Morning journal and courier., 1894-02-17

.immersion," which were still bitterly upon their poor old lips as they closed in slumber in their little single beds at oppo- site sides of the ''best room"; giving Dick and Dot longed for opportunity to stow away the children in the folding bed in the same room near the dining room door, push the table over against the mantle, pile the chairs upon 1t, and let down from the partition wall their own creaking fold ing bed for the night.
 'Now, Dot, dear, for that plan of yours," said Dick eagerly when they were alone. "Do you know that thrust about the farm nearly broke my heart. After we had paid eighteen hundred dollars, and four hun dred dollars more would have saved 1t! It's awful, Dotl"
 els the mortgage foreclosed, Dick9"
 "No; but might as we'll be. Four hun dred dollars, or four hundred cents-it is all the same"
 'Dick, are you a brave msns-I mean morally brave, deari''
 "Try me and see."
 elf asked you to sacrifice something, something almost as dear to your heart, to your very life, as your children. as-as your wife, Dick, do you think you could do 1t now; now, husband, when there might ts happiness, prosperity, perhaps even the little farm yet, for us, where the old folks might have little-well, just g little more room, Dick; and where the old folks might have @ little-well, just little more room, Dick; and where we could at least be safe from this horror of deception, of want, of being turned into the very street, Dick! Could you9 Would you"
 She had never talked like this to him be- fore, and he looked at the little mite of woman beside him in amazsment. But he also rubbed his glasses furiously and nod ded his head determinedly.
 She tripped into the kitchen and almost instantly returned with curious little, apparently legless table, in her hand. With a few dextrous movements its hinged, crossed legs came into place with a click its hinged detached, stout eross bar joined, and with a little jump, che landed herself in 6 sitting posture upon it.
 "Isn't it lovely, Dick9 And stout? My! Just see herel" She gave herself vIgor- ous shake. ''D!d little sewing for Mrs. Jack Plane, eleventh floor front, and her husband-he's 8 cabinet maker, Dick made this for me; mean for you, Dick"
 "Chocolstess Jumping frogs7 Sea -beansa Jewelry2 Playing eards? Lamp chimney cleanerea Horse radish2 What-what line, Dota" he inquired lugubriously.
 She pointed to huge piles of books upon shelves above the doorways, piled upon the mantel, dangerously crowded upon the top of the folding bed and stacked high, where the book case had been, along the hallway partition wall.
 ''Gewhilikinsl"
 Richard Hardy, Hterator, ,sprang into the circumsoribed atmosphere of his little dining room as though an explosion had occurred in Eighth Floor, Rear, fiat be- low.
 By the time he was on his feet again Dot had one arm around him and was lead ing the dszad writer to this pile of books and that; but the poor fellow could not see rightly for little, and Dot went on sooth- ingly and bravely with her plan. "I knew 1t would almost break your heart. Dick; not the standing in the street you're too much of a man to be ashamed of thst!-but letting your treasures go into other hands; almost as if they were Bob and Nellie, Dick. Dear, dear old bookel How we have loved them! But knew, in this dreadful hard times' choice of sacri- fees, you'd only have toto think of it., just once, Dick. Why, you must have paid thousands of dollars for them. I nave been all over them; just 814 volumes. these pretty price-marks lettered and ready. Some of these single volumes I ought to pay a months rent of this flat. Landlords pressing us too, Dick. And l found some real little curios, if the right | folks only come along. No use at the sec ond hands, Dick, dear, forgive me! but 1've tried them; just to get prices, you know | Not buyin,' nom; nor sellin' neither!' was tue reply from all. But along Printing House Square, or Park Row, or around there somewhere, Dick, there are just oceans of editors and lawyers. Why, Dick, they're always buying books; good books. | An ! hova vat, n{oo ot1o1okh j got ready, in case it elects and snows. You won't mind a little snow, now that you've got that lovely Irish friezs. will you, Dick The pockets will be just lovely for little l volumes and lunches! And Dick, dear best of all, here's 8 whole dollar-a httlt mending for Seventh Floor, Rear, dear to start with"
 She had not dared to look up at him be fore, brave soul though she was; and nov that her eyes met his, she saw his face wal deathly white. We'll might 1t be, wher
 tho life dream of writer is in an instan
 SO blsckeued and effacedi
 "Oh, Dick-husbanda What have
 donsl What have I dore!" she sobbed
 sinking piteously upon the little table be
 side her.
 "Done!" he blurted out after a might,
 gulp, while strokipg her head tenderly
 Why, bless your precious soul! You'v
 done dead right. It's a go Street a,
 goesl Books gol Friends go-drat them
 Literature goes! Everything goes, Dot"
 What face of joy, of hope, or love ant
 of blessing was the one she turned to hi
 ss she fsltered out, "To-morrow2-Dick7 2
 Tomorrow Gswhiliikensl This hol,
 minute, if you say so, Dotl"
 Dot could net say that; but she did ga,
 countless good and sweet things of ar l rangement, of classification of book lots
 of prices fitted to the ha,d timea, of re
 taining the most precious and most mecca
 sary volumes to the last, and, particularly
 of one strange little volume, no bigge
 than her dainty hand; volume of searcel
 more than thirty pages, done with the pel
 on parchment through years of patient re
 search and labor, by one Marcel, Crow
 Advocate of France, as a gift to Louis
 Ls Grana; "Tablsttes Chronologiques
 was It's title, and 1t comprised record 0
 succession of all the popss, emperors an,
 kings who reigned from the birth o
 Christ to 1700. the year of its pressnts
 ton to Louis XIV; a genuine curio boun,
 after the fashion of that luxuriou
 time, its edges richly gilt by th
 stylus; volume recording the birtl
 and neurological influences, the death
 manner of death, the length of reign an,
 the historians of all these nightly poten
 tates; and altogether containing vsster
 more exact and wonderful information
 than any other equal number of pages tn
 world ever knew; in fact, a marvel vol
 ume of profane history, for personal stud
 by the grand monarch; and such a psrfec
 unique in lore and art, and association g
 the most cunning book hunter had neve yet possessed.
 For generations before Richard Hardy
 time, and to this very moment, this littl yellow enigma, which had passed fror , among the treasures of emperors to tn house chests of the people at the sackip
 of the Tuileries, had been given no brave plscs than library flag end or child
 meaRre amusement from it's strangel wrought characters and designs. But when Richard Hardy resolutely SC
 out rhe next day with his little table an huge package of books the "Tsblette
 Chronologiques" curio, encssed in an oil silk cover, was safe in one of his pockets and somehow the little book gave him a
 ideanable feeling of opulence, too, for Do had solemnly declared it would prove mascot and bring back the psrlor table, tn mantel clock, the carpet. or the bookcase before the weeks new and daring ventur was done.
 It did even more than this for him. . gave him strange consciousness of an ar cestry behind him he never before had ez perienced; of the stern stuff that was, o
 still should be, coursing from the Hugut not line through his veins; and of tn mightier fact that no shame can come t
 him who stands among the densef throngs in honorable battle for home an . leve.