The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1891-02-07
"HAVE YOU SEEN MOSES?T
BIT EVELYN RAYMOND.

IL WIS INC Stuutst SDuHu L ever ncdru.
The first day it set my mind continually
wandering from the work in hand: on
the second it exasperated me: but on the
third | felt that | must answer the
mourpsul question in the affirmative or 90
mad.
''IIave you scen-Mose-s?"
Over and over again. with its pathetic
iteration, its little catching of the breath
before the final word, and that emphasis
upon the second one which made it such
personal matter heard it from the
bar across the hall, from among the
group of lOungcrs on the hotel stoop.
beside me at the post-office window, all
up and down the struggling street
everywhere throughout the small mining
town in which the interests of my EN-
ployers had stranded me.
To the credit of my kind I MIST say
that / rarely heard an impatient retort
given to the appealing inquiry. Rough
miners would break off in the middle of
an oath and answer with unlocked for
gentleness: mo, Pop; l haint seen
him."
Some would merely smile and shake
brute would thrust his hand in his vest
pOcket-the abominatiOn of the chestnut
bell had just gravitated to Boomville--
and ring his little admonition in the
others ear. He had done this for the
second time within my hearing and
within the space of an hour, when could
bear it no longer. | wheeled around
from the table. strewn with the COM
pany's maps and charts, and demanded,
savagcly: "WhO is that man, and what
does he mean by that eternal question:"
The landlady-she was landlord as
well, her husband being a poor thing
with good clothes On-stOppOd busting
and looked at me gratefully. She had
disturbed my solitude unccremoniously
enough. and 1 had at first resented it;
till | found out that the poor creature
had come ''frOm Cawncord way" and
was suffering for news of far-off New
Hampshire. After satisfying her to the
best of my ability, and having regretfully
assured her that / did not know ''the
Bows from round Coontoocook, she had
still lowered near me. She felt. no
doubt, that had almost the claim of re-
lationship upon her hospitality because |
had passed through Concord on my way
to the West, and had had the good for
tune to be born among the granite hills
of her native State.
She sat down near me. "Thc poor
fellow is-well, nobody knows, exactly.
He came to Boomville some months ago.
lie had a son with him, and he told me
that it was on account of the boys health.
He bought little tract of land out to-
ward the gulch, and put up a shsnty. He
didn't seem to care much whether he
made any money or not. If the boy felt
like work, work it was; if he didn't, it
was all one to his father. So it 'peared,
any way. He was the handsomest young
chap that ever set foot in this city"-the
''city" boosted one street and few
houses-''but any one could see at a
glance that he wasn't RICH: in his head"
''Insanity9"
"No; it didn't pear that way. kind
Of picked it out that the boy, Moses,
had been ut college and overworked."
"What did you say the mans name
was!"
Il didn't say. don't know. That's
the worst of it-nobody knows. The
old man-though l ought not to call him
that, for he isn't more than fifty-used
to say to the boy: 'Mose-s'-same s you
hear him now-but the boy himself never
was heard to say anything that folks
could understand"
"Yet, when they bought their land
there must have been some name revealed
in the transaction
II suppose there was. Only the COM
pany he dealt with all went to smash a
few days arterward, and their agent van
ished. They didn't have any more right
to the land, anyhow, than you or l have,
aad you know how much that is. No