The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1895-04-05

WaSteu form ana held her close to his
heart.
Papa Picotin, good papa" she MUIR
INJURED, stroking his cheek. while the
doctor nodded approvingly as he saw
the sleep. for which he had been watch.
Ing. gradually seal up the small pa
TENTS eyelids in slumber that meant
salvation,
IL was strange and touching sight
the man with his haggard face and
1oors dress sitting there motionless
with the child throughout the long
hours, and when at last she woke re-
rreshed and the doctor babe him lay
MS burden down and go home to rest
awhile, the grave nuns looked a him
with admiration in their eyes. No
mother could have been more patti, II,
more tender than this curious being n
MS antic dress who ministered to the
worlds folly,
Daylight was Just about to dawn az
Picotin stepped out into the air. The
lamps In the streets had not yet b1en
eXtinguished, and few of those mi ser-
able wretches or late jewellers who
haunt the night still crept in and out
OF the shadows. One of these. a man
ures, stopped Picotin and hoarsely de.
manded aims. He had been squatting
near the convent gates, and had logged
the clowns footsteps for some distance
before he made the appeal, and an I'M
easy sense of this made the latter look
at him inquiringly.
The man shivered as the cold winds
blew his rags about. He was a CHASTITY
spectacle, standing there in the pale.
uncertain light, one hand, not unlike a
claw, held eagerly out, the other buried
in his breast.
Picotln shuddered, too. He hastily
thrust all he had into the upturned
palm. and was about to pass on when
face seemed to leap out of the re.
cesses of his memory and press with
look OF concentrated malignity close to
his own.
You! he cried. staggering back
wards; then almost before the word had
left his lips a blow from that hidden
hand had stretched him lifeless on the
ground
All Paris rang with the news. They
We're crying ii aong the boulevards and
amid the traffic of the streets. "A ssas.
sination of Picotin, the clown" Even
the quiet nuns heard this rumor Of the
outer world as they watched by the
bedside OF the little child sleeping
peacefully. her golden curls spread out
that had all night been pillowed on the
breast of that strange, tender hearted
being whom dawn had found lying
face upwards, still cad in his testers
dress, alone and silent in the deserted
street. The plous women lowered their
heads and sighed. They did not doubt
1t was judgment of heaven that had
laid him low for minstering to the de-
PRAYED tastes of wicked world; still
their lips moved in silent prayer. for
they recalled those tender, haggard
eyes which had watched with them all
through the troubled night
And their prayers were answered. for
Picotin's body. II not his soul. was
saved
He had been picked up and taken to
the hospital as dead. but the wound IN
his breast was found not to be mortal
after ALL and a month later Bebee. rad
liant, joyous. was leading papa Picotin
by the, hand. laughing to think that he
too, hsb been i'll as she had been.
She never knew that the miserable
creature that dealt the blow was her
own father, and that his body. dragged
from the river had been identified by
the clown at the morgue quite by
chance and so gained decent burial.
Picotin folded all these secrets In his
heart where the sunny-haired child
nestled confidingly repaying him
through the long. bright years, with
her laughter and her love-
Paris had to digest Its disappointment
as best 1t might, for. after all, the
clown had defrauded his admirers of a
sensational exit by getting well; still.
that night was positively his last ap-
pearance in the ring, where he never
came tumbling head over heels again,
though his old suit of motley always
hangs ready at hand, and Bebee de-
cfares he shall some day go to fancy
ball in it with her. "Pacequ IL est ST
beau CONNIE ca-si beaur-Alethea
Phillips.