The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-07-02
Ier-not rough, though-and twisted me

jail
"Joe," he says, sudden like, eff I had
some of the money I've thrown away,
you should have a new suit OF clothes
from top to toe"
For my buds was just awful, and that's
the fact. Rags and patches, only the rags
was worst. And before [ knowed what
he was dom, he went down on his knees,
and after fumb1in' about his vest a bit,
pinned up the biggest tear OF all, SOS
the bear skin didn't show quite so bad IN
where my trowses was ripped from
knee up.
Course I didn't think nothing much of
it more than it was a kind of a freak took
him, till next mornin'.. And if you'll be-
ieve me, Smith had took a pin-opil, sot
with little dimuns-outer his necktie for
to pin up my rags with.
I didn't know what to do at the first
of it, not having any idea where to look
for Smith. And not movin' in what you
might call the highest circles, my quaint
ances mostly wasn't them I'd care to ask
advice of regardin' jewelry.
But there's a young. lady lives up nigh
Washington Square that was awful good
belongs to a guild" / think they call
Gill, duO UGdC1CS d n1SS1Ou SC11OOA Ii III
our ward, where I used to drift in some
times of a Sunday. I took the pin to her
and told her the whole story.
She turned whiter'n one Of the marble
statutes in her parlor when she sees the
pin. But she never spoke for a minute.
"You did quite right to bring me this,
Joe," she says, after a bit. "Mr. Smith
is-a-a fried of mine, and l will see it
returned to him. If, as you heard, he
has lost all his money"
And then she stopped, and walked to
the window. She stood there lookin' out
at nothin' ever so long. Then she gave
me a dollar and I left. And it was over
a year fore | ever heard of or see Smith
again.
But meanwhile Miss-the young lady
I'm speaking of Miss Blank, I'll call her,
got me a steady job carrying out papers
for a newsletter she knowed. And
Wednesdays and Fridays she paid me for
blowing the little organ to the mission
chapel I was telling of.
I was late that day, and when I got to
the mission little Mike Dwyer was
BLOWN in my place. There wasn't a
soul there to hear, but Miss Blank was
kind of playin' all to herself, so I sot
down a bit to lis'en.
Some n come shufain' in and sat
down near the door. When | looked
round, he'd dropped his arms on the top
Of the settee for'ard of him and laid his
face down on EN-.
"Half drunk, likely enough" 1 said to
myself-for lots of that kind drift into
the mission-it being sort of in the
slums, as you may say. But its folks of
that kind the mission is trying to get
hold of. And this man, so far as I could
make out by his seedy rig, seemed to be
something in that line of business.
Whilst [ was in the choir boy line, I
heard some pretty good singing as a
matter of course. But talk about your
sopranos-Miss Blank just went ahead of
anything.
Curious wasn't it, that see should all at
once have struck in on Kindly Light?"
$50 long Thy power hath blessed me; sure, it still
Will lead me on,
Der moor and fen-o'er crag and torrent-till
The night is gone;
And with the morn those angel faces smile
Which l have loved long since-and lost awhile
She and the organ stopped all at once.
! was still as death in the vestry, and l
heard her give kind of a sob.
"Great Heavens!" says the man be-
hind me. And I look round again to
shake my head at him. But you might
have knocked me out with a feather
buster IN one round. 1t was Smith
but his own mother if seed been alive
never'd knowed him. Pale and peaked,
with a shiny coat and trowses fringed at
the bottoms-well, he didn't look much
like the Smith I see at Morrison's, you
can bet.
All the same, I knowed him; and went
for him like a shot, for he was making a
break for the door. -
"Mr. Smith-Mr. Smith," l sung out,
" stop, l want to tell you about your
scarf pin. Miss Bland has got it,
and
"Arthurl'
It was only a word, but it turned me
round like a top. There stood Miss
Blank, staring at Mr.. Smith-only staring
isn't the worldwide I was hanging onto
like anything. For l was bound to make
myself square about the scarf pin.
Arthur she says again, and sank
down onto the settee like she was faint.
He never said a word. He put his hands
over his face, went square down on his
knees front of her and dropped his head
IN ner lap.
l amt none too bright about things like
that; but I've read love stories In the
papers before now, and I see that wasn't
no place for me, so I lit out soon's I got
my wits about me, and let EN- fix things
up their w way before any one come
in.
Was they married, finally? Well, 1
should say so. And / always callated l
had a hand in it, too. For, don't you see,
the opil and dimun' pin was one Miss
Blank had give him for a birthday present
ever so long before-that's how she
knowed it so quick. And that's ALL
NeW IOrk Argosy.
FIGHTING WITH FLOWERS.