Brookings weekly register. (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1898-1903, 1898-12-29

gone from you forever. am still at
your side, possibly for the last time. /
have used all means to enlist your at
tention and call you back to your better
SELF I have thrown the poor in your
way-those who are constantly hunger
ed and sthirst and naked-but you would
not see them. have pushed their pale,
haggard faces and great hungry eyes
into your door and have heard you say:
Out with them. Keep them out. They
freeze me. They dry up my blood. Keep
them out, tell you, or will find some
one who can. They have turned away
with God pity himp while few called
curses ON your head. Did your head
never feel hot after one Of those visits?
They were so earnest, thought per.
haps that answers would be sent them.
You have passed the poor when crouch
ed and huddled on your porch, with the
night hanging over them and the air
filled with snow. They have held out
their wasted hands and turned up their
pleading eyes. They have pointed to
famishing babes, sucking at the foun-
tain of infant life, which had dried up
for want of nourishment. They have
pleaded in Gods name and heavens
sake, and You have had but one answer:
'Begone! Where are the faithless Off
GERS of the law, that they do not drag
you to prison, you miserable beggarsP
John Frostberg twisted in his scarlet
chair. His face was the picture of ago.
ny and despair. Great drops Of sweat
welled from the pores and dropped from
his face. He groaned as he did in the
cabin when he learned Of his mothers
death Then tears gave him relief, but
now his eyes were dry. Not tear had
passed from them in twoscore years until
this night, and the fountain from which
they flowed had we'll nigh ceased.
Greed and avarice, revenge and hate
had no use for tears. He writhed in his
chair as if devoured by flames. In his
agony he exclaimed:
"Spare me! Oh, spare men'
"Why should you be spared?' re-
piled the guest "Whom have you
spared: You have witnessed the iron
entering the soul of the unhappy, and
you were without sympathy. Nay,
more. You have struck with pitiless
force the bruised and wounded hearts
which sorrowed. Only today, John
Frostberg, l saw an old man in your Of
flee. He was bowed down and stricken
with grief. He wept as a child and
pleaded with feverish earnestness not
to be driven from the roof under which
Ln hoI 1ol 20 he,
and deaths, years of joy and years of
woe, of present misery and expected
grief, told you of the wretched living
and the coming dead. His lips trem-
bled, his voice trembled, his body trer2-
bled, and his old heart, which you could
not see, trembled as he waited for your
answer. Heartless it came: L want my
money, and will have it, or you and
yours will 60. When he fell, limp and
unconscious, in chair, you had him
dragged into the street, to die there, as
you believed. Did you spare him?'
"Spare me, beseech you! will un-
DO all the past. Give me but opportu-
nifty. Spare me, beseech youp'
"Not yet, John Frostberg, not yet.
You must cast the demons out of your
heart. Greed, avarice, revenge and hate
must be cast out forever. This is the
final struggle. They or I must triumph
tonight. Listen, John Frostberg. have
seen her.
"Her" exclaimed John Frostberg.
He would have sprung from his seat,
but his guest restrained him.
"Sit still. Yes, her Not once
merely, but scores of times since your
return.
"Then she lives?"
"Yes, she lives You, too, might
have seen her, but you were blind.
Passing in the street you have brushed
her well worn garments. Not that you
desired to touch her. You thought her
a beggar and endeavored to avoid her,
but the jostling crowd would not per-
NIT You. She did not hold out her vast
ed hand, and you were glad. She was
seeking labor, not aims
John Frostberg attempted to rise, but
his guest held him to his seat.
"Where will / find herr" he asked.
LEAD me, pray you, lead me to her. !"
"Not yet, John Frostberg. not yet
The demons are still in your heart. Be-
fore meeting her you must cast them
ont. She would not, could not, live in
such company. Her life has been true
and constant, filed with holy thought
and suffering, which have chastened
and purified it. Her heart is as pure as
you left it, and all the tenants which
occupied it 25 years ago save one are in
it. A single change has taken place..
Your mother is absent, and in her stead
there is grave. There is but one un-
worthy thing in it. John Frostberg is
there
"God Of mercyr" sighed John Frost.
berg.
"Yes, you, John Frostberg, just as
certainly and surely as you were the
night she went to sleep ON your breast
under the chestnuts and the elms, just
as surely as you were that Christmas