The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1893-12-14
WARNING VIoIc I


\
fool was rect and my canny BARN was
wrong. There is no use Ia life like
mine none whateverl An If was deid
be- marry her and She be happy shed
| be happy"
It was not pleasant retrospect that
life Of his, look at it how he might. Lost
opportunities, hopes that had died nm
natural deaths, ambitions that had been
drowned under that thirsty sea that had
engulfed his manhood and made Of him
the sot he was.
God forgive himi The face Of the wife
whose heart he had broken rose before
him now in his maudlin repentance to
add to his misery. He remembered the
look in her eyes as she feebly took his
hand in her own dying ones and laid it
upon the head of her baby girl.
BE good-to Nelly-and- dinna
make her life-ike mine has been
through that-cursed drink
He had promised, with the tears of
maudlin grief in his eyes, and he had
honestly meant to keep that promise.
And now her life-the lifeof that child
was to be wrecked through his.
SIT would be all rect if l were only
deid," he said again despairingly.
As he stumbled homeward he noticed
with some anxiety the signs of the
weather.
The red winter sun had sunk some
time before, and the great masses of blue
black cloud pressed heavily down upon
the earth, promising either a thunder
storm or heavy fall of snow before
morning.
Nelly's eyes looked red and swollen
when her father entered the cottage
where they lived, but otherwise she
showed no traces of the ordeal she had
undergone.
It was poor sort Of place, that hum
BILE shepherds hut. but scrupulously
clean and neat, and Martins supper of
bread and cheese was laid out ready for
his arrival.
How different things might have
looked, he thought, had he not gone to
the bad years before! He had once been
the prosperous owner of a fine, big farm
himself, for the Daglishes had been yeo-
men and owners of their own land for
generations back, but it had all gone,
had all melted away to satisfy that un-
natural thirst which had taken posses
sion of the last of the family.
Martins reflections, as the drink died
out of him, were of very sad and de-
pressing character. He leaned his head
on his hand and kept watching Nelly all
the while. It was the only good and
beautiful trait left in him now, that he
loved this girl passionately and to some
extent unselfishly.
For her sake he had made several at
tempts to break the chain that bound
him, but the fascination was too power
full to be resisted. His blood was by this
time little else than alcohol, and within
his veins like cried out to like. Never
theless rush of tenderness still came
over his soddened senses whenever she
gave him kind word or glance.
"Ye're not well, daddy" she said now
in gentle voice as she noticed that he
ate no supper and looked sick and sorry.
''Does your head ache very bad?"
Martin put up his trembling hand as
though to stop her.
"Dinna speak like that, Nelly, ma
BARN. Tell me that AVN a shame and a
disgrace to ye, and that the sooner AVN
out O the world the better for every one,
but dinna pity me. Aw Gamma bide it. 81
"Aw'll say nothing of the kind, retort.
ed Nelly Indignantly. Il would like
well to see you get the better of drink
for your own sake as we'll as mine, but
Aw'llnever wish you owt but good, never
Ye've been kind feyther to me. any.
ways"
"A kind feytherv' groaned the old
shepherd. "Ohl Nelly, Nelly, ye break
ma HART wi yer tenderness. Do ye not
wish me deid, then"
For answer Nelly came across to
where he sat, put her soft, loving arms
around his neck and kissed the poor,
bleared, drink sodden face over and over
again.
Many time afterward did the mem
DRY of those kisses rise to the girls mind
and comfort her inexpressibly.
Before daybreak the clouds had re-
solved themselves into storm of snow,
the most penetrating and persistent that
had been known, even in that bleak dis
trict, for many years.
Long ere dawn Martin Daglish was up
and away over the fells to look after the
outlying focks in his charge.
On these extensive border farms, where
the grazing land is composed both OF
valley and fell, and where the sheep
travel miles away from any place of safe
shelter and refuge, the utmost precau-
tons are necessary in rough seasons to
prevent the focks from perishing from
cold or being engulfed in living grave
| of snowdrifts.
In the hollows these same drifts form
to an alarming depth, and many fleecy
clad carcass lies buried beneath every
considerable fall of snow, unless the
| greatest care is taken to prevent such
catastrophes.