The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-03-16


 The return of the latter, with her liI
 cut, accompanied by the baby in g
 patchwork counterpane, was an effec'
 tive overture to the impassioned re-
 quest that "the missis would let hei
 keep it jest one night, till she could find
 some one to take care of it. A better
 baby nor a quieter never breathed
 though, maybe, a bit fretful-and nc
 wonder, through being walked out of is
 sleep sot student"
 Testimony to this effect on the part of
 the said baby beingstaken as read, and permission accorded, Liza laid the luck
 less infant in her narrow bed, and
 vowed VOW which was more or less of
 a paraphase of the old Biblical one Though yer father and mother for
 sake yer Aunt Liza won't" Next day
 the baby was put out to nurse with a
 decent, motherly woman, who promised
 ''to do for i'm like he was 'er own at
 four shillin' a week."
 But how in the world are you going
 to pay the money?" it was asked.
 Why, it will swallow up nearly the
 whole of your wages!'
 Liza, thus interrogated, betrayed a | AllS lC eHlDdITdSSIneuI.
 I was thinl1in'" she remarked, roll ing her blushing arms up in her apron, "l was thinkin' as p'raps yer wouldn't mind raisin' me pound or two. Yer see" hastily, 'I could make it up to yer in other ways. I'd give up my beer willin', an I dunno but what I'd soon get uster doin' without sugar in my tea. Whats more, I always did say as I'd jest as soon ave drippin' on my bread as butter. It's what we was all reared on, an I don't doubt it's a deal whole somer."
 From the first the father cast off all responsibility. 'Blow the babby" was his response to an appeal to the effect that he would contribute something to- wards the maintenance of his offspring. "Blow the babby! Take it to the wuek- 'us."
 Then he proceeded to simplify mat ters by taking himself off no one knew whither; so that the entire burden feV upon one pair of shoulders, which, sturdy as they were, soon began to feel themselves overweighted.
 In spite of the many sacrifices dheer- fully undergone, it was tight fit to keep that baby going at all. Notwith- standing his aunt's repeated assevera- tions to the contrary, he had been a weakly child from the first, and no sooner did he find himself bankrupt in respect of parents than he proceeded to put himself through a course of infan- tile ailments which were as exhaustive to his own constitution as they were to his aunt's exchequer. Measles, bron- chitis-anything and everything that came in his way-that baby appropria- ted as @ matter of course. Liza shiy cred all through one winter in a thin, threadbear jacket so that he might wallow in cod-liver oil.
 Really" said her mistress, 'I shall have to speak to Eliza about her ap- pearance. don't believe she has spent a penny on herself for the last year. Her boots are all broken and her cotton dresses nothing but patches. shall hate doing it. but she must be made to understand, once for all, that the baby Is not everything"
 This, however, was the one fact of all others that the mind of Liza refused to grasp, and what would have been the upshot is not easily surrnised had not the knot of the difficulty been eventu- ally severed by the individual most 
 The baby, not content with having sampled most of the ailments peculiar to his kind, now proceeded to engage in | a single handed combat with the croup. | All through the long hours of one night | he fought valtantly for his life; then, | when morning came, realizing all at | once the futility of the struggle, he laid | down his arms and went to look for | better luck in another world.
 Liza pawned the alpaca dress to help ! bury him, and, having sunk every | available penny in crape, looked out | with grlef-sodden eyes upon a blurred | and watery world and refused to be | comforted because now there was no one to whom to offer herself up living sacrifice.
 One day gleam of brightness shot across the grayness of her mental out look. It was caused by the sight of the old empty stocking which had once constituted her savings bank.
 'T'u begin putin by agen" she said to herself. Maybe LooheaserH be ,omin' back some day She knows I'd never be the one to cast it up in Ter face, and there ain't nobody else to stand by 'er,"
 So Liza is silently hoarding up love md money in the fond hope that one lay she will be called upon to lavish both upon the outcast.