The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-11-22
THE HOMECOMING.
BY G. T. FERRIS.

Copyright 1893, by American Press Assoc,a-
ton.
When the congregation sang the grand
chorus of "Praise God from whom all bless
ings flow" at the close of the Thanksgiving
service, Farmer Ashford felt that he had
very much to be thankful for. He was
warm" in this worlds goods, and big
farm, sleek herds, fat granaries and money
at interest made him notable among the
rural folk of Fairfield. Yet even his whole
some piety could not withhold deep sigh
as his eye scanned the empty places in the
family pew. There were his son Will and
his handsome wife. who had come home
for the great feast of the year.
Will had been prosperous in Boston and
was all that fathers heart could wish
upright, highly honored as man and mer-
his adopted daughter Kate, distant rela-
tive by blood, who made him and his wife
almost forget that they had buried all their
own girls. But the partner of his joys and
sorrows for As years was at home feeble
from a terrible attack of illness, half blind
and almost bedridden. This Thanksgiving
day would be the first time she would have
sat at the table for six months. The deep
Tom, the son, who had been away for 10
years, a wanderer on the face of the earth.
WILL" said the farmer as they logged
home, do you know it's morn five years
gone since we've had line from your
brother, though l try to think he is still
Twin. Tom, though wild an unsteady, had
a warm heart an pears to me he would
a-written to his mother, who's been pinin
for him so long. tell We, Will, twas less
that fever which left your mother so poor
ly than her heart sickness for Tom. dear
soul. Oh, why did he ever leave a good
homer"
Will had the cheerful optimism which
so often goes with an easy life. and then,
too, he was anxious to comfort the old
man:
Don't feel that way about it, father
Tom will turn up all right yet, and he'll
burst in on you some day as lively as a
cricket. There never was fellow better
able to take care of himself than Tom, if
he was a little hayward. He always did
like to do the most odd and unexpected
things Why, do you know, there was the
captain of one of our ships who was swept
overheard in gale and thought to be lost
for seven years. He was picked up at sea,
and the ship which rescued him was
wrecked in the south Pacific. The things
he went through before he got home would
almost make your hair stand up. And the
romance was he returned just in time to
stop his wife marrying another man-pretty
nearly an Enoch Arden business"
well, wellT' said the farmer, II wish
we could make mother think as you do"
shaking his gray head sadly. Thanks
givin always opens up the old wound
fresher'n ever. Isometimes almost hate to
have the plate an the cheer all set there
with nuthin but empty air in 'em, but she
will have it so"
Kate had listened to these words with a
throbbing heart. She scarcely attended to
the lively chatter OF her companion on the
back seat. She could have told them some
thing which she fancied might have shed q
little light on Toms sudden departure
from home long ago, but she was not quite
sure, and she had always recoiled, too with
a maidenly shame from speaking of such
guesswork.
Tom had been the Benjamin of the fam
lily, born 10 years after Will, and when he
was growing up to manhood the elder