The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-06-13

come. "'Ey are comm Nanny" he
would cry, while she tried to Groom him
into Quietness. mo dat dey aint chile, and
eff dey was comm Nanny got you,
honey. and de door locked honey, and dc
Lord am mighty and will prevail, honey,
and sh! honey,you Sc gwine to sleep,
honey, s-gwine-to-sleep," and
the child would sometimes slip away
while the far away boom, boom" of the
artillery seemed so near to him even in
his dreams. But the day came when Tim
was right. They had come Richmond
had been evacuated, and the child was
possessed of a pale fear when he saw the
blue uniforms. which was a dreaded color
to his imag ination Don be feared
honey, dem nasty, stinkin' young niggers
out dar singin',' dey like the swine gwine
down de steep filled up wild de debil,'
while the black lined sidewalks following
the entry of the victorious army into the
Confederate capital were resonant with
the words:
.Dey looks like men,
Dey looks like men,
Dey looks like men of war.
Dey looks like men all dressed i'll blue,
Dey looks like men oh war;
But Tim was the child of the district
now. Everyone of the good sisters knew
HIM and, with pity, loved him, and in not
few villages. some changes of clothes
were kept for him, and what he had was
made good by further stitching. And he
would call them Mathis and Ma-that, and
his daddy's saddle-bags would be emp
tie and q new supply of wear put in fo.
him to the next appointment
BY this time the rain swept in scythe-
sheets and the road was black except for
the startling luminousness with a crash
to stop the heart beat. The country was
Sparsely settled, but Jack Bradlaw, the
deer hunter, lived not far away in a rough
log house of two rooms. Jack knew
Dams VOICE wall sp-hn,a . 4-,-e Tyry,ryszrttg-
Went up at the door. The deer-hunter re-
fused him entrance, calling to mind the
last breaking up he had had when Dan
was there, and a fight was about to ensue
in the night mountain-storm between the
two desperate men when Parson Talia-
ferFio reached them by their voices just in
time to wrench Wards knife away. Par
son Taliaferro had never missed an APP
pointment; he did not know excuses: he
knew only performance, not thinking first
even of the child. much after the spirit
of Abraham giving up his own son when
he heard the command. And so they
pressed on. They were all wet TO the skin
except the parsons great-coat and sad
dle-bagS. which were under the seat. A
CLINT of moonlight cut like a pruning
hook through the cloud away TO the left !;
49, -l,1
was still almost perfectly dark. The par
son had kept Tim in his lap and now
wrapped him thickly in his great-coat and
put his long arms around him. He had
when he stopped the fight taken Dams
bottle of liquor ont of his hip-pocket and
thrown it alongside of the road Dan suf-
fered from that kind of remorSe after a
spree that came more from "A lack of
whiskey than a fullnes of faith. 1t had
begun to come on, and his voice was get
ting back more like to that of the old
Dan. Tim was half awakened by a voice
he had so often heard, a voice that made
to his ear the sweetest of all music. For
to say the truth. Parson Taliaferro' S
voice could lead the hymn and reach the
heart with a certain quality of fullness
and tenderness and feeling which
touched bottom. He sang only old fash
toned revival hymns. Tim did not know
how long he had been singing, but he
heard the mellow notes so strange in the
awful night and heard Dan weeping
words of bitter repentance. while the
closing words Of the stanza would come
like notes beaded on a harp-string:
ITO Canaan's fair and happy land
Where my possessions lie.'
Then Tim would fall back into some
sort OF childs enchantment where the
notes would vanish as human entities and
take the form of angels touching his tenn
pies and curls and brow with touch that
seemed, each, sort of melody that he
had known somewhere else. Presently a
convulsive shudder went over the body Of
/ the child, his delicate frame had sue
cumbed to the ordeal. His dad felt the
shudder and put his hand on his brow
and lips, and even the lips were cold and
quivering. Dan felt him with his hot
hand and seemed to be shocked into even
n greater soberness than ever "Give the
boy some of my whiskey, parson," he ex-
claimed with voice weirdly full of ten
derness now. The parson replied calmly:
II have cast the vile stuff away to the
dogs, and if l had not / would rather
hand him back to his mother up yonder
than even to touch his Inns with it,"
! There was long s-4ence; Parson Tall
aferro was fighting battle the like Of
which he had fought many time be-
| fore. He used to say that the bullets of
Yankees were as flies to be scat
tered as with brush of the hand
"The world, the flesh and the Devil are
the only enemies to be feared" he would
say. His humanity he sometimes
regarded as the greatest barrier
between him and his God his
robust physique and vitality and
the overflow of his heart, so deeply hui
man, when he was visited with affliction,
caused him, he would say, sometimes,