Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1897-09-04


in her eyes. "Carey'll be so pleased
1 was trying to make up my mind tc
ask you for one for him, but I was
ashamed. Dad don't earn scarcely
anything, but he's husking corn now
for a farmer, and hope he'll have
steady work for awhile"
| But the next evening we heard that
"dad" had been at Jim Fifer's saloon
all day, and we knew that Fans hopes
had come to naught. At 10 O'Clock
that same evening my father, as be
was preparing to 60 to bed, heard
what seemed to him light, timid
knock on the front door.
1t was a dark, cold and stormy
night; the wind blew with such force
that my father could not be sure that
what he heard was a knock at the
door. He listened, and when the
knock was repeated he open the door.
Fan and Carey Tracy stood there in
the cold, bareheaded and without
wraps. They had been crying, and
Carey's lips were quivering still.
"Will you let us come in out of the
storm, Mr.. Harley ?" said Fan, with
bitterness in her voice. "We've no
place to 60, and I wouldn't ask for
any place for myself-I'd crawl into a
haystack or stay in the woods all
night but 1 don't dare to with Carey.
He isn't strong, and I wish you'd
please take him in, anyhow"
"Come in, both of you," replied my
father. "Why are you out at this time
of the night?''
"I'll have to tell you the honest
TRUTH" she said, presently. "Father
came home from that Ferry saloon
about an hour ago, and turned us out.
He never would have done it if he
hadn't been drinking. He isn't mean
to us when he's sober. It's the fault
of the saloon that he acts 80, and I'll
I'll tear down that saloon to the
ground! I just will"
"But that would be breaking the
law, and another saloon would proba-
bly, be built in its place, said father.
"Perhaps if you spoke to the saloon
keeper it might"
II have been to him." interrupted
Fan. "I've coaxed and begged him
not to let father have drink, but what
good did it do? Not Bit"
She put an arm around Carey pro-
tectingly, and the little fellow clung
to her side. My mother rose and pre-
pared a bed for Fan and her little
brother. The next morning my father
went home with them to see if he
could not make some appeal to Tracy
in behalf of his helpless children.
The man was sober now and re-
pentant. He promised earnestly that
this should be the last time that he
would drink rum.
"But he's promised that so many
times !" said Fan, YEARLY, following
my father short distance from the
old house. "He promised it over and
over to mother before she died, and
he'd keep his promise if be could.
He can't while there are saloons
around. But there'll be one less in
this neighborhood some day, if this
happens again !"
1t did happen again. 1t happened
three days later; but this time Tracy
did not at first turn his children out of
the house. He fell to the floor in a
drunken stupor the moment he stum-
bled across his own threshold, and lay
there helpless, degraded creature, a
shame and a sorrow to his children
and to himself.
Fan had put little Carey to bed be-
fore his father came home. Now she
sat alone in the dim light of a smol-
dering fire in the rusty stove at one
end of the room. Her father lay,
breathing heavily, just where he had
fallen when he had stumbled into the
house, and Fan sat or crouched down
on the floor by the stove and looked
at him.
Her face took sullen, dogged look
as she sat there. Her brow contracted
in a deep frown, and her thin fingers
worked nervously together as she
clasped her hands in her lap.
Sometimes she whispered something
to herself, and shook her head savage
", but she did not stir from her posi-
ton until long after the fire had died
out and the room was cold and dark.
Finally she got up and touched the
sleeping man lightly on the shoulder.
"Father," she said.
He made no reply, and Fan bent
over him and shook him lightly.
"Father," she said again, don't
YOU want to 60 to bed p
He struck at her in the darkness,
and sprang suddenly to his feet, raging
and cursing. Fan knew what might
come.
She ran to the bed and dragged
Carey from it. His clothes were on a
chair by the bed ; Fan picked them
up and fled from the house with the
child in her arms, a ragged old quilt
wrapped around him. She did not
stop running until Carey's weight com
PEELED her to do so. He clung to her,
frightened and crying.
"There, there, don't be afraid sister
will take care of you," said Fan, sooth-