Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-05-16

She saw him plainly in the crowd a gay.
afectionate Lad who might have turned out
well if he had been guided! But he had
married fezsherheaded girl and Ann,
out OF patience, had turned them both
adrift.
As they walked home that evening she
said to the schoolmaster: dow long Is 1t
since we heard from John, panells'
He did not reply at first. and when he did
1t was with strained, annoyed voice.
'Twenty-six year"
81 wish and Abby could have hit it Of
together / am feared that it was not
right to shove them of. with neither money
nor religion 'for staff"
Daniel made no reply, but Ann under
stood his silence as more bitter reproach
than words.
The next morning she brought to him a
small canvas bag.
s'There is some money had saved for
buryin' expenses, Danell," she said. I'D
Ike to take it instead for US to spend week
In Philadelphia"
what tomfoolery's that2"
s'There's no poor folk in Amity, n may
be we might see some there as we could
! give-advice to. And you could look up the
| libraries and museums
| ''Nonsenser'
| But his eye paused, attentive.
| "And may be we might meet John"
| "Here, put the money away I'll bank
| it," he growled.
But four days later Amity was shaken to
| its center by the news that the schoolmaster
| and his wife had gone for an outing to
| Philadelphia.
! There's queer customer" whispered
one of the attendants in the old Franklin
Library to another a week afterwards. "He
comes every day, and goes from shelf to
shelf breathless, as if he had not touched a
book for years. Been buried in the country,
Isuppose."
Sand why should anybody who can live
out of doors and dig want to smell this
musty leather?" grumbled the other lad,
who was lean and stopped, with an ugly
cough.
He went up to Daniel, however, and
helped him in his explorations.
Our country pilgrims put up at an old
fashioned inn in the lower part of the city.
Daniel came back to it at night fairly pant
ing with the triumphs of his researches. He
had visited kindergarteus, industrial schools
and museums, where art and science were
taught without charge to the poorest
'As for the libraries, whole continents Of
was doing and snoring in Amity," he ex-
claimed.
Ann had made her rounds among the
asylums, the hospitals for children, the free
classes, the creches. Her cold, gray eyes
were dim and wet.
'tHalf the world seem to be cold and hun
CRY, and the other half are working to warm
and feed them," she said. land could
find nothing to do but to make fine my
shroud ana gravestonel But have you got
any trace Of John or Abby, Danen?'
'No; doubt it's no use, Ann"
But as Ann woke day by day. and got her
hold upon the world again, her search be-
came more energetic. One day she came in
at noon red with excitement.
'.Ive found them, Danell That is to say,
John and Abby are dead; but they've left
three children. The Oldest boy supports
them, and he is that consumptive lad in the
library you took such a fancy to. Come
right alongl Don't stop for dinneri Comet
Three childrenl And the Lord never be.
fore gave US oner'
Mrs. Ann Holmes house is no longer the
neatest in Amity. The chubby little girl of
fourteen who helps her in the kitchen
leaves her work and school books here and
there, and the baby who tags after Ann
from morning until night drops her greasy
bread and butter even in the sacred parlor,
unrebuked.
"What's clean floor compared with the
flesh coming on to their bones?'' she asks,
triumphantly. "Look at Albert He's an
other boy. He's born farmer. That
library was killing him.
"1'll have no abuse of libraries" Daniel
says. I'm going up for study twice year.
1t doesn't do to lose your hold on the world.
You've got to keep step while you live"
YES" Ann replies, absently. She is look
ing out hymn simple enough for Abby to
understand, and after that she is going to
make some flannel petticoats for baby be-
fore the cold weather comes They are cut
out and folded neatly in her basket, and the
drawer upstairs which he'd her fine shroud
is empty.-Rebecca Harding Davis, in Con-
rrrac-ot;o-olic+