Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1894-11-02

wife, sad-eyed, troubled-looking
young woman stared at The two
children in wonder:
81 dou't have to tell you, jim
Fuer, that We are Mr.. Tracey'S
children. He came home from
your saloon mail with drink awhile
ago aad chased us ont into the cold
and darkness; he's done it many a
tiMe when drink has made him
crazy. We'd no place TO GO, and
as oar whisky male hun drive us
out, thought you'd feel that 1t
was your place to take u> In"
She spoke fearlesSly, with her
big, shining black eyes fixed on
the mans face. Que arm VAS
thrOTn prolcClIngly around her
little brother, who had his face ~
her skirts aud was l7embiing ard
CT, ing Win ter or of the ma0 whom
be res arded as the cause of all their
misfortune.
Before the man cor ID MIKE Any
reply his wife uttered c'y, and
ran 10 him and hid her face Oh his
breast. Ina voice broken by sobs
she cried out piiifUliy:
% James! James. Is it true?
Does she tell me the truthp
Filer hung his head in silence,
and Fan said in q lower and gent
Ter tone;
at is trds, every VOID Of il,
Mrs. Fife. Wr'se often been
turned out al night int the cold
and wet, aud We 60 ragged and
hungry becanse Of that saloon"
"JImesl James Jameslp cried
Mrs. Ffer, in an agony of shame
and diS,r, So.
There had been strange in5u.
enceS at work in jim Fifer's heart
for two or three dSys; slumbcr-
ing cOUsclence hal suddenly been
qnicErued into life. Sevel al
things had happened TO trouble
BIN. Other cases OF distress had
come to him, and his yOuHg wife
nave been pleading with hin that
very evening to forsake the buSi
ness. He loved her, and nc loyed his
own two little boys sleeping safely
IN their beds III the next rOOts.
He thought of them, and Of the
disgrace that he was piliDg up for
their future, az he looked at the
two wet, ragged, pale and hungry.
looking children of Joe Tracey.
HIS wi,e WAS thinking of them,
too, for she suddenly cried out in a
sharper note of pleading distress:
"James, James, ,nInk of our own
two little boysp
Il am thinking OF them. VI ,rtha,"
he said.
"Then kn)T wat you vdI do.
James" she said.
be nodded his head TWO or to:es
times without speaking, and sud-
denly broke away from his wiie's
embrace aud ran hatless l;OM the
house.
His wifo turned toward tbs TIVE
children, and TOOK litlIe Carey up
into her arms, crying over bin aid
kissing him.
Five inmates later Ied glow
illumined the woods doAu by tbe
Ferry. A sheet OF eanes shot op
among the trees, mailing their
black and leaaess branches etsGt
out boldly N It's light. The hamts
rose higher and bigner, and Ms
Flfrr sud Eau could ecs ia the
brilliant freight a bsreuesded
man standing in the road with
folded arms looking at the destrue-
ton OF his casks OF liquor. He
} bad d,4gged them oct into t5e
road and set FIRE to them.
The place ct sbe Ferry Nas reVel
B reOpened o. o saloon. In the little
building Jim Filler act up tss 1usl'
= ness OF shoemaker, to which he
had been trained. There he pros
ptled, aud became respected
, citizen.
My father and several others In.
teiested them selves particularly N
T-acy. There was little hodse OF
D two OF th,ee rooms on our farm
2 into which they moved. Mrs
Q F'fer did mach for the children.
( There were still remains OF man
3 lness and honor in poor Tracy
Z and tue une came when Fan and
Carey Wire proud to call him father
, and when he was all that a father
J ought to be to his children.
A schOOlmaster IN = school va,
/. eudeavoIl1s to make clelr to hii
I young pupils minds the meaniai
I of the word "slewly." Be Walket
oorOoo Tho roor, IN tho .,onnor 49,