The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1893-08-24

ne Vnubeus uueDie 10 teii ner more,
and his hand trembled ms he steadicd
IL on the back Of chair and she,
divining trouble, gazed intently on the
visitor who had invaded their peaceful
privacy.
81 am very near relative" said
the stranger in suave voice, in answer
to her look ''in fact, the nearest that
you could have. Can't you guess who
l amp"
sI don't know. I didn't know that
I had any relations, except Uncle
Will"
"Did you never hear your father
spoken of?''
"My father I" exclaimed Annice in
anazement, "no; l always supposed
that was an orphan"
"Would you have wished me to tell
her what / knew of her father?" asked
William slowly.
As he spoke picture rose before
George Wilson. A bare, miserable
room, himsef-ah, was that disre-
putable.looking loafer really George
Wilson as he had been--a shabby,
worn woman, whose tears and re-
proaches half maddened the wretch,
until he forgot his manhood and struck
her, awakening the sickly infant,
which began to wall, and he skunk
from the room-forever.
The portly, prosperous man shud-
dered and put forth his hands ms il to
push something away from him:
"No, no, mol" he reiterated, al
thank you, sir, as much for your re-
servatIons, as for your care of my-of
my daughter"
As Wilson uttered the last word, do
what he would, William could not re-
press a groan, that one word meant to
him loss--the deepest, the most ire.
parable loss that he could know; for it
meant that his one eve lemb, his bios
som of love, pfucked by him from the
gutter of poverty and neglect and worn
in his BOSOM these many happy years,
was his no longer, but had passed into
the possession of another Annice, ms
the sound fell on her ears, was at his
side in moment
"Uncle, dear uncle!" she cried,
forcing him into n chair as she spoke.
"Th:s will make no difference 10 us;
no difference Mt all.
Dear child, il must-it will. You
must go with your father. He is rich,
influential, he can give you what l
cannot make a great lady of you,
Annice."
"a lady unclel l would rather be
n working woman than an idle fine
lady. Do you think l could he happy
in the midst of all sorts of gaieties, il
meanwhile you, who have been mother,
father, brother to me, were here alone,
toiling for your daily bread with no
one to sweeten il for you?"
"Mr. Crump shall he well provided
for; he will have no further need 20
toll interposed Mr.. Wilson.
Annice turned with flashing eyes;
''He will be alone !" she said edo
you think your money will pay for
that !"
Don't you think daughters right
place is with her fsther?" asked Mr..
Wilson, persuasively.
the wrong place for n good many years;
SO that now feel it to be the right
one"
Hush, deal, said William, gently,
"you will go with your father, / shall
do very well. You can write to me,
you know, and tell me of nll your gay
doings, and L shall have my books and
my pipe, and shall sit here and think
of the happy days here in the time
when wealth and parents were unknown
TO you. Oh, Ishall do very well, dear
very well, indeed"
But Annice stood by the side OF his
chair stroking his gray hair, and the
tears were running down her white
cheeks.
"Unclc, you break my heart" che
said. "What have l done that you
should send me from you? Don't you
know that no place, however splendid,
wouid be home to me without you?
Sir, she added, turning to her father,
II cannot go with you. ] am of age to
choose. and am his by right of all the
years OF care and Tenderness he has be-
slowed upon me. He has denied him
self thousand things that l might
LhNt lllt btol ull liil tul, Il ONt W
my Uncle William; | shall stay and
work with him and for him until death
parts MS.
Within the room deep silence had
fallen; without, were all the signs of
the common, shabby life OF the neigh
borhood-clumsy steps upon the stairs,
children playing and shrieking about
the doorways, late huckster crying
his stale berries. William and Annice
were upon the heights, and even
George Wilson, whose thoughts more
commonly ran to real estate and dol
lars, caught the light from their trans
figuration. He was the first to open
the book OF speech after this sacred
silence.
at is right; it is just" he said,
slowly. ~ am disappointed, of course,
but l am not mean enough to grudce