Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1898-10-24

recounted the contents. Finally, at
the end of almost three months, the
night came when he was to round ont
the needed sum with the last coin.
Trembling with excitement, he thrust
his hand under the mattress.
For n 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 outcry 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 despoied mattress, un-
aole to close his eyes for grief and
bitterness, he heard his fathers un-
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
| l2ed features, stood beside the bed.
lnstinctively 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, seizing him by the arm,
dragged him, with an oath, into the
middle OF the room.
"Ill teach ye to steal, you limb O.
satan!" cried the drink -crazed man.
80 father; I didn't steal; don't, beat
me-" protested Barney. "The moneys
mine, earned very cent Of it working
nights. / did, honest, father"
Earned it, did ye? an hid it away
from your poor, hardworkin' parents
You ungrateful whelp; I'll teach We to
be livin' 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 dsy!"
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-
fidence.
Mrs. Rollins, if not in all respects a
model mother, was at least 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 a nicke ell
OF 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 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. Barneys 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 g-alley, to find the light
burning in the tenement, and his
mother sitting anxiously beside the
cot where his little fve-year-old sister
Aggie lay tossing and moaning. For
several days she had not seemed we'll,
aud since Barney had left her at sup
per-time 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
younger than she, and Barney was far
from being indifferent to any of them.
But Aggie was the very apple of his
eye.
He had tended her in her cradle as
gently as woman, and had managed
always, by hook or by crook, to keep
her in dolls and toys. Where Aggie
was concerned he had never stopped
to count the cost of anything.
The dispensary physician, who was
called in, pronounced the dread name
of typhoid fever. For several days he
came, and doubtless he did for the
child all that skill and faithfulness
could do. But Barney aud his mother
shared largely in the preiudices of
their class against dispensary treat
ment, and as the little one constantly
grew worse, they became alarmed
about her, and on the strength of the
ten dollars which Barney had saved,
sent for q physician of much local
repute.
The weeks that followed were
anxious and wearisome ones for
Barney. Aggie went to the very
threshold of death, but she did not
cross it, and the loving brother had
the infinite satisfaction of believing
though more likely than not he was
wrong in his belief-that the happy
issue was entirely due to the skill of
,NJ, ta,o L., Ill I