Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1891-01-02
THE DOWNWARD STEP.
BY ANNA SHIELDS.

Some four miles from the centre OF
the busy manufacturing town of B
there is row of small cottages, very
simple in construction, and having little
attraction, excepting the low rent de-
manded for them. They are far from
town, and there is no public conveyance
to shorten the distance, so that only those
who are compelled by poverty to choose
a cheap residence reside there.
But each house has little garden at
tached to it, with hedges between, and
some of these wee domains were bright
with flowers. One day, two children sat
under one of the hedges, busy in build
ing house OF chips. Close enough to
touch them, but separated by the hedge,
a man croucHed, listening to the baby.
pratte as eagerly as if it held important
information.
''If we touch any of old Bates's posies
he'll eat us. Hannah say sol" said the
younger of the children, a bright boy,
three years old.
The other one, grave-looking little
maiden of five, answered, seriously:
"Men don't eat boys and girls. Mamma
says we must say 'Mr. Bates, not 'old
Bates. And she says perhaps he's not
cross but sick or sorry. He looks
cross"
"Mamma says not to touch his posies,
cause it's stealing!"
"We've got some!" SAID the little
girl; "but mammals so busy, she can't
have posies."
And, indeed, there was strong con-
trast between the few poor plants in
Mrs. Grey's garden and those that met
the eye in the next one. The old man
who lived there alone, ragged and for
lorn, seemed to have but one pleasure,
and that was working in the tiny gar
den, making every foot of it beautiful
with choicest flowers. That he always
listened intently to every voice from his
neighbor's cottage, drawing as close as
the hedge permitted to the open win
dows, none knew but himself.
He had been three months in the poor
house, and listened eagerly to any scrap
of gossip about Mrs Grey. He heard the
servants plying her "come down" when
her husbands failure in business was
followed by his death. He had heard
Hannah, the one servant telling another
from across the street of the luxury her
mistress had enjoyed only one year be-
fore, and bewailing the poverty that
made her walk to towns day after day,
to give music lessons to support her chill
dren. Ever shrinking from notice, Mr..
Bates was as watchful of his neighbor as
detective. He was tall man, bent
over as if crippled by age or pain, and
his face, deeply lined and very stern, was
shaded by gray hair, soft and abundant.
Green spectacles concealed a pair of
large, dark eyes that softened strangely
as he listened to the children.
Many times he had seemed about to
speak to them, starting forward, but al
ways drawing back with a muttered
"better not better not!"
But on this day he went from bush to
bush of his rarest flowers, until he had
his hands filled, when he tossed the whole
fragrant mass over the hedge into the
laps of the astonished children. When
they looked up, face over the hedge
amazed them still more, for the old man
was smiling.
This was the beginnig of their friend
ship, and every day saw it grow stronger.
Evening found Mrs. Gray at home, and at
bedtime there was always some new story
of baby prattle, telling how Mr.. Bates
had let the children wander about in his
house and garden, in perfect freedom.
But he avoided her, giving her no oppor-
tunity to thank him. She would have
been glad, out of her own scanty means,
to offer some neighborly help to his
greater poverty, but there was something
repellant in his face and voice that held
her back. She wondered even tn.t the
children were not afraid of him.
1t was In September that for the first
time she, too, crossed the boundary of
his garden, timidly, for she was shy,
gentle little woman. Only twenty-five
years old, she looked, in spite of hei
heavy mourning and pale, sorrowful face,
even younger. Widowed and an orphan,
her life was centered in her children, and
she could not be ungrateful for kindness
shown to them. So when they told he,
their eccentric friend had "hurted his
foot drefful bad," she conquered her shy
timidity, and went to offer assistance.
cit was nothing" he told her, gruffly
as she entered the bare, mean sitting
room, where he lay upon sofa, but hs
[ let her bring him some dinner and wG,