The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-01-14

aud mutter:
III level ev'ry cussed stone, if 1 live
long enough and all your fine airs TOO,
| Cynthy HUH"
MAPLE HILL CHARITY.
| The occupants of the pleasant room had
| scarcely all returned, when the storm
! seemed to clutch the old farm house furi-
ously, and a ghOstly knock was heard at
the rafting door
There it's knew it. l knew sun
| ten d happen!" gasped Jane Tooker dol
Orously, 1inging her ginam apron before
her eyes; while old Josh rose to his feet
| threateningly. But Grandma Hull, quite
used to James alarms, merely said,
| calmly:
Come in"
| The latch was sprung quickly. Then it
I was raised slowly. Another great frenzy
and wailing of the elements and scared,
| trem bling girl was shot out of the night
into the CHEEKY old room. Then her hand
still upon the latch, the snow beaten into
her black hair, which was matted wildly
about her handsome head, she stood there
the embodiment Of desperate hope and
fear, ready for instant fight at the first
intimation of unfriendliness.
Grandma Hull saw nothing poetic in
the weird apparition, and with genuine
| court-martial air, chopped out the one
word:
Hungry
"Oh, missusl I doan't mind a-6ein'
hungry. But they be chasin' hus away;
an I've gone an got lost!" said the
heather, as if half mind TO spring back
again into the night and storm.
"Ohol" calculated Grandma Hull, with
world of conviction in the word. II
see. You're one o. them gipsies that's
been campin' in the grove2"
a. &
as if realizing that between her own and
the Christian race the gulf of hate and
distrust lay measureless and impossible.
Then the little yagabond burst into tears,
which Richard HHh in after years re-
membered made her seem pitiful, engag-
ing and pretty.
Grandma Hull, never fussy about her
charities, made haste TO bolt the kitchen
door against the hired men. Then, with
Jane and JOSH who were now bustling
with the warmth of transmitted hospita-
bic influences, the wild thing was placed
at the table where, between excited sob
bings, she was made to eat hearty meal
everything on Grandma Hulls part the
while being done with a brusque yet GER
tain touch of appreciation of the girls
immediate needs, that has in it genuine
humanity.
"Dirtyl" asked Grandma Hull, when
the raven had finished her meal.
Illus giPsies is never dirtyp said the
girl quietly, but with a noticeable fire in
her eyes.
"Pooh, pooh !" retorted Grandma Hull.
while she looked appealingly at Jane, who
in turn looked appeHlingly at JOSH while
Josh looked straight at tine snow-pelted
panes; but all three seemed clearly salts
fed that the vagrant must have sousing
bath before lying upon Christian bed
The girl understood it all instantly as
gipsies always understand In fash she
bad her splendid tawny bosom barred, and
then, whisking her sleeves up to her
round shoulders, said excitedly; 'See,
seel--a clean gipsyP'
In another Instant she was bending
down to present the same unanswerable
argument as 70 her shapely legs. Jane
put her bsc& against the kitchen duar
and again flung her apron over her head:
while Josh went 80 she window and al
most ourtained it with his hulking form
But Grandma Hull took the wait pris-
oner, marched her into the garrett, and
slowed her away IN capacious trundle-
bed beside the roaring chimney, where,
muttering words in an unknown tongue
which surely held the meditation and ac-
cent of prayer, this lost heather sobbed
herself to sleep.
That night GYPSY brother, or mayhap
good fornothing lover, had followed
the girl through the storm. For mo-
ment, perhaps. he had feasted his hungry
eyes on the gypsy racklie safe within the
farm house cheer. Then he had crept to
the barn. where, like a faithful dog, he
bad watched and waited until morn Re-
| fusing breakfast, he had taken charge OF
the girl, and after such grateful looks az
had never glowed upon Maple Hill farm
house before, they had set out together,
| hurrying across those bleak New England
hiIlu lilo daplr cflknnaffna
winter sky. As they disappeared from
view, Jane Tooker remarked with all the
| conscious firmness of prophecy to her
husband, who had fingered at the kitchen
window until the ragged Romany were
lost from sight:
Joshua Tooker, mind my words! Sun
| TIM III happen. Grammer Hull IL hear
| from this I"
And truer words were never spoken
than these.
III.
CHARITY AFIELD
Ten years had passed. North and south
! the shadows of hate and strife lay close
upon a shuddering land. Because a few
cunning leaders had so willed a million
Americans, those wearing the blue under
the old standard, those wearing the gray
under new, sought like frenzied beasts
each others lives. North and south the
strength and light had gone, perhaps
never to return, from out million happy
| homes; and at Maple Hill, the trembling
| hearts of Grandma Hull, of Mary, now a
sweet-eyed lass of Is, and of faithful Jane
and Josh, were ceaselesSly quivering in
| dire expectancy from every far-borne
thrilling echo of the dreadful conflict; for
somewhere in its thick and heat was the
| only son of Grandma Hull.
Along the blackened war fields Sher-
| mans hosts had fought from Chickamauga
to Atlanta and beyond. The cruel sacri-
ace of Atlanta had been made. Intoxi-
GATED with victory, onward swept these
hosts to Savannah to the sea. Some
thousands of federal troops had been
turned back to battle with the brave and
reckless Hood and his heroic band, as
with luckless valor they assaulted stra :
getic northern bases of supplies, and, bare
footed and starving, were now menacing
the city of Nashville.
Another wild November night had
come Train-loads of northern troops,