Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-06-17
,,,>,rn,c 1oupNAT SATURDAY. JUNE IT, 1899

and fix yer bond ram no US lie''ii
bout split liker. ~ ~.
hatred of his step-father had been au ueu
a feeling of contempt. TO a mountalneer
the lowest of all creatures Is a revenue
[ spy. e,,cf,,.;,. FIN, # ;.
! muttered the boy. Il cud XIII hlIl'
In the distance. looking like queer,
oddly shaped bundle, figure appeare,a1.
Jim watched it curiously. The bundle
| slowly resolved itself into a woman one
| eye was blackened and swollen. ana
blood was on her forehead. She tottered
| from weakness as she walked.
| For Gawd's sake, nanny! cried the
| boy, recognizing her.
Jim she said. pitifully, does yer
| reckin they'll let me stay with yer u
\ tie while? He's nigh kilt me this time.
The boy put his arm around her. anu
| they entered the house together. In a
| short time the lad came out again ana
Mrs. McPeak saw him, gun in hand.
stridinS up the mountain. She was 4
| kindly woman at heart, and had tucked
poor, tired, bruised Betsy Logan into hel
| best bed.
'Jirl'c goin' ter git Rosy squrl,' she
| said. Rosy was the baby. and was sick
In the meantime Bluford Logan was Ill
at ease. The five dollars for Whlch ne
h adj turned informer were gone; his wife,
| Jeaten beyond human endurance, mad
! fed; the jug in the corner was empty;
| ana han McIedk WAS moi likely " lol :
get him. He shambled out of the cabin
| and started towards the village 1t was
safer there.
Beside the path, Swallowed by the gor-
| geouS blossoms of the laurel, a youth
\ was crouchng. A clatter of hoofS on he
| road below caused him to turn his head.
| and looking cautiously down, he saw Nc
| Peak riding homeward Then a stick
| cracked in the path. A man was coming
| Gown the mountain-siue. The laurel bios
1 SONS scarcely quivered as the rifie-bar-
| rel slid between them The trigger was
pressed convulsively, and the man plunged
! forward. A white scared face peercd a
moment above the bushes and vanished.
Two hours later jim handed something
! Rosy" he said. He was shaking as if
The next day Han McPeak was arrest
| ed. Bluford Logan had been killed, and,
| of course, Han McPeak did it, Half the
village had heard him threaten TO do 50,
| and the men who found Logan with the
| warm blood still running, had met Nc
Peak, gun in hand not half a mile away.
| Mrs. McPeak went moaning about her
| work, and jim was silent and restless.
| When little Rosy cried for her father,
| Jim fled from the house and wandered on
the mountain. Even there he thought nc
could hear her wailng, and the wind
sobbed in the low pines. At night he
| could not sleep, or dreamed and started
up again. Towards morning he heard his
| mother praying.
"Oh, God spar him-spar him. she was
| saying. spar him bekase he's been good
| ter my pore little boy en- he's been good
| ter me-
Jim did not hear any more His face
| was working convulsively and he was
walking towards the road.
Yer par's a comm home Rosy" he
| muttcrcd; comm home ter-morrer.
| Jim'S a gwine arter him
Ill.
Ten years-Jim's sentence had beer
| committed to this-are not long when life
/ trtH lgI a.fI ii.
| through the halls of change but in pris-
! on walls. where men labor and sleep, ana
| wake but to labor ana sleep again, ten
| years measure a long span. But even
! long years end at last. and at last Jim
\ was again among his native mountains.
| Slowly and feebly he climbed the Wind
! ing Stair Road. The confinement. the
dust and the lowland climate had done
| their work. His cheeks were flushed with
! an unhealthy color and his cough was
| that Of a cOnsumptive. His breath came
| short ana the unusual cNcrtion of climb
! ing tired him.
| Painfully he crept on The people he
| met We're strange, but the silent peaks
| were old friends He smiled as he looked
| dam was music in his ears. He passed
! Blueford LoEan's grave. glanced at il
| curiously. but felt no remurSc. The shad-
| owS were lenCthcninE as no assembled the
! glen. New fields had been opened, bui
! tile house seemed much thn same. a TAN
girl was in the yard. Could that he little
] lNilSN lie thNtI'l bll'l ~l'''l III lll' t1'fI-
! way. Mrs. MCPcak arose ~ invite the
| stranger in. He noticed that She wa-
I growing gray. An aged woman left her
| Spinning wheel in the corner and totter-
| ed forward.
jim" she cried, srasping 4 chair for
| support.
| ''Yes, nanny, it's me-
| Why tell how Han McPeak ran for the
/ brandy ana honey. or how Mrs. McPcak
cried over him ana tucked him into her
! best bed in the best bedroom? for that
| night his mother sat BY his bedside ami
! stroked his aching head NY only Il mother
| can. MCPcak had gone To the CourthouS,
/ for "a doctor, ana Mrs. McPcak was sing
! ing the children to sleep IN the next
| room. He felt strange and very weary,
but the pain was all gone. The room
| grew dark.
Let me hold your hand. nanny" he
| said.
| The thin hand felt cold ana she held it
| in both hers 20 warm it.
| Trouble O-u-ovcr. trouble n-o-ovcr
! Ana then my trouble will De over,
| sang Mrs. McPcak in the next room. His
| eyes closed ana a shuddcr ran through
| his worn frame.
Jim's troubles were over.-Aew York
| Post.