Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-02-27

to sit I'D and hear him talk it is your
affair. 1 shall be obliged to remain
here any way, and will not object to any
thing that will help to pass away the
time. But these men must not be the
only ones who are seated. David, you
and Alice can clear away that broken
table and the rest Of the stuff, and then
we might IS well SIT down and make
ourselves confortab1 )"
Alice, with cloth and brush, ap-'
preached very tirnidly the scene Of the
disaster, but the younger burglar, who
was nearest to her. gazed upon her with
such gentle and quiet air that she did
| not Seem to be frightened. When she
and David had put the room in fair
order placed two easy chairs for my
| wife md Aunt Martha at moderate
distance from the burglars, and took
another myself little nearer to them,
and then told David to seat himself
near the other end O. the bench, and
Alice took q chair at little distance
from the ladies.
s.No5r. then said Aunt Martha, to the
burglars, 81 would like very much to
hear what any one of you can say in ex-
tenuation of having broken into a
gentleman's house by night
Without hesitation the tall man be-
gan his speech. He had long and
! rather lean, olose-shaven face, which at
present bore the expression Of an
undertaken conducting funeral. AL
| though it was my aunt who had shown
the greatest desire to hear his story, he
addressed himself to my wife. think
he imagined that she was the more IN
| fiuential person of the two.
Madam" said he, 81 am glad Of the
opportunity of giving you and your fam
lily an idea of the difficulties and mis-
cries which besctt d large class of you1
fellow-beings of whom you seldom have
any chance OF knowing any thing at all
but of whom you hear ali sorts of the
most misleading accounts. Now, an
poor man. | have suffered the greatest
miseries that poverty can inf1ict. l an
here, suspected of having committed &
crime. 1t is possible that l may be put
to considerable difficulty and expense in
proving my innocence.
y shouldn't WONDER" I interrupted
To this remark he paid no attention.
considering all this" he continued
s'you may not suppose, madam, that as
a boy | was brought up most respect
ably and properly. My mother was g
religious woman, and my father was q
boat builder. | was sent to school, and
my mother has often told me that l was
good scholar. But she died when
was about sixteen, and [ am sure, had
this not happened, I should never have
been even suspected of breaking the
De of
her death my father appeared to lose
interest in his business and took tc
rowing about the river instead of build
ing boats for other people to row. Very
often he went out at night, and l usec
to wonder why he should care to be or
the water in the darkness, and some
times in the rain. One evening at sup
per he said to me: Thomas, you ough1
to know how to row in the dark as vel
as in the daytime. am going up the
river tonight and you can come with
me-
cit was about my ordinary bedtime
when we took boat with two pair O.
oars, and we pulled up the river abou
three miles above the city,
''What city?' l asked.
s'The city where I was born, SIR" h
said, land the name of which I must b.
excused from mentioning for reason
: connected with my only surviving pa
rent. There were houses on the rive
bank, but they were not very near eacl
other. Some of them had lights il
them, but most of them were dark, as
must have been after eleven o'clock
Before one of them my father stopped
rowing for moment and looked at i
!, pretty hard. 1t seemed to be all dark
but as we pulled on q little l saw
light in the back of the house.
my father said nothing, but we KEEP
on, though pulling very easy for mil
, or two, and then we turned and foatet
down with the tide. You might as wei
rest, Thomas said he, 'for you hav
worked pretty hard.
TO BE CONTINUED.