The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1888-06-22
WHAT a LITTLE CRIPPLE DID.

down a handful OF silver on the table,
"you'H be able to take the last bit of fur
niture ont of the pawn now, and may the
time never come when it will have to go in
again -
81 haven't any fear that it will, dear"
and Mrs. Winter laid her hand affection
ately on her husbands arm. '"The prom
Use that you made to Ellie and me that day
won't be broken, | think"
"No; God helping me, III keep it.
Hark !! there's her cruteli on the stairs.
See, I've brought her a bunch of flowers"
and he nnfolded the paper in which they
were wrapped. Il knew she'd like them
better than anything"
He had scarcely finished speaking when
a little girl entered the room. She was a
cripple, and her pale face and thin, stunted
form told Of weak health and much suffer-
ing. She was looking very weary as she
came in, bat her eyes sparkled and a flush
rose in her checks as she saw the flowers
her father held towards her.
ooh, what beauties ~ she exclaimed, as
she bent over them and inhaled their fra
GRANGE. ''They are not ours, arc they?"
They're you1s, anyway. And You
needn't look as if you thought yon ought
to scold me for being e~xtravagant. came
home by Convent Garden, and got them
cheap And with that John sat down
and took both daughter and flowers on his
knee, for Ellie, though she was 12 years
old, was not as big as many a child of
eight.
"How good of yon to think OF me, y she
said. Il shall change the water every day,
and they'll make the room look fresh and
pretty for ever 50 long"
"Ay, it's like the old place now,' and
John looked around with a face that had
suddenly become grave. "When the look
ing glass has been brought back there
won't be a thing missing. There's the
wife, too, bonnie. and well as ever. And
Ellie, I owe it all 10 you. If if hadn't been
that you went and told"
please, father, dear, don't talk any
more about it. Il was nothing at all, real
ly, and yon ought to have forgotten it,
Il won't talk about it if it troubles you,
bnt, he went on earnestly, 'Ihope Ishall
never forget that it was owing to my little
girls goodness and bravery that I have a
comfortable room to SIT in and n wife, hale
and hearty, by my side. It's two months
to-day since you came back with the good
news, and may it be as fresh in my memory
twenty years as it is now"
With that John fondly kissed his little
daughter, and while she put her flowers in
water, he took his seat at the table, which
was 10Y in readiness for the evening meal.
And what had Ellie done, and why did
her father speak of it SO gravelyo
Well, it is not a very long story, and l
will tell you as briefly as possible.
For years John Winter had been en-
ployed in a timber merchants yard, where,
from an odd lad, he had risen to be fore
man. Every morning tho head Of the firm
or one Of the clerks used to tell him what
timber was to be sent ont during the day,
and he never failed i~n,,sceing that these orders
were pnnctually and correctly carried out.
He had just risen to be foreman when he
married, and a year afterwards Ellie was
born. That their only child was a cripple
was a great trouble 10 John and his wife,
but she was the light and joy OF their
home, and doubtless her aflietion only
made their love for her the greater. John
certainly worked all the harder for his help
less little girl, and SO attentive was he in
the performance Of his duties that he quite
won his masters trust.
1t was no easy thing to do, for Mr.. Mar
riott was not inclined to credit his men
and clerks with much reliability OF charac-
ter. This, and the fact that he had never
been known to overlook or forgive a FAINT,
caused him to be regarded as a hard, stern
man, and all his employees stood more or
less in fear of him. Doubtless, it was his
belief in Johns trnstworthiness that made
him all the more angry when he saw for
himself that certain reports which had
reached his ears were. after all, true. He
was in the yard one day when his foreman
returned from dinner, and his unsteady gait,
flushed face and loud voice proycdto him at
once that John was the worse for drink.
Then and there he gave him a weeks wages
and dismissed him.
John, at the time, was not in 4 condition
to know what was wrong, but as soon as
his brain was clear he understood too well,
and, with a yet clearer realization of what
had happened, he bitterly regretted the
weakness which had cansed him TO be led
astray by a so-called friend. This was a
certain Gilbert Mason, of whose acquain-
lance (for he was educated and apparently
well-to-do) John had been not a little
proud. In the company of this man he be-
came, for the first time in his life, a fire.
Quenter of public houses, and, when Gil
bert proceeded to tempt him with the ex-
cftement ofcard- playing, he yielded only too
readily.
1t seemed strange that so steady and So
Der a man as John had always been should
so easily fall into the trap that was set for
him; and his poor wife, troubled and be-
wildered, felt she must be living in some
horrible dream-that it could not be trne.
~. - H. r,,N, .t,. ~.o..l -. o.