Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1896-06-04

a soldiers and great deal more dangerous
most times. AMI a fireman l was for six
or eight years, but l never cared to walk
out with another girl when | thought of
Jenny. l didn't tell my folks where I'd
gone, and for years l heard nothing from
them.
And one night there was fire in q
street off the Borough high house it
was-and l went up the ladder to win
dow where there was woman screaming,
and directly / see her face | see it was
Jenny.
] fetched her down the ladder right
enough, and she chung round my neck (she
didn't know me from Adam) and said,
"Oh, go back and fetch my husband"
And knew it was Wheeler I'd got to go
and find.
Wheeler
There he was lying on the bed, drunk.
Then the devil says to me: What call
have you to go and find him, the drunken
swine? Leave him be- and you can marry
Jenny and let bygones be bygones," and
stood there half u minute quite still, with
the smoke getting thick round me. Then
the next thing I knew there was a crack
ing under my feet, and the boards giving
way, and l sprang across to Wheeler all in
minute, as anxious to save him as if he'd
been my own twin brother There was
no waking him. 1t was lift him or leave
him, and somehow or other got him out
but that minute I'd given listening to
satan had very nearly chucked us both to
our death, and we only just come off with
our lives. The crowd cheered like mad
when dragged him out.
was burned awful bad, and such good
looks as I'd had burned off me, and didn t
know nothing plainly for many long
day.
And when l come to myself 1 was in a
hospital, and there was sweet faced nurse
sitting looking at me, and, by the Lord, il
it wasn't Amelia And she fell on her
knees beside me, and she says: "Tom, l
must tell you. Ever since l found religion
I've known what a wicked girl l was.
Oh, Tom, to SEQ you lying there SO i'll! Oh,
| Tom, forgive me, or l shall go mad,
know shall"
And with that she told me straight out,
holding nothing back, that what she'd said
to me that night eight years ago was a lie,
no better, and that who I'd seen in the
church porch with young Wheeler was not
Jenny at all, but Amelia herself dressed
in Jenny's things.
"Oh, forgive me, Toni" says Amelia
'Forgive me, Tom, for can never forgive
myself. l knew Jenny didn't rightly care
about you, Tom, and l loved you so dear
And Wheeler wanted Jenny, so / was
tempted to play off that trick on you.
thought you would come round to me
after"
was weak still with my illness, but
put my hand on hers, and says: II dc
forgive you, Amelia for, after all, yor
done it for love of me. And are you c
nun, my dear?" says I.
"No," says she, "Im only on liking
as it were. If I don't like them or they
don't like me, l can leave any minute.
"Then leave, for Gods SAKE" says I
eff you've got bit Of love for me left
Let bygones be bygones and marry me as
soon as 1 come out of this, for it's worth
something to be loved as you've loved me
Amelia and was always fond of you"
"What?" says She "Me marry you ant
be happy after all the harm I've done
You run away from your articles and turn
ed fireman, and Jenny married drunken
brute? No, Tom; no. l don't deserve tt
be happy, but if you forgive me shan'1
be as miserable as was"
"Well, says 1, "if ever you think better
of it, let me know
And the curious thing is that within
two years she did think better of it, To-
why? That fire had sobered Wheeler NOR
than go, 900 temperance tracts and all TIL
sons of the Phoenix and Bands Of Hop
rolled into one. He never touched drol
of drink since that day, and Jenny's a
happy as her kind ever is. hear sh
didn't fret over me more than month
though perhaps that's only what I deserv
ed, writing to her as did. And thel
Amelia said, mo such harm done, then
after ALL. So she married me.
Now, you see If had listened to satal
and hadn't pulled Wheeler out shouldn'
have got burned, and shouldn't have go
into the hospital, and 1 shouldn't hav
found Amelia again, and then wher
should have been? Whereas now weir
farming the same bit of land that my ia
ther farmed before us. And If this was
made up story Amelia would have had tt
drowned herself or something, and SHOULD
have gone a-weeping and awaiting TO
Jenny all my born days, but as it's tru
and really happened Amelia and me hav
been punished enough, think, for eigh
years of unhappiness is only few word
in print in story book, but whom you'v
got to live them, every day Of them, eigh
years is eight years, as Amelia and shall
remember till our dying day. and eigh
years. unhappiness is enough punishment
for most Of the wrong things a man cal
do, or a woman either for that matter
Sketch.