The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1890-01-25

result, the stranger was given some supper
and permission to stop at the farm house
that night.
The tramp ate his bread and milk in
silence, but INA was conscious that pair
of sad blue eyes were watching her every
movement.
The man did not eat much for one who
professed to be so hungry, and when
Inza spoke to him he replied in low
mumbling manner. When he had finished
eating and moved away from the table,
little Lucy, Inza's oldest child, came to
him and deliberately climbed upon his
knee. He gathered her up in his arms,
while his whole frame trembled with
emotion. The child lay there trustingly,
passing her fingers through the mans
beard and grooming to herself And thus
he held her while the twilight shadows
gathered and she stopped her soft sing
ing to close her eyes in slumber. The
shadows concealed the tears that ran
silently down the mans lace and were
lost in his beard. No one saw him as he
tenderly kissed the sleeping child.
That night Joel Gray's buildings were
burned to the ground. To this day it is
mystery how the fire caught, but some
time in the night the family was aroused
by the smoke and flames. The fire had
already seized the house in its fatal grasp,
and with difficulty Mr.. Gray and INA
escaped, the latter with the babe in her
arms. Close behind them the tramp
came staggering out of the burning house.
Joel caught him fiercely by the throat.
"This is your work." shouted the
farmer, hoarsely.
The stranger dashed aside his assailant's
hands as he replied:
Gas God is my Judge it is not!"
INA seized her husbands arm, as she
shrieked:
''Lucyi Lucyl Where is shei"
"0reat God!" groaned Joel, as he
staggered as if about to fall. "she must
be in there!"
81 viii save her." declared the tramp,
quietly, As he turned, sprang up the sters
and vanished through the doorway into
the burning building.
Every moment that followed seemed
like an age of suspense and honor to
Joel Gray and his wife. Suddenly q
dark figure appeared at one of the win
dows, and all about him the fierce flames
seemed leaping and curling. He held
large bundle in his arms. There was
. crash of glass, q dark mass shooting
heavy thud, and the tramp
lay at their feet.
Joel sprang forward and unwrapped
the blanket that enveloped the form of
his little daughter, and to his joy found
her alive, though nearly smothered. The
stranger lay quite still where he had fallen.
The farmer bent over the brave rescuer
Of his daughter, and as he turned the
ramp upon his back, the mans eyes
opened, and he murmured:
'sInza!"
There was something familiar in that
7oice that seemed to touch the very depths
If the woman's soul. Quickly she bent
over him.
''Inza, don't you know met" he muir.
nured.
''Denny" she cried, wildly. "Denny,
s it youG Have you come back after all
hese years2"
"Yes, I have come back, and I brought
ny old luck with me. have come back
o diel am going to try my luck in
mother country, and with the Master to
'uide me, think it will turn TO. the
letter. The gold that seemed to be re-
ected against the sunset sky was not for
he. This life has been q failure, INA,
ut I hope to make amends up yonder."
And while Joel Gray, tho thrifty far
Ter, worked hard to save his cattle and
part of his tools, Dennis Dowry, the
ian of hard luck and poets soul, lay
wing with head resting in Inza's lap. He
Did her all his sad tale, his struggles, his
and failures. He wh;snerod ~