Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-11-07
HOW SUNSHINE CAME TO NATHAN
HALE.

happy and blessing, but he was a
hopeless hunchback. What were
name, lands and gold to Nathan Hale?
Nature had denied him a manly figure,
and his soul cried out in anguish
against the unaltered fact that he was
a cripple.
Nathan lived in a beautiful home,
but the magnificent halls and galleries
of the old mansion were closed to the
public. The silver service was under
lock and key. The tables were never
spread for the gay throng as in Ma
than's fathers time. He shrank from
the eye ofpity, and very few were adj
mitted to the great hall in those days.
''Is is best So" said Nathan. cit is
a haunted tomb, and I am the ugly
spirit by which it is inhabited. The
happiness of homo life is denied me.
No fair hand will ever be laid in mine,
no little ones play at my knee. A
curse, a curse" he muttered, and
leaned his throbbing head on his thin
bony hand.
The gloom of night was creeping
about him as he sat in his library. A
servant stepped in with lighted ia
per.
''Will you have candles, Sir Ma
than?'
''No, Stewart; a fire in the CRATE.
1t is chilly"
His servant laid the fire and quickly
withdrew. Then Nathan's head sank
in his hand again, and the room
might indeed be tomb, for no sound
of life broke the silence.
The freight made a soft glow, the
moonbeams stole in and wandered
over the stopped form, played with
the dark hair, and made the white
hand that rested upon it look like the
cold hand of a spirit.
The clock on the mantel had struck
eight, nine, ten and eleven. The fire
had burned low.
Just then Nathan thought he heard
a low, faint sob under the front win
dow.
He listened, Again. soft wall, as
of child in distress, fell on bis ear.
Prompted by low weeping, he has
tened to the door, when 10! a lone
child stood up under the shelter of the
porch, weeping.
'tPoor little one!" soothingly said
Nathan, ''come in,' and taking the
child by the hand, he led her in.
Raking open the smouldering fire,
and placing her in an easy chair where
the soft glow fell upon her, he con-
tinued: "Poor little one! Why are
you out so late, little one, and where
is your home?"
The high pitched, small voice spoke
for the first time,
CT came a long way in cart with
uncle Dan and aunt Tat. I have no
home"
''Bu6 you live somewhere"
'"Oh, yes, in the cart"
"Where are uncle Dan and aunt Tat
now?"
~ don't know, sir; I have walked
a long way to find them"
Chow did you lose them?"
''They beat me, and made me drink
something, and then [ went to sleep,
and when l woke up they were gone,"
and again the child began to sob.
"They beat you, did they?" said
Nathan, gently laying his hands on
the stopped shoulders.
eyes, and they will beat me again
when they find me; but I am so hun
CRY and cold"
''To be sure you are hungry. Wait
here a moment, little one"
Nathan hurried to the pantry, and
was soon back with a bowl of bread
and milk and some cakes. He light
ed the candle and watched the child
eat.
ssWhat is your name?' he asked.
TIE child turned her large, blue
ewes toward him, and her lip trembled
but she choked back the sob and an
swered: cit is just Hunchback."
Nathan's face grew red. "Have
you no other nane?"
The child shook her head. Again
he left her a few moments and came
back with a kindly, middle aged wo-
man whom he charged to care for the
little one until morning.
The cloud had lifted from Nathan's |
brow, and a gentle light shone from
his gray eyes.
ssNo name but that of deformity. |
Poor lamb!"
1t was very late, but Nathan still
sat thinking. Was life all a barren
waste? And If he was different from
other men, could he not make some
t the hammer for his having lived2 |