Alpena argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1893-1909, 1894-01-24


late, Miss Consequence"
Come, sonny. I'll make a first
class bartender out of YOU" he said.
Oh, what a bonny boy he was!
Myrtle always remembered how he
looked that day-the day his father
first led him into temptation.
He saw the deadly pallor that
came to his sisters face and the
trembling of the sweet lips.
Don't cry, sissy" he whispered.
| won't touch it. No, not one drop"
He meant to keep his promise.
God knows he did, and for weeks,
months, aye, and for years, was faith
full to it. Then came temptation
and the first downfall.
How penitent he was as he wept
on Myrtie's shoulder and promised
again and again. Promises made
only to be broken until he drifted
from bad to worse.
The hand that mixed the drinks
grew unsteady; the eye dull and
lustrous, the step slow and tagging
Then Joel Reyes awoke to the fact
that he was not his own master.
"Abe Keyes's boy is gone to the
dogs" was the general verdict of
the loungers around the tavern.
II wonder what the old man will
do"
1t mattered little to the keeper of
the tavern how often his boy drank.
Liquor was cheap and it helped
business along" He might take
as much as he pleased, so long as he
didn't get muddled in his work.
The consequence was he did get
muddled. OF late, he was seldom
seen standing behind the bar. FIRE.
quently he was to be found behind
the stove in company with the house
dog, receiving no better treatment
an occasional kick whenever the
unfortunate sleeper's legs came in
contract with the table where men
sat shutting cards or throwing dice
y
Oh, what bitter night it was
that Joel Keyes stood outside his
fathers door.
The sudden change of atmosphere
from the heated bar-room where he
had been doing, to the darkness:
and cold without, sobered him up 6
bit.
For a moment he stood and shiv.
cred as that door closed over which
the swinging sign reading "Man
and beast accommodated" seemed
to look down in sheer derision on
the shivering wretch beneath.
~ guess dad means it this time, y
he muttered. "I'll 60 down to the
station and crawl into one of the
baggage cars. In the morning I'll
come to the back door. Myrtle will
give me something to eat. She will
never see me starve."
He staggered down the frozen
path, not once looking back toward
the roof that had sheltered him from
infancy. On and on into the dark
ness, the stiffness, the cold of that
winter night.
He did not hear the sound of the
window that was raised overhead
or the voice that called softly:
Don't 60 Joel! wait until father
sleeps, and will let you in"
Dear Lord, watch over him.
was the praper that Myrtle breathed
that night.
n
Abe Reyes doing by the dying
embers of the fire found it impossi-
BILE to shut out the vision of his
daughters accusing eyes. Sleep
came to him only at intervals, bring
ing but the widest dreams.
Now he was riding over noun
tains of snow, up, up, higher and
higher. Again down valleys, down,
down, faster and faster into huge
snow drifts. "Would no one save
him-not even Myrtle?"
Another vision came to him. He
could see the old house before it had
been converted into tavern, a low
rooted, coy farmhouse with a
spacious kitchen, where a woman
sat, not unlike Myrtle; a woman
with soft, brown hair. She was
bending low over a cradle, singing
a lullaby to baby that lay cooling
softly, and that baby-my God! it.
was Joel! His first born. The boy
he had thrust out into the darkness
of the night.
The lapse of years seemed nothing
He sprang from his chair. "Could
he find the boyP" he wondered.