The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-05-04

| such loss and pain, but drank fts I'LL daily
and wondered ID the others. Sometimes u
wondered also II the warm, tinny taste Of
the water drawn from we'll too near the
10 bad any connection with the reward.
The miller's daughter, Abigail, thin,
lint haired child, with pale blue eyes, knit
ted long stockings for her tall brother,
who was q man. The child thought OF
I him as Saul, he stood so much higher than
his brethren. One day when the long
stocking had grown by painful half inches
nearly to the toe, the sharp eyes Of Dame
Fate discovered dropped stitch In the be-
ginning Of the leg, and travelled IL all out
from bottom to top. Tears for little Abb
gail, and no figure flvel
The heart Of Che child was hot within Its
bosom as 1t saw fall one after one the pink
and blue and yellow and red yarn marks
like milestones all along the way-marks
knitted in by the teachers bony fingers
and tied In hard knots on the wrong side;
marks never to be removed save by the
mistress hand when the task was done. 1t
seemed like waste Of life. But Abigail
| took up her weary "bouts" again, with
the patience of despair.
| Every other Saturday morning school
kept, that satan might not have too much
verge and opportunity, and the catechism
was ground into the tough fiber Of mem
ory in place of other tasks. But the sew
ing and knitting kept on. At one Of these
every Others the child looked out between
the two lengths of window curtain and
saw shaggy dog bounding in and out of
the water, and laughed softly to itself.
But Dame Fate, whose eyes were every.
where beholding the evil, spied the crime,
pinned the curtains closer together, set two
sharp thumbs in the hollows of the small
shoulders, shook the child dizzy, and
turned Its back to the school, where 10
learned as an extra task 1.-The Lord Is my
shepherd, etc. 1t was the old fashioned
way of teaching children to love the Bible
The catechism question for the day
was, "Wherein consists the sinfulness of
that estate whereinto man fellf' And
the answer, "The-sinfulness- of .that-estate-
whereinto- man fell consists in the-guilt-
of-Adam' s-frst sin-the- want-of original
righteousness-and the-corruption Of his
whole nature which is commonly called
original sin together with-all -actual- trans
gressions which proceed -from-it."
But the child was far away. Even tho
whimpering Of the B G babes under the
ferrule for rustling about did not bring
tears as usual, for its eyes were set on
green pastures where little white lambs
kicked up their free heels, and mother
sheep took no notice, but nibbled and
baaed all day long, as If there were no
harm In 1T. The leading beside still waters
made quite another picture. But might 1t
not be done by some older wiser playmate
with string, to keep the child safely on
shore between river and meeting mill
stream, where chip vessels would float and
dip and veer distractedly, go under and
rise again9 The paths of Righteousness
took thought. But might they not be
those that led from porch to garden gate,
whore one never disobeyed or ran outside
of bounds--never but oncep
That was last year, when November
winds were bleak and the child, at Abb
gals reckoning across the mill stream,
strayed out and to the lower bridge in
vagrantway, looking for something, neith-
er child knew what. So they stopped at
the gentle lady's door and asked to see the
squirrels in the whirling cage that smelled
warm and foreigny, and fed them with
hickory nuts, and time went on. Then
they took hold Of hands and ran and ran
and ran, swinging down the hill, and the
child fell in the sand at the bottom and
knew 1t would never breathe again.
Then they stroled across the way to the
queer house with sanded floor, where tho
child slipped and fell, and the miller's
daughter, who had been there before,
snatched up the unusual guest, shook off
the sand and went on to tho dark, low
room where the queer lady, like her of
Shallot, weaved all day long, and cared
for nothing else Shewore strange wool
en- gown, coarse of texture-for the child
took pinch of a stray fold that left bare
a bony neck except for snuffy kerchief
twisted about it. The child saw blue
check apron, too and great felt slippers on
the treadle, and few gray hairs screwed
into tight little knot, small as u flbert,
beneath a black cap.
The two watched the shuttle and the
web and heard the clang of the loom as
long as 1t was new, and when they moved
to go the weaver opened her thin lips for
the first time and said they might pick up
ounces in her garden, for there was going
to be u frost by night. So the two simple
ones picked up cold ounces till the day
light was gone, and there was no more
time for them than if they had been angels
in the sun. But that night, when the |
wind shrieked, and the child lay with |
swollen, throbbing throat, never knowing |
before what night was like, all the sorrows
of the transgressor piled their weight on
its hot head, and it cried out in awe of the
unknown, like certain pious little queen
to be, II will be good.
For had not the mother searched every
In hpncn nd nd
sent tho miller's son to drag thepond, Just
as shivering little figure in blue ging-
ham came lettering in sight, with burned
ginger cooky in the purple fist that did
not grasp the sunbonnet, and tight little
that conscience was Juggling
att But these last did not show
The dame school in summer time held
ono only joy. 1t was the thought of hot
July and August days, when the clouds
piled up like woolly mountains and light
nings streaked the sky. Then tho fate of
the armchair, impelled by something mys-
FERROUS and invisible, stopped work, step
ped down and gently shopherded her will
ing flock to a room across the hallway with
ono green paper darkened window and
high feather bed
Any child was allowed to share the bed
Of safety with the dame, whose dignity
gave way before the god of thunder, but
there was not even tradition that in the
lark past ages any child had SO dcmeaneu
itself as to accept the privilege.
The least ones played softly behind the
me high backed chair, whilo tho elders
,rawled under the bed and whispered made
up stor 8 and came out linty and fcathery
when the storm was over without touch
If the ferrule even from the dame, who sat
owed in the middle Of the bed, q deposed
md scepterless queen
And so all her small flock reveled in
torn and thunder and never knew what
ear was, except to despise its image when
hey saw it.-Alyn Yates Keith in New
Z ork Post.
Making a Change,