The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1893-09-08

..
erything in his meager apartment seemed
to hold some association with the child
Carlotta. Hanging upon the wall were
the little worn red shoes, his first gift to
her, bearing yet the impress of her baby
feet. Within the lid of his big trunk
open before him swung the tiny brass
hook he had placed there so that she
might safely fasten herself within, and
hiding here until the storm was over she
had escaped many a whipping from her
mother. A row of anger holes along the
back, running the trunk, had further fit
ted it for her safe retreat. And she had
never told. She had always been rare
child.
Every picture summoned by the asso-
Citations was charmingly pretty, and when
finally he cast his eyes down upon him
self-upOn his toll stained garments, his
rough hands, his one untidy shoe-he felt
as if he were blushing at a sense of his
utter unftness for her.
Selling his mirror, triangular frag-
ment, he closely scrutinized his unshav-
en- face and unkempt hair, and as he laid
the glass down he turned his vision in
ward and backward upon the years Of
his life at the Di Carlos and before. He
thought of Carlotta when first he saw
her and of the years since. She had
sweetened and cheered his life ever since
he had known her.
She and this sacred love that had come
to him were holy things, but what should
he do with them-he, a poor, miserable,
penniless, clumsy old cripple? It was
terrible, terrible folly, this love. and yet,
despite the hopelessness of it, despite the
wildly ludicrous view of it which his Irish
perception afforded, he felt transported
by it into state of painful ecstasy.
What should he do with himself? Where
go?
For one thing he must battle and shave
and cast off these ugly, dusty garments.
The sacred thing that had come to him
required this much of him.
It was late in the morning before his
toilet was complete. His ordinary hur-
ried additions ''for dacency's sake'' were
| performed with reference to the world.
Today his own consciousness demanded
that he should be clean. Even his old
wooden leg received its first baptism, the
rite being applied with soft soap and a
scrubbing brush. The hard old oak, pol
ished from long use, shone like the Di
Carlo biscuip board. and it must be uu-
derstood that the signora was of the clean
sort, unfortunately in the minority
among her class.
Pat had just readjusted his peg with
new leather straps when two little black
eyes appeared above the stairway.
"Mr. Pat, dey got colored lady down
stairs what want her shoes mend" It
was the boy Pasquale, and he was all the
way up now.
so1aT If TODD
quale, me by. I'm very sick"
''Oh, Mr.. Pat, you scared me awful!
thought you was man up here"
can did ye rally? Sure an We made
terrible mishtake, for there's northin up
heer but three-quarrters av an ould divil
of fool''
sos, you look awful white, Mr.. Pat!
You sick fo' true? Mus call my nav?
Is they got anybody dead, Mr.. Pat?'
Pats only previous rigorous toilets had
been made to attend an occasional funer-
al of some former comrade.
''Plaze God, there's fraction of a loaf
er dead, sonny, an I'm dthressed for the
buryin. Call nobody, but go now, don't
be delayin, and tell the lady below Pm
tuck suddintly i'll an I'm not worrkin."
! 1t was with manifest reluctance that
the little fellow at last Withdrew his eyes
| from the gentleman in the attic to deliver
his message.
In moment the signora's voice was
heard at the foot of the stairs:
''Oh, Meester Pad! Pasquale say god
a sometheen the matther weeth-a you.
F you feel-a sig, mus-a shore Gala some
body"
much obliged. na'am, but sure I'm
taI1in day of, :jist, an I'm in made O.
northin but & broom, if yell lind Inc the
| loan av one"
Pat was not an artist, and his hands
were clumsy, yet tho result Of Il single
! effort in the direction G respectability
wrought q transformation in his apart
ment. After he had swept, busted and
rearranged his shabby belongings he took
/ from his box little old fashioned da-
guerreotype of his mother and gazed
upon it in silence for some minutes.
When finally he spoke, his voice was
tremulous and tender.
''Indade an yer b'y's in great throuble,
! nanny, dear. Ye always said I was
the biggest fool o. the dozen, an sure I
want TO take back me sassy contradic-
ton"
He drew his sleeve c1umsily over it,
| WIpIng tear from the race OF the PIC
ture, and hobbling across the room placed
it open upon the shelf that served for q
mantel.
He did not go down stairs that day.
Though c1eansed and clothed, he was not
assured of being in his right mind. He
dreaded to meet Carlotta lest she should
! detect the insanity that possessed him
and despise him as he despised himself
for it. OF course this nonsense would
die out IN time, and he would be just the
same old Woona to her as of yore, and
when the time and the right man should
come he would do his best to have her
suitably married. It was absurd that
right here at the onset he should be hay-
ing trouble with himself
tCONTISUED0