Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1892-12-08
SANDY'S BESSIE.

L
Second avenue from cross street to see
Sandy MacNab about some committee
business for 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 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, ye puir heathen?
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 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,
''und"-
"Come hither, Owen" cried the old
man impatiently. "Can ye tell what is't
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
tailor's 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.
Zach! Du lieber Gott!" said the child,
e'h' oiopPhiS ~ iS'SiShe NIlu
courtesy, she turned to go.
"Whaur are ye leevin, 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 pinch of Maccaboy to his nostrils
u moment later | thought | saw his hand
lodging suspiciously about his eyes. The
girl looked at the bill in dazed sort of
way for a moment, and then dropped
another courtesy, this time to the door
of the shop, and was gone.
"Puir mitherless bairns," 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, 'Ah, thou dear Godr" re-
piled. "It was prayer of thankfulness." !"
"Puir 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 cad
her heather! Hech. Owen, lad, it's a
sair warl for BARNS desertit by their
ain kin. Think OFT, moni In o this
great ceety four little anes fechtin wi
want an poverty an hunger by their lane
in a garret, 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 ne'er sicht of
the fels an wavin woods O. the bonny
country or the wash O the sea; withoot
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. l 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 Sandie deed in infancy an ainly
Bess was left to cheer the little hame
an max bright the ingle neuk. Yet,
still we were happy, sac happy, till Bes-
sie-she was ne'er strong, nor her mithei
seemed to weaken, day by day, an
fade oot an waste ava, till her face was
pale an clear wi the awfu' whiteness o
the great hereafter shinin through tht
vail O flesh. Eth, she suld ha' made {
bonny angelr'
Here Sandy paused abruptly, and fol
some minutes sat silently brooding owe
the past. did not interrupt him, an.
presently he began to speak again in
low, tremulous voice:
"Sae she went, lad. Better so, per
haps, in a the purity of childhood. Al
the wife was like bruised and broke,
flow'r that droopt an droopt weel. Al
i the kirkyard they were sune side b,
side, an a was pit dark as nicht to me
Frien's O my youth, who had lang syn
leevit i the new lam, begged me sair t.
come to them, an sac, as all the war
was the same to my reft hairt, cam al
here I hae leeved nv lane WAITING fiji