The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-07-18
Story of a Baby's Blanket.

1t had been q busy day at the exchange,
and the auctioneer had grown trihe
weary over the repeated trials which had
beset and worried even this Trojan son OF
the stump. The continual refrain Of
"Going, going, gomez echoed in his
brain until he sighed for respite from his
labors
The eager crowd had come and gone for
several hours and as he stood on one OF
the velvet chairs that had come from no
body but himself knew where he gazcd
upon the upturned faces of the people
waiting for a chance to bid. For many
years had he been a prominent figure in
the auction mart, and under his hammer
had gone often the fruits of lifetime of
accumulation-gone for song treasures
over which the miser had crooned the
lover sighed, the mother wept-all gone,
and with them the associations of u tender
past, carrying with them the scent of the
faded rose leaves or the sounds of bittel
weeping over woes that had wrung the
soul.
Going, gomez had echoed above the
cushions into which the tears of hGppiAos.,
had dropped and over the vcycts whlct,
had marked the impress of thy feet, long
since tripping in the aisles of the uIl
known.
How much am offered?' had sent 10
the four corners of the earth 50 many
things that day that the auc;ioneer hoped
there was nothing left, but there was His
interchangeable assistant had rakGd from
corner a bundle of bedding and handed it
to his employer
what can I get FOR ths?" As he un-
rolled the small bundle some one bid 90
cents. "
Then not another voice broke the stiffness
which settled over the crowd as child's
blanket hung before their gaze. Why?
Did the sight of that small wooden cover
tell to them, the callous crowd, q pitiful
storyf
The busy man forgot to cry his refrain
as he dropped his eyes upon the little
square. Here and there upon its surface
small stains, as if tears had fallen, met
his eye, and his mind went back few
years before that day to a scene he never
would forget.
The bedchamber was darkened About
the blinds the CLEAN of sunlight crept into
the room and fell like golden shafts upon
the little cot over which his wife hung in
an agony of bitter pain. He saw again
the little white hands-hands that had
crept so often about his neck at night as
BIZ 10y ny las oitCplOh JllSu
such a cover as he now held in his grasp.
He saw the little head with its mass of
tangled curls move restlessly on the pill
low, and he felt again the hot touch of
the red lips upon which he had pressed
his own in loving caresses, eager to soften
| the pain and to WOO back into health the
loved little form slowly drifting, drifting
away.
The crowd was gone This busy man
saw nothing but the child who had grown
to his very being and then loosed his little
grasp on the world and had gone drifting,
drifting out to sea- which promised inf
mite love, but left bitter desolaton and
despair for those left behind The tears
fell down upon his bearded cheeks, and as
he felt the hot drops he awoke from his
dream.
"Gone for 90 cents to the only and last
bidder.
The auctioneer sighed heavily as he got
down from his stand and watched the
crowd depart, and then he went to his
wife, his heart filed with sorrow at the
thought of his own dear little one and the
empty cradle packed away in the garrett.