Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1897-07-28
THE END OF IT ALL.

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5 THE END OF IT ALL. )
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- ~ HATS the lust word, is
(SNS it?" 1t was Bale who
NJ W asked the question. He
SSso w had screwed his courage
N Moosss. to the sticking point at
IN 'Tha.'s the last
~ word" said Selma,
'and to my mind, Mr.. Tolley, it's
bit of IA pity it ever went so far
'iAs how?' said Bale. He was very
gloomy and quiet, and unlike himself.
and she had ceased to feel afraid of
him.
'.ln this wise; Mr.. Tolley," she an
swered. TT never chose your COM
pan5, and I never liked it. I look
on what you've said to ME as
liberty. And defy you to say ever
showed you sign of encouragement
to it."
.sThat's true enough" said Bale
grayely, and without touch of irony.
s'I'll do you that much credit. You've
made it pretty clear as you disiked me
from the beginning"
"And that" the girl retorted, sis
why I look on what you've said in the
light of liberty, Mr.. Tolley."
"It won't be repeated" Bale an
swered. "Good night"
He fingered as if in expectation of
an answer, but the girl turned away
without word. The garden gate
clicked behind her, and Dale was left
standing in the roadway.
s.Well," he said to himself, '.'it's
what I looked for, and it fits my
merits. BE pulled q handful Of loose
tobacco from eEse pocket Of his jacket
I'd =, s. sss,k 8ss 81 llsf .Ish els
hayint Stood f0r 1 minute or two With
out movement, be filled his pipe, Lit
1t, and walked away
The girl meanwhile had reached the
cottage kitchen. She took o candle
stick from the nigh chimneypiece, and
set it on the table with an angry
emphasis. She stirred the waning
fire with the same petulance, and,
having thrust thin silver Or two of
wood between the bars, she knelt
down before the CRATE and famed the
embers with her apron. When they
blazed she drew out one of the sticks
and Lit the candle. AS the wick be-
gan to burn she looked up and gave a
faint cry at the sight of an unexpected
figure in the room.
''Motherw she said, with hand
upon her heart. "How you frightened
mel"
'Hast no cause to be afraid O. me,
wench, 4" her mother answered. $50
Bales got the sack, has hep"
F. ''Got the sack?" Selma echoed.
'sNo. BE was never IN my service. ="
"He never got any wages, poor
ladl" said the cid woman. ''That's
another matter, however. In your
service he has been this three year. "
"Well," returned Selma, "f never
had any truck with him, and j never
wanted any. And now, if that's what
he wanted to know, he knows it"
eyes, said the old woman, Uniting
away with the same tranquility, "you
let him know it."
'fWhy, mother" cried the girl,
"wkat would you have me dc? Did
you expect me to say 'Yesp to him?"
'fNo, my dear. 1t would hs,' given
me rare sore heart to hear il. But
I've known him since the day he was
born, and I've been sorry for him
many time. He's a nobody's child,
poor Bale is. BE was bred on charity,
and he was made to feel it. He's gone
wrong, my dear, like a good many
more, because he'd hardly ever the
chance to go right; but there was the
makin's of fine man in him. You
was quite right to say him nay, but ]
could wish as you'd been gentle with
him"
Selma Lit second candle and sat
down beside it with her sewing.
ellis father was travelin' conjur-
or" said the old woman, after long
pause. 81 saw him once alive, and n
finer figure of man I never saw. I
helped to lay him out, poor fellow,
that same night. He broke his back
bone with cannon ball doin' some
iuggler's trick with it. They said st
the time he was in liquor, and he'd no
right to do dangerous thing like
that at such time. He'd built bit
of tent across the road there On the
waste ground, and there was the wife
awaiting her confinement. The child
wasn't born half an hour when some
blunderin' idiot told her the news.
That killed the mother. Then poor
Tolley's wife took in the child and
kept it, and we all helped a bit; and
he growed up to be called Tolley. And
as if he hadn't had misfortune enough
TO begin life with, old Tolley must
needs go an christen the poor little
creetur' by his own name of Balaam,
as a been laughing stock for the
whole o. Castle Barfeld for 'ears an
'ears. He learned himself to read an
write without any help as iver I heerd
on. He was put to work at the pit
bark by the time he was eight ears
old, and ne Termed himself the engine
drivin' by looking at the engine an
watchin' the chsps at work at it. Poor
Balep'
A bright drop or two fell from the
girls eyes and glistened on the stuff
she was sewing.
In the meantime, Bale, the rejected,
had walked down into the valley, had
fingered for while at the forge gates
10 stare in at the white-hot. half-naked