The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-05

| I've been told so; some of them befor,
she was we'll out of her bed. God bt
merciful to me a sinnerp And The
chick not six weeks old. Something
queer about that dame if it did harper
more than thirty years ago"
What did you see over the grave OF
the child who was killed by lightning
in her arms?"
This:
And he was not, for God tool
him.
Farmer Waite had but one word tc
| saw.
''She came to me when my Sissy had
the smallpox; the only person in town
who would enter my doors. More thar
that; when Sissy was up and l went tc
pay the doctors bill l found it had
! been settled. l did not know then
! VINO had enough money and compass
/ sion to do this for me; now I do"
Many an act of kindness which had
been secretly performed in that town
during the last twenty years came to
light on that day, the most notable of
which was the sending of certain
young lad to school and his subsequent
education as a minister.
But other memories of a Sweeter and
more secret nature still came up like
wise, among them The following:
young girl, who was of very
tlmld but deeply sensitive nature, had
been urged into an engagement with a
man she did not like. Though the con-
fiict this 'occaSioned her and the misery
which accompanied it were apparent to
everybody, nobody stirred in her be-
half till Agatha Webb took it up. She
went to see her, and. though it was
within a. fortnight of the wedding, she
did not hesitate to advise the girl to
give him up, and when the poor child
said she lacked the courage, Agatha
herself went to the man and urged him
into display of generosity which
saved the poor, timid thing from life
Of misery. They say this was no easy
task for Agatha, and that the man was
sullen for a year. But the girls graft
tude was boundieSs.
OF her daring, which was always on
the side of right and justice, the stories
were numerous; so Were the accounts,
mostly among the women, of her rare
tenderness and sympathy for the weak
and the erring. Never was man
talked To as she talked to Jake Cob
leigh the evening after he struck his
mother, and if she had been in town
orr the day when Clarissa Mayhem ran
away with that Philadelphia rascal
many said it would never have hap-
pened for no girl could stand the adj
monition, or resist the pleading, of this
childless mother.
1t was reserved for Mr. Halliday and
Mr.. Sutherland to talk of her mental
qualities. Her character was so mark
ed and her manners so simple that few
gave attention to the intellect that was
the real basis of her power. The two
mentioned gentlemen, however, appre-
ciated her to the full, and it was While
listening to their remarks that Fred
erick was suddenly startled by some
one saying to him:
You are the only person in town
who has nothing to say about Agatha
Webb. Didn't you ever exchange any
words with her, for 1 can hardly be-
lieve you could have met her eye to
eye without having some remark to
make about her beauty or her in
fuence."
The speaker was Agnes Halliday,
who had come in with her father for
a. social chat. She was one of Fred
erick's earliest playmates, but one with
whom he had never assimilated and
who did not like him. He knew this.
as did every one else in town, and it
was with some hesitation he turned to
answer her.
I have but one recollection" he be-
gan, and for the moment got no fur
Their, for in turning his head to ad-
dress his young guest he had allowed
his gaze to wander through the open
window by which she sat into the gar
den beyond where Amabel could be
seen picking flowers. AS he spoke
Amabel lifted her face with one of her
suggestive looks. She had doubtless
heard Miss Halliday's remark.
Recovering himself with an effort, he
his words: II have but one
recollection of Mrs. Webb that l can
give you. Years ago when L was lad
l was playing on the green with sew
eral other bows. We had had some
dispute about a lost ball, and l was
swearing angrily and loud when l
form and compassionate face of Mrs.
Webb. She was dressed in her usual
simple way and had a basket on her
arm, but she looked so superior to any
other woman l had ever met that l did
not know whether to hide my face
in her skirts or to follow my first i'm
pulse and run away. She saw the
emotion she had aroused. and lifting
up my face by the chin, she said:
all of them younger than you, and now
my husband and myself live alone.
often and often have / wished that
one at least of these darling infants
might have been spared us. But had
God given me the choice of having
them die young and innocent, or OF
growing up to swear as | have heard |
you today, / should have prayed God !
to take them, as he did. You have a |
mother. sDo not break her heart by |
taking the name of the God she re-
veres in vain And with that, she |
Kissed me, and, strange as it may seem |
to you, in whatever folly or wicked |
ness 1 have INDUCED, L have never |
made use of an oath from that day to |
this-and 1 thank God for it.
There was such unusual feeling in his
voice, a feeling that none had ever sus- |
oected him capable of before, that Miss
Halliday regarded him with astonish-
nent and quite forgot to indulge in her |
usual banter. Even the gentlemen sat |
STILL and there was a mOmentary 81
ence. through which there presently !
broke the incongruous sound of a snriil !
md knocking laugh.
1t came from Amabel, who had just |
inished gathering her bouquet in the !
GARDEN outside.