The Irish standard., 1892-07-23
CHAPTER VI.
SO SADLY ALTERED.

don't suppose my father ever knew
the facts concerning my misfortune.
NV stepmother, no doubt, informed him
that had fallen into the fire by acct
dent, and there was no one to tell him
differently, and ii he had been told
the truth he would certainly have
taken her version in preference. |
never thought to say aught to him con-
corning the matter, because I was fully
confident that should gain nothing if I
did, and I feared that might receive q
beating for daring to say anything
against my stepmother, It is altogether
probable that my father would have
condoned her crime if he had known Of
it, and heaped all the blame On me, but
it is possible that l Judge him wrong
fully and that he was not SO lost to all
natural affection for his own flesh and
gard for my sufferin9s.
For several days I was confined to
my garnet room, and no one ever came
to see me save Aunt Mary. She, bless
her heart, was as kind and attentive as
any mother could be, and not a wish CO
mine was allowed to go ungratifed If
she had the power of administering to
it. She spared herself no palms, no ex-
ertions, no trouble, in her efforts to add
TO my comfort and convenience. When
her duties did not call hcr elsewhere,
she was with me day and night, and
she was always doing something, or
planning something, for my pleasure.
'Aunt May" I said to her once,
when she was pottering about, putting
and sweating at a terrible rate, edo sit
down and rest. You're very nearly ex-
hausted, and don't want you to be do
ing things for me. Please sit down."
''In minute, honey she replied.
''I'se got to make sho' you's comft bic
fore l takes any res. Dat I is. What
yo' reckon yo' POI ma. what is lookin'
down f'om Heaben dis minute would
t'ink OBJ me if sot round yeah restin'
my lazy ole body an lettin' you suffer
for anything? She amt goin' to kotch
me dom OBJ it, honey, deed she amt,
case amt done went an forgot all de
kin'nesses she showed me when she was
yere on dis yearth."
II an, comfortable, Aunt Mary" 1
prOGeSGeu, dAu OOA "e1Ao O. oAAAAS, ~
please sit down. I'll be perfectly IN
happy if you don't. won't have any
thing you fix for me, and If you don't
rest l won't lie here
finally induced the old woman to sit
in chair by my bed and with my hand
resting in hers we talked of various
things, chief among which was my
mother. Then spoke of my step
mother, and of the treatment I re-
ceived at her hands, and lamented my
situation in heartbrolzen terms. Aunt
Mary listened, while the tears welled
up in her eyes, then, lifting her honest,
kind old black face to mine, said:
ssNeber yo' min, chile, dar's God in
Heaben who rights eberyt'ins, an dar's
day oh reckonin' comm. Dem is Gospel
trufs, honey. Oar is a day oh reckonin',
sho' as yo' is bawn, an when dat day
come round woe to dem what is wick
ed, an dem what spitefr1lly uses dem
what is weak an helpless. | tells yo',
honey, I'd sholy heap druther be in
yo' shoes den than to be in de place ob
some folks what knows, case in dat
terrible day dem what's been prosecuted
an 'spised is goin' to git de top seat.
an de weddin' cake, an all dem tings
what is gwine to make folks mon
st'ous happy; while dem what has had
DER own way, an has been
a gwine on in ali DER wickedness an
hardness OBJ heart, am gwine to be
drub out inter de darkness whar de
debil II git 'em, sho.' Now 70 jis'
mark my words, honey, an, sec if de
day don't come when der little pot gifts
on top, an when dem as is swingin'
pow full high jis' now will git to swing