The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-01-05

upstairs, and tomorrow I'll bank it.,
bright and early. And now must leave
you. Promised to meet my benevolent
patron at the club, and talk over a new
idea
Ike" but close my lips in time. l
should be a criminal to suggest such an
awful possibility as has flown like a
devil into my brain. ''Good-by, old
boy, and don't stay too long away, for
Crutchy and are slim battalion to
cope with any burglarizing foe
That long, long night my searching
hand touched an empty pillow. Keith
does not come home The morning
,lawns. Crutchy crawls downstairs,
looking white and 'haggard; evidently
she has slept as little as have l. At
noon we hear the stopping of vehicle:
my husband is brought home. We pay
he men for their services, and turn to
face our grief. The money has been
too much for him--his fattering friends
too seductive; we see it all, Crutchy and
|, and sit there, silent in our anguish.
Next morning Keith tells the story
that we, being women, intuitively
know. He gropes his way upstairs.
sober. sad, suffering, and has not had
time to more than cross the room when
may Heaven save me from ever again
hearing the sound | now hear-there
comes shrek that resembles the cry
Of Il lost soul. / rush up tho stairs,
while Crutchy follows slowly
Its gone. The moneys gone! I'm
robbed.-I'm robbed!'
| fall upon 4 chair, stunned; nor do
( seem to awaken from my stupor for
hours and hours. Officers of the law,
:atec tiveS. all who aid in tho eaa -"h
come and go-a baffled lot. The money
is not to be found, nor any trace of It,
But the shock and my apathy arouse
my husband. Like one touched by a
powerful battery, he springs into new
life, and swears, by all that ne holds
holy and dear, to have done with strong
drink. And | know that he means it.
But Crutchy grows thinner as the
days shorten: and when the sun enters
Libra, feel that the frail tenement
will hold her but little while longer.
She feels it, too, and, nesting close,
tells me of her gratitude.
L couldn't do much for you, dearie, :"
thus she pet-names me, 'but what
could, did And when l die
80, Crutchie," wall.
81 want you to promise me to put
something in my hand. hope I'll live
till New Years, dearie, cause somehow
it 'u'd mean more then. If die afore,
and it amt too long, keep me till New
Years, dearie. if you can"
l scarcely hear, SO great is my grief;
but recollect, afterward, what I now
promise her.
And, then, the last thing, dearic.
open my Grimm's Fairy Tales, and
you'll find something that I've wrote
there
She lives until New Years eve I al
low no hands but mine to touch the
dear, misshapen body, but place it, my
self, reverently to rest.
With choking sobs bid Keith fetch
the book she loved so we'll; and, as he
goes to do my bidding, place the satin
bag she asked for in her nerveless
hands.
Keith comes to me, at last, and to-
gether we open the message from the
dead, and read:
DEAR ANGLE UPoN ERTH. stoled the mon
ny. Youl find it in the Satten bag I-.oied you to
putt in my Hand stoled it cause was frade
your husben would kill hisself with 50 much
monly to spend fer drink was goan to kere
it til new years and then Civ it back and mals
him prompss to do Right take it Now and tel'
him how it was god bless you bottle
from
"CRCTcHY."