Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1893-09-30


noble race of O'Hara. The baby was
to be ehristeued Patrick. after some
famous Patrick O'Hara of DAYS gone
by, the age of war and chiyalry, and
poetry and pride, when Ireland had not
yet yielded her sweetness TO the proud
invader.
Alas for the unborn child on whom
such hopes had been founded, such
dreams had been dreamt. The fatal
day of birth came, and the child was a
girl; and before the wailinE infant was
six days old the young fair mother.
with the ripping golden hair and iu-
nocent blue eyes, was lying ina her
coffin, strewu with white lilies and
roses, and an the pureSt flowers OF
sumlaer-tide. The brave young heart.
which had never finched or faltered
at poverty or trouble, was stilled for.
ever. The wife who lad been content
20 bear Fate's worst Ills with the
husband Of her choice was gone to the
shadowy home where his love could
NOT follow her.
Captain O'IIara never looked the
world or his difficulties braycly i'm the
face after that day He lived to see
Kathleen a lovely girl of five years old.
but ne was a broken man from the day
Of his wife'S death. lie roamed from
foreign town to town, living anywhere
for convenience or cheapneSs. He
spent six months at Brest, a year I'm
Jersey, the two girls with him every
where. ursed and cared for by Bridget
Ryan, The faithful Irish maid servant
who had taken Rose from the arms of
her Indian ayah. ana had followed the
Captains fortunes ever since. He led
q wretched out-at-elboWs life. getting a
little money hv hook or by crook. and
leaving a LITTLE train Of debts behind
him. like the trail OF the serpent. in
every town he left.
In Jersey. where coguac was con
vcniently cheap. the Captain took TO
drinking a good deal-not I'm dreadful
drinking bouts, which would have
frightened his poor children out Of
their senses, but I'm q gentle homoeo
pathic sort of sottishnoss which kept
his brain i'm q feeble state all day long.
and gradually sapped his strength and
his manhood. While the Captain was
dawdling AWAY his day-strolling down
TO the tavern or the club. ~loungiug on
the eSplanadc, goSsiping with the go
erS ana corners, meeting old aCQuaint
1uceS and sometimes getting an inyi-
tatiou to dinner, with a cigarette al
ways between his lips-thc two child
rem. of whom the elder was not eleven,
ana the younger only -four, used to
play together all day upon the golden
sands i'm front OF their shabby lodgings.
while the Irish mm's gossipped with
the landIady, on sat in the sun daIning
and patching the childrcn's wcllwuru
frocks or the Captains decaying shirts.
The two girls were happy i'm those
sunny summer days by the sea, in spite
of their poor lodgings and Scauty fare.
Fruit was cheap, and flowers We're
abundant everywhere, and there was
no stint Of bread and butter. and milk
ana eggs, The children wanted noth-
ing better. But 10 was a dismal change
Tor them when their father carried
them back TO Belgium, and established
them i'm a stony street in Bruges,
where the peaked roofs OF the opposite
houses seemed TO shut ont the sum,
and where, instead Of the sweet odors
of sea and seawecd, there was an
everlasting stencil of dried fish and
sewage.
1t was winter By this time. and it
seemed to he the winter of their lives.
flowers Of sunny Jersey. She could
hardly be made To understand that
summer was only a happy interval
i'm the year, and that flowers do not
grow in the stony streets Of a city. The
days i'm Bruges were cold and dismal,
evenings long and gloomy, II it had
not been for Biddy Ryan the poor
children might have pinCd to death in
their solitude. Captain O'IIaTa was
never at home in the evening, rarely
mt home in the afternoon, and he never
left his bed till the carlton at the ca
thedraI had played that lovely melody
of B~ecthOycu's, Hope told a ilatteriug
tale, which the bells rang out every
day at noon-tldo The Captain found
the cafe indispensable 20 his comfort,
the petit verre d'aDsinthc suisse q ne.
cessity of his being, a game at dom
iuocs on draughts the only distraction
for the canker at his heart; thus the
children, whom he loved foudly enough
after his manner, wcre dependent ON
Biddy Ryan for happiness; and the
faithful soul did her utmost to cheer
and amuse them in their loneliness.
she told thcm her fairy stories, the
legends of her native Kerry, she de-
scribcd the green hills and purple
mountains, the hikes. the glens and
nurnn- I'M L.L.nLA nnl --nLna uul