The Yazoo sentinel. (Yazoo City, Miss.) 1878-1916, 1891-08-13

and smiled happily ppon him.
'You turned ihatfuno WE'LL 81, IN the
old days, she sold. beating time 10 the
music with her knieing needle; ain the
old days, 81, when she hssitAted and
blushcd like a girl q sixteen.
ftThou wouid'st slilllbe adored, as this
moment thou OFT
Let thy l0vcliness lde a. Il will,
And around the dearruin each wish OF
my heart
Would entaine is4lf verdantly still. !,
The old mans yticc, wavering and
broken, took up the lords, and his faded
eyes fingered on the vrinkled face before
him with much the same expression they
bore, when years agothey had agreed 70
90 down the Hill OF NE together. They
were nearing the fcot now, but listening
TO those strains they turned back, and
for one fleeting mohent stood at the
summit again, smiling with youth, and
hope, and love.
No one broke tho silence after the last
sweet note had died away. A heavy sigh
or two from the old people, and that was
all III q gentle knock was heard at the
door.
Abner opened 1t.
A bow stood there With half smiling,
half besecching expression upon his
pinched little face.
Sightless, poor, yet not altogether IN,
happy, for clasped in bis arms was that
| loved instrument whose voice, at the
/ touch Of the bow, rcjoiced when he re-
I ioiced. borrowed whom he sorrowed. An
insensate creature whose strings, to the
blind boy seemed as vocal chords lent
by some divine singer, long since
crumbled' into dust.
Abner led him to the chair Of his
uncle
''Why do you part with the fiddler
abruptly queried the old man, turning
the instrument gingerly about in his
hand, "you'll miss L right smart /
reckon
Tears wclled into tho sightless eyes.
'It's like selling a brother, sir, but
mother and me are going West to find
some Of our relatives, and we need the
money to take us therep
'1t's a heap to pay for crooked piece
Of wood said the close old farmer,
fumbling tic notes which filed his we'll
worn lcathern wallet, "but,p with a re-
Elective gaze at the face Of the blind boy,
where hope and pain stroye for mastery,
81 reckon III. take IL, reluctantly pass
ing as he spoke, to the lad, two ten dol
lar bills.
81 can already play some Of the tunes
you love- cried the delighted Abner,
and to the old mans apparent satisfac-
ton he did execute pretty fairly q verse
Of "Auld Lang Syne."
Iwelve months or moro have passed,
and nightly had Uncle 81 listened to the
familiar airs played on that ''ere fiddle, =
MS he persisted in calling the instrument.
But even his unframed ears recognized
that the bit OF wood, cat-gut, and rosin
squeaked most numerically under Alb
ner's manipulation Of the bow.
''The critter seems to find its new
home and master not to its likin', he
would say at such times discontentedly.
not soothed by the uncertain strains, 'it
pears like to be awin' back" and
more than once had the old man repented
him Of his bargain.
"But,p would remark Aunt Priscilla
soothingly, "'it enabled Josef and his
mother to reach their friends, you know,
to which bit OF womanly reasoning Uncle
81 only replied with a grunt.
Presently, however, other matters,
moro monentous than the purchase of a
fiddle, arose to disturb the old mans
mind. A bad investment OF his small
means, the failure of successive crops, a
pinching want of money. Many were
the consultations between the old folks,
aud at last, one day, Uncle 81 iourneyed
to a distant town, to return with well.
filed wallet, but accompanied by a
shadow which was from that day &c
make its home under their once indie
pendent roof; shadow which the next
year beckoned another to keep it com
, pany: a shadow that in time would de
velop into monster, a monster with
the grip and tenaoity of death.
The homestead was mortgagedl
Diligently these days did Abner prac.
tice upon his violin; to it was given al
| his spare moments.
The shadow of the second mortgage
was now darkening the home, when the
! lad began TO make nightly trips to the
/ neighboring town, a town which in the
summer months was known as ''water
! ing place.
| Uncle 81 grumbled not little wher
} Immediately after supper Abner, violin
in hand, trudged off during the season.
Giles playin' dancin' tunes like
enough he growled, all his pre- iudicei
against the violin returning. "Jies aud
| SIGH for the sons and daughters Of Belial,
, warrant he's not giving them hy-away
, folks up yonder any noxologies, or tn,
! old tunes I'm a-hankerin' after. neve
: would bought that fiddle, Priscilly
had knowed what purpose he'd put
ii to-"
! Aunt Priscilla shook her dear head a
she gazed affectionately after the reced
ing form Of the lad
4 "Abner is good boy. 81. and he
loolin' forward to doin' his duty by us.
! but she made no mention, for certail
reasons. OF the old broken pitcher in tn
closet. half filed with the dimes an'
/ larger silver pieces, which tho boy ha'
already earned with that self-sam
fiddle.
So that evening. as usual Abne
| stood. violin in hand, before the prin
cipal hotel in the village. Not withou
n blush. did he draw the bow across tn
-. :. hf,..f. ,..l,ok ,nc rniuh