Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-11-23

bird had fiown-the game rooster of the barnyardi Now, look here" and the ma jor pointed his long, bony forefinger men acingly at the badly scared Micky, until you find out where O'Rourke is hid not one penny do you get nor ticket to Can ada for your family eitherl''
 "Oh, murtherr' cried the luckless Micky. ''Oh, major. darlin, I'll do me Twin best, but 'tis a hard job yer settin me-"
 The Widow o'Rourke was sitting in front of her little cabin. The declining sun cast its gentle rays upon the old, weather beaten, timeworn face, with its quaint crown of snowy hair, the sun. shine a harbinger of the eternal radiance that ere long should shine forever on the time bent figure when it should be reju- venated beyond those clouds that now ap peared like golden headlands where the sun went down.
 The Widow O'Rourke was nearing the threescore years and ten, and she might we'll have said Few and evil have my days been" since the hungry waves had sucked down her husband and two brave
  head many drear days agone. He, Jim my, the child of her later years, was all that was left to her now, and Jimmy, tall, powerful, fearless young fellow of five and twenty with an eye like an eagle, n frame like a colossus and face like an Apollo, was a son of whom any mother might be proud.
 The widow was gazing dreamily upon the placid ocean, shining now like beaten T I.... Al. loved ones were sleeping their last long sleep. Her knitting had fallen into her lap; her hands hung idly by her side; hel eyes had that faraway look of those whose mental vision conjures up the forms oi those long loved and lost.
 Good eyenin, Widow O'Rourker' saio a dry, harsh voice beside her, and raising her eyes she beheld the repulsive and cum. ming face and the crooked figure of Micky Hopkins.
 Vera Widow O'Rourke, but the toimes are awful, astruh!" he continued, seating himself on the stump of a decaying mast washed up by the sea. ITO think of thin 16 brave hyes bein marched of to jail tC be hanged for t'rason at the next assizes Lord, lord, but the man that gave them away should have holes bored through his toes an be hung be them till he was dead
 True for ye, Micky Hopkins, =" said the widow. ''Shure the noight of the arrests my Jim had suspicious of ye an said he thought yc were too anxchus cntoirely tc get him to the cave thin, an he said this mornin that he was more fixed than iveI now that ye tould the sogers for ye took care not to be in the cave yerself when they kum. But scz to him that ye was always talking about Oirland bein free, an yt samed n true man, an thin ye had known him since he was a 'gossoon' an that ye knew his father before him, God rest his soul! an would do him an his no harm"
 True fer yc, widow,'' said Hopkins, me names agin me, know, an Moike Shcchan, the blauguard. told me to me face that me father was an English coach man of Lord Clarc's an wint back on me muther after givin her child for heI bed. The spalpecn, Sheehnn! At the lasth fair of kilrush het him on the head wid a rock for his smart sayin, an he nivei knew who struck him aither."
 Well, well, Micky," said tho old wom- an, yer not to blame for yer name nol for the sins of yer parents, but always took ye to be partial to me an me bye m yc wudn't do Us hurt, wud ye?''
 Widow O'Rourkc," said the spy, ris. ing himself as erect as his round shoulders would allow, may I never recavc the
 
 aither of yer heads injured. I'd give me hearts blood for ye an yer foine bye, widow, that I wud.' And Micky put q grimy hand across his face and whimpercd.
 Every Irishman is born actor and can with case assume whatever role he desires. Snuffling down his feignod emotion, Micky continued: Vera widow aragil, but I was anxchus to hear about the bye when word came that the sogers had tuk the cave. l knclt down on me knees an prayed that the Holy NaTgin an all the saints moight protect him, an me prayer was answered, wasn't it, widow?''
 ''Ycs," said the widow, her aged eyes life was apparently so precious, 'an as yer so anxchus to know he's safe may tell yc bctwanc us that he's asleep on thf loft within"
 \ glcam of fiendish gratiflca sion lit uI for an instant the evil face of Hopkins, and after keeping the widow irs conversa- tion for a sufficient length of timc to allay all suspicious on her part he left her sit ting there by the cabin, gazing out upoa the golden sea.
 
 In the gray light of the following morn ing James 'Rourkc was led of n prisoner to Ennis jail, and when, n month later, he died n patriot death upon the scaffold Hopkins and his family had been safely landed in Queboc.-Vere V. Hunt in Chi. cago Times