Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1900-01-06

dared not ask f the wife. In her present
mood the woman would have
sooner courted death than have sunk any
lower, for between her and the halot's
howell stood little child--a darl.eyed
boy-who stretched out his little arms to
her-in the broad glare of day and across
the dismal reaches of the rayless night
and mutely beckoned her back. AT last
she could bear it no longer, but resolved to
return TO the South Fork. She would go
'ick, she told herself, and steal just one
look at the child-no one should know
not soul and-then well-the river W IS
close by and the current swift and strong.
BY getting ride now and then in the
( Fighters wagons she managed at last to
r.ach Placerville after several days jour
n y, just at dusk, after undergoing good
cal of suffering, for the weather was BIT
.rly cold. Then, footsore and weary she
stole through the familiar by-way to her
old home on the Fork. She stood among
the little clump of pines in front of the
house and painted with a strange mixture
Of emotions sight of the house called
up such host Of memories-it had been
her own home-the place where she might
have reigned queen Of the holy realms Of
wife AMI motherhood; and now. like Peri
at the gates of Paradise, she could not en-
er. She stood there at the portals Of her
own home, at the mercy of the searching
winds that bent the 1.-THE tops of the pines
nearly to the ground, and drenched by the
cold rains Of Winter--a social outcast,
afraid to meet the innocent eyes of her
child, and yet filled with such passionate
desire to take him in her arms-to kiss
the little lips to which she had forfeited
all right. After standing in the pitiless
storm for nearly an hour, she mustered up
courage enough to 60 to the side Of the
house and look In at the dining.room win
dow. She saw the familiar room, heater
and prettier than It had ever been under
her care. She saw the brightly.blazing
heath-fire lnI heard the cheerful crackle
Of the burning pine logs. She could hear
her husbands clear voice above the sui
len murmur Of the storm, reading to the
boy - her boy - their boy-about the
strange habits Of the beavers. She remem-
bered " it'll a pang how i'll she had filled
her place as wife and mother-how hard
he had worked, how good.humored he had
been, and how long he had bourne the
drunken ribaliry Of her mother, until be-
tween them they had made his home a
hell of diseord and he had at last asserted
his authority. She drew nearer and looked
hungrily at the child who seemed, In her
eyes, like an unsullied bit of Parian
marble, with his white, transparent skin.
Such change in him that she seemed to
see the seal of Death set upon his face.
The eyes seemed larger, the face thin and
bloodess, and one frail hand that was held
between her and the freight was as color
less as wax save for the faint traeery Of
the blue veins. The child from some SUBJ
tie force of magnetism seemed conscious of
an unseen presence and grew restless. Sud-
denly he TUNED his head, and for one inst.
ant mother and son looked into each 9TH
er's eyes. The one seated by the coy fire.
side, the other standing in the red glow
that streamed from the windows, with an
Icy chill at her heart, with the cold rain
beating down upon her and running in lit
tie rivulets from her drenched garments.
For one instant she stood there, slender
silhouette outlined by the freight against
the dark curtain of the Winter night
Then she turned and fled as If for life
through the pines across the abandoned
clalms-over sluices-until she stood or
the banks of the river. She could hear tn
turbulent roar of the stream, swollen with
the heavy rains, as 1t swept over its rocky
bed. She staggered to the brink, and rails
ed her hands in mute, despairing appeal
to Heaven for mercy, and was about t.
plunge in the swift stream, when, abov,
the noise of the rushing waters, and born,
on the swift pinions of the storm Their,
seemed to sound in her ears the one wore
-"Mother" God help mel" she cried
What can | do? am LOST" And agar
in the sweet accents of childhood seemed
to float the word, "Mother." And the
woman knelt down on the sodden ground
alone in the wild solitude of the Wnte
night, and tears of bitter repentance stream
ed from n-r eyes, and for the first time
since her days of childhood she prayed
long and earnestly - and as If in answer
the wild wind lulled--there came riff
in the storm clouds, and the pale
radiance of star beam fell upor
her tear stained face as II in bene
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