The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1894-10-05


turning to the dear old home com
munity. Sometimes she said hope
fully:
''Maybe my health will be better
when we get back home"
The younger children knew only by
hearsay about the old home, but they
were all strong in the belief that it
was the happiest place on earth.
They were all of one accord hungry
to go. No self-denial tending to bring
the happy time nearer was too great
Tor them to make. Every dollar,
nickle, penny that could possibly be
spared was sacredly boarded to that
end.
The sum required to take them all
was very great one in their eyes.
Mrs. Tarsney, with pathetic pride,
felt that they must not go looking
like beggars. New clothes must be
provided for all, and no matter how
cheap, new clothes for the entire flock
would cost what was to them another
large sum.
In the battered old pewter sugar
bowl in the little cupboard beside the
chimney was one hundred and forty
two dollars and seventy-nine cents,
the savings of many long days of toll
and privation. Out of the hoard the
husband and father, too, must be we'll
clothed and provided with railway
ticket. He had added but little to
the fund, possibly five dollars in all
but then he was the husband and
father. Mrs. Tarsney was afraid of
banks, and so the slowly growing
hoard was kept in the old pewter
sugar bowl.
cit won't be so very long now," the
poor woman said, hopefully, and then
paroxysm of coughing shook her.
my dollar a day will count up pretty
fast, and Johnny and Jimmy will
make great deal while grapes last. "
Lyman Tarsney lay awake all night
long, torn by doubts and indecision.
He believed he loved his little flock.
He would have done right by them
long ago, he told himself, if only some
thing had turned up to give him q
chance to do so. The something for
which he had so patiently waited had
been long time in turning up. But
now, he thought, the opportunity had
come he had his chance at last.
Just as the first faint gray was creep
ing up in the east, Lyman Tarsney
arose from beside his sleeping wife
and stole the battered old pewter
sugar-bowl and its contents, every
) penny of which represented so much
of patient self-denial, of toll and pri-
| walton.
AS he skunk through the room Mrs.
Tarsney, disturbed by some slight
noise that he made, stirred uaeasily
, and coughed in her sleep, and the
} wretched man paused suddenly, as il
. reproachful voice had called to him.
! But the poor woman did not awaken,
and he crept out of the house with the
, precious hoard in his clutch.
He started to stink rapidly away,
. and then stopped, he knew not why.
{ The gray of the early morning hung
over the sleeping earth and dimmed
, the stars, fading slowly before the
, coming day. Soft sounds of the pass
ing night were borne to his ears with
seemingly unaccustomed clearness.
, 1t would be train time in few min.
, utes. Tarsney took two or three
t slouching steps toward the gate, and
Q then stopped again. The patient wife
and mother, the little flock of white
heads-how terribly they would be
1 cast down when they discovered the
a loss Their grief
8 But was he not acting for the best,
r doing the best for them? he asked
himself. 1t would not be for long,
y and then he would come back with 6
0 much greater sum of money than he
g had taken away. He would make il
all up to them then, and they would
e all go back to the old home State.
! Still he did not go on. He turned
, and crept cautiously to the window,
} left open for the admission of the
S breeze. The room was wrapped il
darkness.
o He could hear the regular breath
f ing of its sleeping inmates. Mrs
v Tarsney coughed again feebly in her
i sleep. Disturbed by the sound, one
b of the little white heads in the trun-
s dle-bed almost beneath the window
r stirred uneasily and murmured,
t "Poppy"
Lyman Tarsney clutched the win
2 dow-sill, and then there came the
e long-drawn, farof whistle of the east
n bound train, admonishing him that hi
g had but just time to reach the station
:, He turned and slouched quickly tC
the rickety, half-hingeless gate, ther
n ,Do,,Sad with bic hand IN its ton fDhj