The state herald. (Holyoke, Logan County, Colo.) 1887-1921, 1893-03-31
A TOUCH IN THE HEART.

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Old Abel Dunklee was delighted.
and so was old Abel's wife when little
Abel came. For this coming they
had waited many years. God had
prospered them elsewisc; this one
supreme blessing only had been with
held. Yet Abel had never despaired.
a shall sometime have son." said
he. II shall call him Abel. He
shall succeed to my business; my
house, my factory, my lands, my for
tune-all shall be his" Abel Dunk
lee felt this to bc certainty, and
with this prospect constantly IN mind
he shaved and pinched and bargaincd
So when at last the little one did
como it was heir to considerable
property.
Had you questioned him closely DR..
Hardy would have told you that little
Abel was us frail babe rs ever did
battle for life. Dr. Hardy would
surely never have dared say that to
old Dunklee, for in his rapture in
the coming OF that little boy old
Dunklec would have smote the Of
fender who presumed even TO intimate
that the babe was not the most Wig
orous us well as the most beautiful
creature upon earth. The old man
was simply assotted upon the child
in n selfish way. undoubtedly, but
even this selfish love OF that puny
little child showed that the old man
was capable of something better than
his past life had been. To hear him
talk you might have fancied that
Mrs. Dunklcc had no part or parcel
or interest in their offspring. 1t was
always my little boy'-yes. old
Abel Dunltlec's money had rival in
the old mans heart at last, and that
rival was n helpless, shrunken, sickly
little babe.
Among his business associates Abel
Dunklee was familiarly known as Old
Growly, for the reason that his voice
was harsh and discordant and
sounded for all the world like the
hoarse growing OF I'm ill-natured
bear.
But Old Growly abroad and Old
fercnt people. Only the voice was
the same. The homcly. furrowed.
wizcned face lighted up. and the
keen restless ewes lost their express
sion of shrewdness and the thin,
bony hands that elsewhere clutched
and clutchcd and pinched and pinched
for possession unlimbered themselves
in tho presence Of little Abel and
reached out their long fingers yearn-
ingly and caressinrly toward the
little child. Then the honrsc voice
would growl n salntation full of
tenderness, for 1t came straight from
the old mans heart; only, had Won
not known how much he loved the
child, YOU might have thought other
wise, for the old mans voice was
always hoarsc and discordrnt. md
that was why they called him Old
Growly. But what proved his love
FOR the puny babe was the fact tina,
every afternoon. when he came home
from the factory. Old Growly brought
his little boy dime; and once, when
the little fellow had fever on him
from tcething. Old Growly brought
him dollar! Next day the tooth
came through and the fever left him.
but you couldn't make the old nun
believe but what I, WAS the dollar
that did II all That was natural.
perhaps, for his life had been spent
In grubbing for money, and he had
not the soul to see that the best and
sweetest things in human life are no,
to be- had by riches alone.
As the doctor had In one way and
another intima,cd would be the ease.
the child did no, wax fat and yigor.
Gus. Although Old Growly did no,
seem to soc the truth, little Abel
grew older only to become what the
doctor had foretold-n cripple. A
weakness of the spine was developed,
II malady that dwarfcd the child's
ply sical growth. giving TO hi. wee
face Il pinchcd, starved look, warning
his cmaclaicd body and cnf.-blinp
his puny limbs. while n, the same
time IL ouickened the Intellectual fne.
ulties to the degree OF precocity,
Aud so two and three and four years
went By, little Abel clinping 10 life
with pathetic horoism, and Old Grow.
Is loving tina, little cripple with nil
the violence Of his selfish nature,
Never once did Il occur to the fatbo,
that his child might die. thu, deaths
seal was already set npop tho mis-.
shapen little body; ON Tho contrary.
Old Growly's thoughts were constant.
Is Of little Abci's famous future, OF
the great fortune ho WINS 10 fall heir
20, OF the prosperous business career
he was TO pursue. of the lnanonc, he
was To WELD In IN, world-on dollars
dollars, dollars, millions Of them
which ll,ilo Abel was some ,lmo "a