The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-12-24


longer. I've been ready to go for some
time" and he glanced around the COM
Portable room contemptuously.
When he finished speaking.
mothers hand was laid on his arm,
and mothers voice, pitiful in its sor-
row. said:
Don't 60, Tom. Your father don't
mean it. He is angry because you
make him SO much trouble. Ask him
to forgive you'll am sure he will, If
you will only try to be better boy"
Never sternly interrupted the
deacon; ''he is no son of mine, and my
house is no longer his home. Go, sir!
Do You hear?"
"You need not tell me twice" re-
turned the boy. ''Good-by, mother; I'm
going" and before they realized it,
their eldest son had passed out OF the
home life forever.
After that, life went on about as
| usual at the Chandler farm. The deacon
still offered his accustomed prayer,
only now there was no Tom to make
fun of him, for since that night Tom
| Chandler had not been seen. Deacon
Chandler was still waiting for his OPP
portunity. and still wondering, too,
why a chance so earnestly desired was
so long withheld. Others all about him
were doing great things toward build
ing up the kingdom, yet, search and
wait as he would, nothing ever came in
his way.
So the time went on for eight or ten
years, until one day Deacon Chandler
awoke suddenly to the fact that his
wife was slowly but surely dying. His
love for his wife was one of the things
that no one doubted, and when he no
ticed how pale and thin she had be-
come, he spoke to her at once, in an
unusually anxious way.
SIS there anything can do for you,
wife?" he asked.
"No-I don't know as there is"
as there anything you want?"
Her eyes filled with tears.
"Shall tell you?" she whispered.
"Yes-do."
Sadly and firmly she told him the
whole pitiful story.
Il want my boy. l want Tom to
come back to me. He was my first
born, and cannot forget how loved
him when he was a baby in my arms
Yes, and when he grew to be boy,
loved him still. and my love could have
saved him. But you-you were so cold
and hard with him. Conscious OF your
own virtue, you could not pity his in
, 4rmity and bear with him as would
hs
Would have spoken. "You have always
, Srayed-prayed to the Lord for an op
: Aortunity to do some great good, ant
when it was here, in your own son, 20,
, neglected it. You might have beer
! more gentle; you might have led hin
}. out of his evil ways; but you woul'
not, and all these years my heart ha
r been aching for sight of my son-m.
$ eldest born"
! The words came sharp and fast now
: and ended in smothcred sob.
The deacon was surprised. Ncve
: before had his wife questioned his wis
4 dom, or censured him for anything h
: did. But the mother love so strong i
a her had wellcd up and filed her hear
!. to OVERLOOKING. and she must be heard
n Her words had their effect, too, TO
h Deacon Chandler saw, as he had neve
! seen before this, his mistake, and tn
. hypocrisy of the fervept prayer he ha
q so often breathed out to his Heavenl
= Father. How often had he addresse
: the Deity as his merciful Father, whe
he was an unmerciful, nay. a crue
"a parent How he had prayed for an or
: portunity of doing good, and when
q came, let it pass, nay thrown it ava
|, willfully. He was man OF few words
), and those he spoke now carried healin
balm to the heart of the woman VIII
- had halted SO long between wifely dut
# and motherly love.
q Il have been wrong, wife; can yo
A forgive me?"
n "Oh! freely, freely" she answerc
h him.
He read in her wistful eyes the III
spols en- wish, and answered it.
~ will find our boy and bring hi
home," he said.
"And no matter how sinful he is, {
: how he has fallen, you will bring hi
= home to his u.other?"
81 will" and she was satisfied.
To those who wish to learn, q
~ things are plain, and Deacon Chandl'
r traced his son, by constant effort, to
small western city. OF the fact that
was there, he became convinced, b.
= could learn nothing more. A wee
"A found him standing in the railway st
:. ton of the city of c., inquiring
i. the bystanders if they knew Thom'
NJ Chandler.
=. know Tom Chandler? Wall, rec
!. on do" drawled one loafer, who wi
warming himself in the sun.
"a Gan you tell me where shall fiji
him?' asked the deacon.
e. "Wall, l kinder reckon about tn
time er day he's ter be found over
~, the Senter house"