The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1896-12-16
learning the real whereabouts of his

Old before am released. Ii you cOul-
municate with me he will find it out
and be ashamed. DO not even write.
| will remember you both, and it may
be that can the better deceive myself
into the delusion that you believe me
innocent il 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.
lie had schooled himself to expect
no~ miracle in his behalf. No ilnme-
date 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 i'll
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
mantle of association and memory
around the 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 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 a small NAL
etaction, the black mans sentence was
very brief-a year or some such mat
ter-and of a 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 he
wondered if his mother had cut his
golden hair or had let it grow in curls.
One morning he woke with a feeling of
pleased surprise. He tried to think
what it meant, and of sudden it came
to him. He had been so stupid not to
have thought of it before. The boy
must be wearing trousers! He could
see him maufully 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.
1t 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 con-
gresham, possibly-oh, awful thought,
Judge! Yes, judge, sentencing men
to terms of mprisonment-men 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
to 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. He dreamed them all over again,
as, after % 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 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. 1t had been %
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 in
at the great door. He surveyed them,
and saw with plying surprise that the
horrible negro was among the number,
chained to some young malefactor.
But he also saw through the doorway
the green of fields, which he had not
seen for years, and he knew that beyond
was his glorious boy. Clad in his civil
ian clothing and with his ten dollars