The Progress., 1898-10-08

| Barney parents never questlOneu'
his late hours, and We're quite in
different to his goings and comings;
so he had no trouble in keeping from
them the fact of his new employment;
but he found it hard, indeed, being
still weak from his illness, to bolt his
supper and hurry away to night work
\ after eight hours of day work; and it
was also hard to give up the evening
1 frolics in which he had been accus-
toned to join with The boys.
| For bank he used the toe of an old
shoe, which he kept tucked under his
mattress. Every night he lodged
something therein, copper, nickel or
silver, and every night he counted and
recounted the contents. Finally, at
the end of almost three months, the
night came when he was to round out
the needed sum with the last coin.
Trembling with excitement, he thrust
his hand under the mattress.
1 For a moment his heart beat so
wildly that he could feel the hot blood
surging to his temples; then it seemed
to stop, and he felt cold and sick and
faint, for his exploring fingers failed
to discover the familiar and welcome
roughness of the rain stiffened old
shoe. When he had pushed his arm
in to the shoulder, and had even
turned the bedding up and looked as
| well as felt, he realized that further
| efforts were vain. The shoe was gone;
the fruit of three months unremitting
labor stolen.
Barney dared not raise an cutlery to
do so would only mean to share his
secret with the members of his family,
and thus thwart at the outset all his
plans. Toward morning, as he lay
tossing on his despoiled mattress, un-
able to close his eyes for grief and
bitterness, he heard his fathers I'M
steady footsteps on the stairs. They
came nearer and nearer, until the for
bidding figure, with its dishevelled
hair and rum-laden breath and brutal
lied features, stood beside the bed.
Instinctively the boy slid as far away
as the narrow limits Of the cot per-
mitted; but the movement betrayed
the fact that he was awake, and his
father, Selling him by the arm,
dragged him, with an oath, into the
middle of the room.
"I'll teach ye to steal, you limb O.
satan" cried the drink crazed man.
80 father; didn't steal; don't.ibeat
mel" protested Barney. "The moneys
mine, I earned very cent of it working
nights. I did, honest, father"
earned it, did ye? an hid it away
from your poor, hard-workin' parents!
You ungrateful whelp; I'll teach ye to
be Twin in aise an idleness, an layin'
up money like miser, an kapin' it
from yer betters, an me shweatin' me
life away carryin' the hod up ladder
all dayw
And then, with heavy strip of
board brought home that day for kind
ling-wood, from the building where
he was at work, the half-drunken
father beat the boy until the lads
screams brought Mrs. Rollins to the
point of determined interference.
From the shock of his great disap-
pointment Barney rallied with cheer
full courage and determination. This
time he took his mother into his con-
fdence.
Mrs. Rollins, if not in all respects a
model mother, was at least q kind
hearted one, and she showed her good
will by aiding the boy in his endeavor
to keep the secret from the unreason-
able father, and by giving him nickel
or dime now and then from her wages
as scrub-woman. They decided be-
tween them that the surest way to out
wit the father was to take the money,
as fast as it was earned, to a neighbor-
ing branch Of the Stamp Savings So
ciety, and to leave the book of deposit
in the society's care.
In this way the saving went on
smoothly, and success was again al
most within reach. Barney's heart
beat high with happiness and hope.
But on the day when the ten dollars
was once more complete, he came
home at midnight from his work in
the bowling ALLEY, to find the light
burning in the tenement, and his
mother sitting anxiously beside the
cot where his little five-year- old sister
Aggie lay tossing and moaning. For
several days she had not seemed we'll,
and since Barney had left her at sup
perfume she had grown rapidly worse.
Aggie was the one thing the boy
loved most of all in the world. There
were other children between himself
and Aggie in age; there were others