The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1892-11-26
SANDY'S BESSIE.


Sandy MacNab about some committee
business for a Caledonian club picnic.
Just before | reached the shoeshop, how
ever, a little girl emerged from the
throng of passersby and entered the
door. She was a thin, pale, puny child
of the kind the cities breed, stoop
shouldered. narrow chested, i'll nou
ished, almost untaught except in the
hard school of experience. | fingered
outside a moment, waiting for Sandy to
dispose of his customer before entering,
but as the little girl did not appear ]
opened the door.
Fifty cents; fifty cents" Sandy was
shouting as | stepped inside. Gamma
We understan that. ye puir heather?
Fifty cents"
He was standing before his bench. ges-
ticulating, with a pair of newly soled
shoes, two sizes too small for the girl,
who stood in a mutely submissive atti-
tude before him. Sandy has always res
olutely disdained learning any foreign
tongue. If the braid Scots deealect,"
isn't good enough for his customers they
can go elsewhere.
"Meine mutter ist todt," began the
child's gentle. accomplishing voice.
ttund"-
"Come hither, Owen" cried the old
man impatiently. Can ye tell what is't
the lass wants."
The girltold me herstory. Her mother
was dead. She was the Oldest of fou1
children, and had seen eighteen years,
though she looked but fourteen. She
and two other children had got work
tailor's piecework-and they were all
living somehow, but it was very hard.
She had the money for mending tho
shoes, but the neighbors had told net
that "der Herr MacNab" was such a
kind hearted man, and So
The look of puzzled inquiry in Sandy's
face changed to tender regard as | trans
lated. Before | had finished he was
nodding his head energetically in token
of compliance and wrapping up the
shoes in a sheet of newspaper. Then he
put them into the girls hands and gently
pushed her toward the door.
Zach! Du Iieber Gotti" said the child,
and dropping a reverent Old World
courtesy, she turned to go.
"Whaur are ye levin, lass?' said
Sandy, following her to the door. ex-
planned the query, and she gave him an
address near by. Sandy tucked a crum-
pied bank note into her hand. and as he
put a pinch of Maccaboy to his nostrils
a moment later | thought | saw his hand
lodging suspiciously about his eyes. The
girl looked at the bill in a dazed sort of
a way for a moment, and then dropped
another courtesy. this time to the door
of the shop, and was gone.
"Puir mitherless BARNS" said Sandy,
as he began a loud rat-tat on the sole of
a shoe. Presently he paused and in
quired, what said she as she gaed oot?:'
.'She said, All, thou dear Godr" | re-
piled. ut was a prayer of thankfulness."
"Puir BARN! puir bairnr' said Sandy,
stopping his work to take another pinch
of snuff. ''She pits the proud an MIGHTY
to shame Wi her simple faith. An | cad
her a heather! Hech, Owen, lad, it's a
sair warl for BARNS desertit by their
ain kin. Think OF, mon! In O. this
great ceety foul little anes fechtin wi
want an poverty an hunger by their lane
in a garnet, the prey O. the evil an de,
signin, scorn'd by them that's no theil
betters, neglectit by the powerful, except
by way o robbery, wi ne'er a SIGHT Of
the fiels an wavin woods O. the bonny
country or the wash O the sea: withooS
time or strength for childish play-eh,
Owen. What if my Janet-na, ma, bet,
ter as she is, puir little one. unner the
sod i the ~kirkyard that leevin sac be,
set" and Sandy dropped his head into
his hands. | had never heard him alluda
before to his wife and daughter lonc
dead in Linlithgow.
sits an owre lang tale to tell said
Sandy, after d moments pause, seeming
to find a gentle comfort in speech Of his
loved and lost ones, ''but Use cut Is
short j the tellin. Meier a mon in a.
Scotia vas so blithe as Alexander Mac,
Nab the day that made bonny Bessie
his bride. nor for mony a, year after.
The bairnies cam. two o them. bus
wee Sandie deed in infancy an ainly
Bess was left to cheer the little hanno
an max bright the ingle neuk. Yet.
still we We're happy, sac happy, till Bes,
sie-she was ne'er strong, nor her mithel
seemed to weaken, day by day, an
fade cot an waste ava, till her face was
pale an clear wi the awfu' whiteness o
the great hereafter shinin through th'
vail o flesh. Eli, she suld ha' made a
bonny ANGER
Here Sandy paused abruptly, and fo1
some minutes sat silently brooding owe.