The record-union., 1897-11-08
ssos'y's pSies. ST so


week Mac went to town and Kate had
| to wait in the store Then he's got
that place he cleared up last winter,
down by their spring, planted in cot
ton and it's just as good as any you've
got on this place."
Him. said Mr. Murray. Il didn't
think the little chap had SO much pluck.
II he just keeps it up like as not he'll
be more than a doctor. hear oil peo-
pie say that's the way Alec Stephens
done, and he went to Congress and died
in the Governors chair
| On John Anthony's seventeenth
birthday he went over his bank account
with his mother. There was just $iS7
to his credit. That was in the sum-
mer and in the fall they planned that
| he should enter the medical college IN
Augusta. The mortgage had been paid
off and with their home secure John
Anthony felt that his mother was sure
Of living. Later in the afternoon
when he returned from his work in the
| field his face was unusually sober. AS
| his mother passed, going into the kitcll-
| en-, she touched his arm and asked:
II saw you talking with Coot Mose,y
| at the gate. Did he have any news??'
He was telling me about Sim Spires,
| ma, and he said DR.. Parker told him
| that Sim would always be bind unless
| they could send him up to Atlanta and
have his eyes operated ON by DR.. Cam
mack"
''He might as well have said seni 10
| the moon," Mrs. Fuller reulied. stop
ping in the kitchen door and looking
| back at her son. TT makes my heart
ache, honey, when 1 think about Mar
| cy Spires. When she married Timothy
| Spires she was the smartest, prettlest
| girl around. Tim hadn't anv great
amount of property, but he had a start.
and people thought it was good match
| for her, until it turned out he was a
steady drinker, going from bad to
worse. Finally, when his pa died and
| left her that little place where they
live, Tim give up work altogether and
let Nancy scuff1e the best she could 20
make living for them all. don't see
how she's ever lived through it. sick
ly woman like her Ane it Goss seem
too bad that now, just as Sim is grown
and able to help her, he should lose his
sight. l wouldn't be a bit surprised if
It put Nancy in her grave, for even if
II,
it's natural for her to love him.
Three days later John Anthony said
he was going to the blacksmith shop
to have new points put on some plows,
and would stop by and see Sim Spires
on his way home.
When the young man entered the
Spires cottage he found them all at
home, seated in one ROOM Timothy
was half-soling a pair of coarse mems s
shoes, while Sim sat near him knitting.
When John Anthony opened the door
Sim looked up with that strained peer
ing of the blind. but his fingers did not
cease tw1rllng the coarse steel needles,
nor did he return the greeting. Nancy
sat near the back window. busily sew
ing the buttons on a pile of shirts that
lay in basket at her side.
"I hope you don't mind nv sewing.
John Anthony" she said, with an effort
toward cheerfulness, after the young
man had taken his seat. I'm just fin
ishing these shirts for the doctor. so
can give 'em to him when he calls to-
morrow to see about Sims eyes
That's what I came for. How arr
Sims eyes?" asked John Anthony,
speaking SO the blind man could hear
distinctly, as though wishing an answer
directly from him
Nancy shook her head and motioned
him to silence. Timothy glanced fur
lively at his son. but no one spoke.
Then John Anthony remembering to
have heard at the store that Sim be-
came furious when any one inquired