The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1892-12-08
SANDY'S BESSIE.

Sandy MacNab about some COMMITTEES
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 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. "Canna
We understan that, We 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 'sbraid 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 wantsg'
The girl told me herstory. 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 'sder 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
n6dding 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.
s.Achl Du lieber Gottr' said the child,
and dropping reverent Old World
courtesy, she turned to go.
ssWhaur are We leevin, iass?" said
Sandy, following her to the door. l 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 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 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 loud rat-tat on the sole of
o shoe. Presently he paused and in
quired, "What said she as she gaed ootF'
''She said, 'Ah, thou dear Godr" re-
piled. at was prayer of thankfulness. +"
''Puir bairnl 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 heather! Hech, Owen, lad, it's o
sair warl for BARNS desertit by their
ain kin. Think OF, mon! 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 ne'er SIGHT OF
the fiels 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 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 a moments pause, seeming
TO find gentle comfort in speech of hi.
loved and lost ones, 'but Use cut i
short i the tellin. Meier q mon in a
Scotia was so blithe as Alexander Mac
Nab the day that made bonny Bessi
his bride, nor for mony a year after
The bairnies cam, two o them, bu
wee Sandie deed in infancy an ainl,
Bess was left to cheer the little ham
an MAX bright the ingle neuk. Yet
still we were happy, sac happy, till Bes
sie-she was meier strong, nor her mithe
seemed to weaken, day by day, al
fade DOT an waste AVA, till her face wa
pale an clear wi the awful whiteness
the great hereafter shinin through tn
vail o flesh. En-. she suld ha' made
bonny angelr'
Here Sandy paused abruptly, and fo
some minutes sat silently brooding owe
the past. did not interrupt him, an
presently he began to speak again in
low, tremulous voice:
'sSae she went, lad. Better so, pei
haps, in a the purity of childhood. A
the wife was like bruised and broke
tiow'r that droopt an droopt weel. A
i the kirkyard they We're sumo side b
side, an a was pit dark as NIGHT to m,
Frien's o. my youth, who had lang syn
leevit i the new lam, begged me sair
come to them, an sac, as all the war
was the same to my reft HART, cam a
here | haze leeved my lane, waiting ii
the Lord is pleased O. his infinite mairc
% ca me to my ain. A wounds heal
lime. they say, an five-and.twenty yes
s lang eneuch, but the scars WI n
yet, Owen, the scars WI me yet, an wi
De till my deeing day, an Gamma see
wee BARN warslzn wi this wicked wal
ike the puir Dutch lass, but l mau
link: Hoo, if 'twere Bess? My al
wee Bessie:'"
And the old man. dashing his han
across his eyes to clear away a mi
that was not all of age, drew fro
80 50 II