The morning news., 1894-11-11

II you should happen TO bring back
any one. any one needing them. Philip, 20
were the last words of Mother Marden
at the whistling crack Of the door, you'll
find the spare rooms ready and the kettle
boiling on the fire. God bless you IN your
search, my son"'
Thus two humans battled for a time
against the storm which swept the lit
tie village.
Whatever GnaIity had come to the con
sciousness Of Gabriel Dent in his de-
termined search when Philip Mardau
startled al a family flashing and pal
ing light from the window of his abau-
doned study in the rear of the old church
basement, had hastened through the par
sOnaFe grounds to the unused study door,
he certainly saw old Gabriel Dent tear
ing and tumbling through the ghostly
grave stones of the grewsone church
yard toward the village street, shrek
ing horrible maledictions as he sped madly
down the broadening way.
He saw, too, in another moment as ne
peered within the partly-opencd olden
study door, what sent him bounding back
TO the parsonage; what made him tear his
own door open as though he was some
savage spirit of the night anu
storm; and what still made him, all mar
ticulate for a moment, stand staring at
his mother and sister in mute and help
less dismay.
pleaded Mother Marden, as Ruth ciung
to her frightened and distraugh,
"MOthcri-Ruthi" he finally faltered.
They're huddlcd starving, freezing, in
the old church study! It's her mother!
Around her is the dumbuess of terror.
Beside her is the silence of death. Don't
you understand? MOther!-Ruth! 1t is"
But here at the parsonage door is really
savage spirit of the night and storm.
1t bursts in upon the inmates furiously
Sloedshot its eyes, ehattering its teeth,
ltVid and pallid its face by turns, like a
tigers its wildly clutching claws.
Phillip Mardenr" it shrieks at the pas-
tor as the latter faces it bravely, IF 1
knew apostate hand was in that work
Of bringing those devils back from the
poor hOuse-wbere I put 'em--before I'd
sleep, I'd tumble This house down about
your heads here, and I'd burn the desc
Grated house Of God as level as the graves
around it,
The pastor seemed growing into gigap-
tic stature as these words We're spoken,
and his horrifed mother and sister sank
feebly under the awful Cutburst. A Won
drous light had leaped into his face and
eyes. He raised his outspread hand high
above the silvered head of the intruder.
Gabriel Dent" he almost whispered,
60 you know who you are driving into
the darkness of unutterabla dzss air?"
''Who?-who?" shrleked the inplacable
man wildly. "Devilsl Devils. every one!
Bring the keys Come with me You're
parson yetr' he roared with covert vindic-
tiveness IT'S your part not NINE to
clear these vipers from the house of Godl"
Yes returned the pastor win strange
intonation of merciful compassion. "But
we viii 50 together. All but enc shall
leave the church tonight One, perhaps
even Gabriel Dent would not have so; and
one other ] wish you 10 see, face to face
with me Mother, Ruth! 1 will be here
with them all directly. one should have
our best spare room tonight. Yes, yes.
Gabriel Dent Come, we win turn them
out together"
As the two left the parsonage Gabriel
Dent was already hushed and wondering
from the pastors exalted, yet submissive
manner.
Softly now" said Philip Marden. as
they peered within the half open study
door we must come upon the wretcEcs
unaware
But there was little need now for quiet
or for stealth. Huddled about a hicl5er-
ing blaze in the ruinoQs fireplace, lay the
actors; crowded together for each others
human warmth; sodden and stilI in the
exhausted and almost wakeless sleep of
hunger and OF cold.
In a bundle of rags on the old com
munion table lay some cognizabIc OBJ
ject and flung across it, clutching it as
in deathless grasp, was the form Of a
hagg2rd woman, stlled in the stupor Of
mute despair.
This is the one" said Philip Mardan
softly, pressing the hand of Gabriel Deut
into the clammy hand OF the body he
meath the rags, II thought YOU might he
willing to have remain a little longer:
and this one, is the one 1 wish to have YOU
know"
old Gabriel Dent was already trembling
ike a wind-whipped autumn leaf.
The pastor bent over the two and spoke
low and clearly in the wretched woman's S
ear:
'Letty!-Letty Dent! Gabriel Dent is
here to suCcor you"
mot him!-NOt him" she nloaned. as
she raised her head an instant yIarad
| vacantIy at the now abject man before
her and sank back again upon the life
| less body, Gabriel Dent her father. s+l1r,-
bling after her, falling upon his knees
beside the same table where his lips for
more than half a century had received the
blessed sacrament, Erasping pitiflIIy at
! her bedraggled garments as if to kiss their
very hem, and crying aloud as a repentant
human heart can only plead in unutter-
able torment and renorse:
Lefty! Lefty! Daughter mine, For
give! for-ivel on, my God, have mercy
on my wicked soul"
And as Philip Marden unconsciouslv
placed the hand of the dead husband upcn
the living fathers head and looked on the
wretched scene with glad though burstir,-
heart, to his tender, manful ewes il
seemed, though seeming only it might
have been. that in this solemn Dentville
awakening q smile inenabIe mercy. for
EiVeness and peace he'd for an instant
fitted across the sunering-graven face Of
the silent dead.
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