The Wilmington daily Republican., 1895-12-30

IA WulunB. 5si
DorIystt gfoaned. II was iilze the agony
Of death 10 have this command laid upor
him, but the masterfulness Of the spcako1
awed him, and when again he looked NJ
his mind was dazed. He tid not know
what he had done, but afterward got up,
staggering toward the door.
"Dorketti'
The word struck him like blow, He
put his hands to bis head In bewildermeRt.
The directors require you to do this,
but should advise you to make no fuss
over the NATTER
The pauper stared with tho look Of
man whose fight is done. then, totterino
through the doorway, he leaned for Iona
time against its frame, his head stiy
pressed between his palms.
Lot your eyelids droop. Shut on, the
worlds pleasures, vanities, wealth. Opcn
the door of your Imagination to a small
room in the attic Of the poorhouse, to O
poor bed, with man, mentally and phys
ically broken, bending from its side LenS
him, II you can, for awhile that sympathy
which he sercly needs, and which SO few
OF us have for the poor and old and for
saken.
A pensioner without pensionl 1t had
been Short his happiness. Ho remembered
1t now vagleiy, az one would remember
tho happiness OF another. He had not
seen Jano. He did not wish to sec her Just
now. 1t was weak of him, he knew, to
sign away his rights.
Sixteen dollarsl That was great deal
of money. He had not had so much for
years In all his later life he Ind not even
heard Of any one who had had It, Ger
tainly Jane had not Sixteen dollarsi
And to have lost IL by stroke of the pen
TO have lost 1t when he and she only a
few hours since had spent 1t go times over
No, no; that was not fair to himself. AND
Jane, poor thing! He could sec hcr nov
helpless in her disappointment calling te
him. And he wanted to help her. She
had had pain enough already. His sorl
oried out to spare her the sting Of this last
blow.
Wondering II she were still on the steps
where he had left her he went TO tho win,
dow and looked out. No, she was not
there. Perchance she was looking fol
him. 1t was not right to keep her In ig-
norance of what he had done He would
go find her.
But waiti Was not that Jagged, un.
evon sound upon the stairway A three
footed step whose movement he had learned
to know so well and which came nearer
and nearer until-until-the door opened
and Jane stood in tho room.
Pausing upon her crutches, her slat bon,
net pushed back, her dry, wrinklcd face
white to the nostrils, she held up the lost
paper.
"Eh, Ben, we've got back the pensionr"
she said, In her spent voice. We've got II
backl
A new light leaped into Dorkett's eyes.
"Got 1t backl' he exclaimed. "Jane, how
how did you do itY How did you know"
He clutched the paper convulsivcly ard
sank down on the side Of the bed again,
laughing all the while. "How did you do
it, JaneP'
In her own falterlng way she told him
oil. How she had henrd through the opop
window; how she had hobbled into town
and had seen the directors who had sus-
tainod tho keeper, and how in tho face OF
1t oil she Ind insisted upon an order on.
titling her to reclaim the paper Yet he
did not bring himself to realize the full
meaning of her words until she brought
two small bundles of clothes and laid them
on tho floor beside him. Thon looking
down at them he said;
TITS poor lot to start life anew with,
but with woman like you, Jane, man
ought to pull through"
Then taking up tho bundles they crept
down stairs and out of the house.
Banished! They were banished No
home; no friends; only the two to journey
together afoot Across the fields, studded
with wheat stubble, they went. Onco
upon the edge line of the hill, they turned
and glanced back, trillc wistfully per.
haps. Then they went on, she hobbling on
her crutch, and he bearing the bundles
swung across n stick over his shoulder
On they journcyed until they came to an
old negro preacher 5, and there they Joined
their bands in holy wodlook, and aftor-
ward rented a small house in tho neigh
horhood. The poor people who live around
them say they are happy, and at the end OF
each month thoy can be seen through the
window joyously counting over and over
again their ponsion money.