Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1890-01-18

perhaps he has met with an accident
Hadn't you better drive to Mr.. Perry's
in the morning and see?'
"Yes. I'd go tonight il it wasn't so
stormy" replied the farmer.
But when in the morning he drove
up to Mr.. Perry's door he found tho
house locked up. The whole family
had gone to Ohio. He inquired at the
few houses on the road between Mr..
Perry's and his own home, but could
hear nothing Of the missing boy. Sadly
he unhitched his horse, firmly con-
WINGED he had seen the last OF Mark and
his twenty dollars.
One day about the middle of January.
Just as the Greens had sat down to din
ner, the kitchen door slowly opened and
Mark Bloomer stepped in. lie was
poor as a crow" as Arthur expressed
it; his Eyes and cheeks were hollow and
he was SO weak he could hardly walk!
At this unexpected apparition Mrs,
Green arose from her chair so suddenly
as to nearly overturn the table. Arthur
uttered a loud "Ilurrah. told you sol"
while Mr., Green could only sit and stare
in open-eyed wonder,
why, where have you been, and
what makes You so thin and pale"'
asked the good housewife as she placed
4 plate and cup and saucer for Mark.
I've been in the pcst-house and I've
bnl thn up,n1l NOV - gnil tho hAY
when I've had something to eat I'll
tell you all about it. I'm awful hun
Cry"
After dinner Mark told his story as
follows:
Although | didn't say any thing
about it, ! hadn't been feeling well for
some time before | went away. |
thought it wasn't nothing more than a
cold until that day | went to Mr.. Per
rvs. ! felt sick enough to die before |
got half way there, My head and back
burned and ached, and the trees and
houses and things looked as though they
were just s%pinnin' round. | couldn't
think what was the matter with me at
first, but soon made up my mind ! was
coming down with the smallpox. The
day before | went to Mr.. Perry's Ike
Pier told me that Sam Smith was down
with the smallpox and in the pest
house. About a fortnight before, you
remember, Sam and | had worked to-
gether in the woods. When that came
into my mind | knew what was the mat
ter of me, and | says to myself it won't
never do for me to go back home and
give Arthur the smallpox. Weak and
sickly as he is, he would die sure. I'll
just go to the pest-house and bear Sam
company. ! managed, somehow,
to get to Mr.. Perry's and give him the
envelope, | told him all about it, and
where | was going, and made him prom
Use to tell you; but he was so fright
ened and in such a big hurry to get rid
Of me that | don't believe he realized
what he said"
ale went West that very day" broke
in the farmer, ''and | got a letter from
yesterday, in which he says he got
the money all right, and told me all
about your-your-'
Heroic behavior" said Mrs, Green,
who used to be a ''schoolma'am," and
prided herself on having a better educa-
ion than her husband.
We'll" continued Mark, II got to
pest-house somehow can't re-
member how myself-and the doctors
N id II Ylns a .tpp ,ogo.' tln,,rl ,.l,+
was fine about it is more than |,
or one, can tell. for | was sick S a horse.
They pulled me through all right, how.
'ver, and here ! am, and that's all there
about it,"
well, Mark said Mr.. Green, 81
viii say this much; your home is here
ust as long as you care to stay, When
'ou get strong enough you can go to
work, and I'll pay you ten dollars a
month the first year, and more the next.
md YOU can go to school winters. | feel
hat your presence Of mind saved my
'on's life, for he never could have lived
through what you We endured. God bless
'ou,' and to hide his emotion the farm
r abruptly left the room.
Good Mrs. Green, with the tears
dreaming down her cheeks, clasped the
wo boys in her arms and said:
"llenceforth, instead of one son,
two, Arthur, you must love Mark
S a brother, for he just the same as
avcd your life"
Il knew he wasn't a thief said Ar.
hur' squirming from his mothers arm
'Hurrah, for brother Mark, r Nj
Or every body''1 nv .,.rrah.
:. ShuC 90 ~ '' "
,nno, blade.