The Mena weekly star., 1896-12-23
the real whereabouts of his

old before am released. If you com municate with me he will find it out and be ashamed. Do not even write. l will remember you both, and it may be that l can the better deceive myself into the delusion that you believe me innocent if you do not come down to see me-"
 And with this compact they had sep arated, and the next day. manacled to a negro burglar, he had gone on that wearying journey.
 He had schooled himself to expect no miracle in his behalf. No ilnme- diate or early liberation was part of his hope. But truth by very force of gravity would reach his case at some future time. He took an interest in the negro burglar, as they were in the same department. That black man was the last link between himself and the world. He was a foul-looking, thick tipped, scared creature, but the man sentenced to life imprisonment built u mantle of association and memory around tho evil African which con cealed the wickedness of his appear ance. The negro was called out one day and did not come back, and the saddlery department was a desert of dull impersonality. New arrivals came, but they were hardly noticed by him. Others went away, and he still grieved for the negro. Two years after his de- parture the negro came again, more villainous of mien than before, but to the living man intombed he was flash of beauty out of the glorious free world. But, as his had been only small mal- efaction, the black mans sentence was very brief-a year or some such mat tel-and of morning he missed him and the wild face was seen no more. He thought of this as he walked after the messenger.
 Always, however, his greatest thought was for the boy who had played on the bed that Sunday after noon back in ages. He dreamed of his child, and in his dreams registered his growth. He saw the bright face grow more boyish and less babyish, and be wondered if his mother had cut his golden hair or had let it grow ill curls. One morning he woke with feeling of pleased surprise. He tried to think what it meant, and of a sudden it came to him. He had been so stupid not to have thought of it before. The boy must be wearing trousersi He could see him manfully strutting about just as he remembered strutting about him. self when he was boy with his first trousers. He smiled in the shop at odd times through the day, and the guard was almost suspicious of his levity.
 It was so good that the boy did not know where he was. The little one would be schooled to good thoughts of his missing parent. He would grow to be learned man, possibly a con gressman, possibly-oh, awful thought, judge! Yes, judge, sentencing men to terms of mprisonment-me inno- cent of wrong-doing. He wondered if there would not come into the mind of his son some thought of what it meant to send a man into the grave of life, and to himself he prayed that, though it be an honor his boy should not be called to the bench. 1t would be so horrible to touch elbows with an other striped incomer as they sat at the long table and know it was his boy who had sent the wretched man there. Probably the pardon would come, how ever, before the little chap had grown 10 this stage. Let us see. He must be 25 now.
 Oh, those dreams of that boy to whose ears no whisper of his fathers fate must come. lie dreamed them all over again, as, after 22 years, he followed the mes senger to the reception hall. A dozen plans as to seeing and pridefully watch ing the child-now man grown-came into his mind, and all these projects contemplated a self-effacement, so that his son might not know who was the old man who came daily into his court room or into the halls of statecraft to listen to his words and look upon him so strangely.
 They were in the reception-room at this moment, and the discharging and receiving officer was before him, tell ing him of his pardon, and directing him concerning the civilian clothing he was to wear away. It had been 22 years since he had stood among throng of others in that hall, and as he gazed about there was company of sullen-looking arrivals marching i'll at the great door. He surveyed them, and saw with pitying surprise that the horrible negro was among the number, chained to some young malefactor. But he also saw through the doorway