The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1898-12-22

slender, leahess branch; on the bright
ness and intense blue of the sky; on
the feathery snowdrifts piled on every
side. Mr.. Jones had noticed none of
these things; he had been affected only
by the inconvenience of the walking
and the loss of his day in the city. But
such good humor as that shown by his
neighbors was contagious, and since
his attention was directed to it, he real
ized that the snow-covered landscape
was truly magnificent. "No artist
could ever begin to represent its beau
ty." said his neighbours wife. "What
were all the art galleries of the world
compared to this ?"
BY the time Mr.. Jones was set down
at his own door, his feelings had un-
dergone an entire change. He felt
ashamed of his petulance, and especial
ly of the slap he had given Robbie. He
determined TO find the little fellow and
make the best amends he could. He
also felt glow of kindly sympathy for
his wife in her care for the babies that
was somewhat unusual to the hurried
business man. Yet he shrank from
meeting his wife directly; he was not
quite ready TO acknowledge the mean
ness of his irritability and language of
the morning, so he decided to go
through the dining-room, which was
still very cold, and make detour
through the basement and kitchen to
look at the furnace.
In the kitchen Bridget, who had long
been the faithful maid of all work,
stood gazing into the cooking stove,
where smouldered few black dying
Goals. Her countenance wore an eX-
preston that was mixture of distress
and anger An hour before Mr.. Jones
would have begun at once TO rate her
sharply for her badly prepared break
fast, but now he only said;
why, Bridget, what's the matter
with the stove?"
"Well, sir, sure there's no dhraft at all
at all, and whin | thry TO make quick
fire there's the way il serves me. Sure
it's the CRATE that's broken and dropped
down that chokes the fire. A poor gell
can't do any cooking on that stove"
Mr. Jones conscience pricked him.
His wife had told him several times
about the broken CRATE; had written
down the name and number of the
stove and begged him send ii from the
city, but he had forgotten ii. He saw
the impossibility of doing any good
work with such poor instrument as
this, and then he said:
well, Bridget, l believe the best
thfpa, IN thfS l;tnhap x,n,,Il ha N raxx
stove entirely"
Bridget's face frightened. 20 sir"
she said, 'if only had good stove, and
the pump fixed, sure I'd stay. / gave
the mistress warning this morning"
Again Mr.. Jones' conscience pricked
him. How often bad his wife asked him
to be sure and send the plumber TO fix
that pump. But II had seemed very
small thing TO him that stove and pump
were out of order, and so he had paid
no attention TO the matter.
Passing into the furnace-room his eye
fell on poor old Hans, the man whom he
paid dollar week TO take care of the
furnace. He was on his knees in front
of the furnace trying with all his poor
old strength to shake the heavy CRATE
by means of the iron lever. Ii was pa
thetic face and figure the old man pre-
sented. Bridget had overheard Mr..
Jones message about the furnace and
had conveyed it to Hans, who had re-
eeived 1t as the knell of his hopes; for
the poor little dollar that he thus earned
was all that enabled him to keep peace
with the shrewish daughter-in-law who
gave him shelter and a bed. But for
come reason the shaking of the furnace
had been almost impossible for more
than a week, and old Hama was in de-
spair. When he saw Mr.. Jones he