The Portland daily press., 1892-12-16
SANDY'S BESSIE.

One beautiful afternoon a few days
after Davie Gillespie's visit | turned into
| Second avenue from a cross street to see
| Sandy MacNab about some committee
business for Caledonian club picnic.
just before | reached the shoeshop, how
ever, 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 nour-
ished, almost untaught except IN the
hard school of experience. | fingered
outside 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
ye understan that, We puir heather?
Fifty cents"
He was standing before his bench, ges-
ticulating, with pair of newly soled
shoes, two sizes too small for the girl,
who stood in mutely submissive attl-
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.
s.Meine mutter list todt," began the
child's gentle, accomplishing voice,
"und"-
"Come hither, Owen" cried the old
man impatiently. Scan ye tell what ist
| the lass wants."
The girl told me her story. Her mother
was dead. She was the Oldest OF four
children, and had seen eighteen years,
though she looked but fourteen. She
and two other children had got work
tailors piecework-and they were all
living somehow, but it was very hard.
She had. the money for mending the
shoes, but the neighbors had told her
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 l had finished he was
nodding his head energetically in token
of compliance and wrapping up the
shoes in sheet of newspaper. Then he
put them into the girls hands and gently
pushed her toward the door.
| each! Du ieber Gottp 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 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 dazed sort of
way for 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 loud rat-tat on the sole of
a shoe. Presently he paused and in
CURED, "What said she as she gaed oot?"
NShe said, .Ah, thou dear Godp"I re-
piled. "It was a prayer of thankfulness.
| .sPuir bairnl puir bairn" said Sandy,
stopping his work to take another pinch
of snuff. "She pits the proud an MIGHTY
to shame wi her simple faith. An l ca'd
her heathenl Hech, Owen, lad, it's q
sair warl for BARNS desertit by their
ain kin. Think OF, monl In O. this
great ceety four 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 their
betters, neglectit by the powerful, except
by way O. robbery, WI meier SIGHT of
the fiels an wavin woods O. the bonny
country or the wash o the sea; without
time or strength for childish play-eh,
Owen. What if my Janet-na, ma, bet
ter as she is, pl1ir little one, unner the
sod i the kirkyard that levin sac be-
set," and Sandy dropped his head into
his hands. had never heard him allude
before to his wife and daughter long
dead in Linlithgow.
"Its an owre lang tale to tell" said
Sandy, after moments pause, seeming
to find gentle comfort in speech of his
loved and lost ones, "but Use cut it
short i the tellin. Meier a mon in a.
Scotia was so blithe as Alexander Mac.
| Nab the day that made bonny Bessie
his bride, nor for mony year after.
The bairnies cam, two o them, but
wee koduOl0 o0Gu LII lulobuCJ oil hltlly
Bess was left to cheer the little hame
an maxi bright the ingle neuk. Yet
still we were happy, sac happy, till Bes-
sie-she was ne'er strong, nor her mither
seemed to weaken, day by day, an
fade cot an waste AVA, till her face was
pale an clear wi the awful whiteness O
the great hereafter shinin through the
vail O flesh. En-, she sud ha' made a
bonny angel!''
| Here Sandy paused abruptly, and for
some minutes sat silently brooding over
the past. did not interrupt him, and
presently he began to speak again in
low, trelnulous voice:
''Sae she went, lad Better so, per
haps, in a. the purity of childhood. An
the wife was like bruised and broken
fow'r that droopt an droopt weel. Al
/ the kirkyard they were sumo side By
side, an a was pit dark as NIGHT to me.
Frien's q my youth, who had lang syre
leevit i the new Ian, begged me sair 20
come to them, an sac, as all the warP
4f., e. I