The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-09-04

fire-how blithe had been his dark eye,
how CHEEKY and red the middle of his
cheek. She could still feel his finger
rough and cold beneath her chin, and
te benediction of his eyes looking down
al her. But now-ah, Christ!
Mrs. Goudie had put away in the
window-sill her great Bible, and her
heavy white trimmed spectacles atop
of it. Janet was still standing.
"Sit down." said her mother careless
ly.
Janet sat down on the edge of chair
close to the door. Rab, the cat she had
reared. was sitting near her in blank
band of sunshine lying athwart the
, flags. his legs propped in front of him
like two furry little pillars, his gray
golden slits of eyes fixed on the win
dow. Janet feeling the constraint of
the silence, put out her hand; and, not
daring to speak aloud, said, 'Rab!" in
choking whisper. Rab turned and
looked at her carelessly through his
half-shut eyes; then he rose and
walked with lazy stretchings OF the
hind legs, away over to the hearth.
There he sat down and stared up at a
blue wisp of flame blinking in the
crate. The monotonous tick or the
clock was the only sound in the wide
kitchen.
Mrs, Goudie stood with her hand on
the back of a chair. At first her eyes
gazed before her with the wide look or
a proud anger; and her mouth was
hard. The glow fell upon her withered
face and revealed its dark and stern
nobility. Presently her eyes narrowed
and went far away, and she seemed 10
be musing. Then a strange SMILE tnat
was not pleasant to look at. appeared
: about the corners of her mouth. But
she did not speak.
The light became more unearIhiS'
II declare" said Mrs. Goudie, sue
denly, with a false shrillness or voice
that made Janet vince; II declare, It's
like the day O. judgment, THIS Inc
smile never left her lip.
Again was appalling silence. the
| clock seemed to be ticking more and
| more loudly. AS Janet listened 10 its
slow metallic beat her heart sank low
er in her breast. Where could her
| ather be? He was so seldom out of the
kitchen at the cleaning. She turned her
| head to see what o'clock ii was. The
old yellow dial was shining with eerie
| vivldness.
| All this time her mother had given no
| sign either of pity or resentment. But:
Well" she said at last-always with
| that ironic edge on her voice; well!
we had better gang butt the hoose,d'ye
! no thnk?"
| Janet rose passively. without speak
| ing Now that her ordeal had come she
was too feeble to be sharply afraid; she
! felt herself borne onward like a crea-
ture in the clutch of fate. She was
| going to meet her father. A bare lobby
with white washed walls ran from the
front door between the kitchen and
the parlor A shaft of yellow light
struck in through an oblong slit OF
| glass above the door, falling straight
| upon a row of pegs, On one of these
was the farmers everyday hat,
square hard felt, green-gilt at the sides
with age. The level rays revealed
thick coating of dust on 1t.
The mother opened the room door,
which fell to the right, and then
stopped, speaking over her shoulder:
We've made changes here" she said
shrilly, as If showing alterations to
stranger. She pointed to a bed the
curtained head Of which was close to
the door on the left. Janet had begun
| to tremble.
She followed her mother into the
room. At first she could see nothing
because of the invading glory,
There's your fether!" said Mrs.
Goudie.
Janet turned her eyes from the light,
and there lay her father in his shroud
beneath the full glow of sunset,
The clock ticked loudly in the kitchen.
A fringe of sandy whisker stuck out
from the tight jaw-bandage. There
We're vivid hairs in it, redly cleaning.
Janets knees were water below her.
She sank by the bed.
"Fether!" she painted, with open
mouth and unstrung lips. "Fether!"--
and then, with a shrill scream of
anguish; "Oh, God! my fether! my
fether, my fether."
"A-hey," said her mother that's
what ye brocht your fether TIM" on an
| April morning three and twenty years
ago this woman had felt a thousand
pulses leap and throb within her when
| feeble little cry told that from her
body a living soul had come into the
! world-oh, mystic wonder!--a new born
soul, and from her body, and the child
of the man she loved! But that child
had broken the heart of the man she
loved-and she was merciless.
| Suddenly a blatant low from the
great empty byre echoed through the
silence hollowly And again there was
silence.
The sombre radiance deepened in the
room The brass knobs at the head OF
the bed cleaned mournfully.
Speak 10 me- fether," whispered
Janet; speak TO me. fether; speak to
me!"
But he lay with closed eyes in the
lonely light, and IT seemed to Janet
that his shut lips smiled--smiled with
the quiet irony of the dead, who Know
the secrets of all things, and Will tell
US nothing. p .!,-" --l- ...,--.- s-..