! Dig in wid lyer nailS!"
 Slowly and carefully the inquisitive toe felt its way along the face of the wall until it met crack, and never did child show the affection for its mother which Mick showed for the wall. But as he made his way slowly downward he was gradually get ting weaker. The excitement was beginning to sap his strength. He was now within twelve feet of his father. The twilight was rapidly falling, and the wall was draped in shadows. The darkness hid the cracks. He rested his toes on projecting piece of stone there was a snapping sound, a brief glimpse of arms wildly tossing, a cry of terror from the crowd, and the boy shot outward and downward. But Mir. Finn was watching and as the body of his son came down head first he seized it as tho eagle clutches the fish when the osprey has dropped it. A cheer rent the air and went echoing over the hill for the boy was in his fathers arms
 Mr. Finn folded his boy close down against his hickory shirt, and smile irradiated his swarthy face such as comes only in those moments when the human soul is stirred by the passion of joy. The crowd pressed closely around to catch glimpse of the little hero, aud Jack Doolan said in an awestruck whisper:
 "Are ye much hurted, Mickey?"
 "On'y me nose is skinned,n was the reply And up the Old Point road the little pro cession went, the children running eagerly ahead, and the elderly persons walking so berly behind and commenting gravely upor the special providence which lowered ovel the most venturesome boy on Cooney Island When the excitement had died away that evening and Mickey had scraped out the mo lasses pail, he stole out of the gate into the road, and all his youthful comrades gazed al him with the awe with which Napoleon va! regarded by his soldiers.
 The goats were driven home by Jack Doc lan.-Erpest Harold in New York Evening | Sun.
 For a Young Couple.
 What is needed to insure larger degree oi happiness in this world is moral independence | and moral princin1e Tho notion fbat ths