The Republican., 1900-12-27
xo endearing words shortened the

WIN d Slllle On HeT up anu Il song
in her heart she stood equipped the
next morning for the office. Down
the stairs she slowly sauntered, think
ing only of that voice which would
soon speak those tender words again.
A loud peal of the door bell.
"A dispatch for Miss Jenny Bently,'
said the messenger boy, handing her
the ominous yellow envelope.
Had anything happened to him?"
was the girls shuddering thought, as
her trembling fingers opened it.
Come! Your mother is dying"
A cry of mingled pain and relief
broke from her. Her mother! Not
the man she loved.
Jenny" how plainly she heard the
querulous voice of her mother-"Jen-
ny. come!"
les" murmured the girl, as she
had always done, "after awhile, after
/ have seen him." and wiping the
tears from her eyes she hastened to
the office.
How eagerly, when there, she looked
for his coming. The usual hour had
passed, another, still another, and he
came not.
Jenny, come!" The mothers voice
was no longer querulous. Faint and
low came the words.
Jenny, come!"
81 must 60" at last cried Jenny
with a rush of tears, and hastily
l. ,Ie 10
ployer the girl hastened to the train.
The office boy chuckled.
"She's ninny, that she amt smelt
mouse afore this he muttered
pocketing the letter. 81 knowed the
game was up yesterday. 1t coined a
little suddint on to him, I'm think
in. or he wouldn't hev left his papNs
about and straightway the preco-
cious youth betook himself to ran
sacking every drawer and pigeon hole
of the desk before him.
For many miles of the journey the
girls thoughts alternated between
the man she was then suddenly
forced to leave and the tireless, de-
voted mother to whom she was hastm-
ing. Never before had her ear caught
the rhythm of moving train. To-
day there was a voice in the wheels
which seemed to say:
Jenny come, Jenny come, Jenny
come!"-and then across the strings
of her memory swept a note or two
of poem long since forgotten:
Life and Thought have gone away
side by side
and before her vision flashed the pic
ture of a stark form outlined beneath
a winding sheet, and through an open
window, upon spreading wing, the de-
parture of the two spirits side by
side.
But one word, one look cried the
girl, as she stood once again upon the
threshold of her humble home.
JENNY"
Oh to see that dear form in the IA
miliar old rocking chair. to hear her
name spoken, even in that old-time,
querulous tone. But below stairs all
was silent.
Life and Thought have gone away
side by side"
Each football upon the creakiug
stairs seemed in unison with the car
wheels; the rustic of her silllen skirts
as she ascended them repeated the
lines, and to the strained senses of
the girl the futtering of the simple
muslin curtains at the window
marked the departure of those winged
spirits, side by side.
JENNY"
1t was the fathers voice which
spoke. That form under the white
sheet upon the bed stirred not. The
closed eyes never opened; the rigid
lips remained dumb.
"She called you to the last" said a
neigh Dor. ''It was Jenny, come; Jen-
ny, come the whole day long"
The girl, remembering how often
that call had been unheeded. unhead-
ed even at the last moment, knet in
silent anguish beside the stiffened
form.
"She breathed her last but cpe
short hour ago." continued the neigh
Dor, ''a-watchin' and a-waitin' :or
you
watching and waiting" sobbed
Jenny, bitterly conscious for whom
she had wasted those precious hours.
ALAS! watching and waiting for me-"
And now the last sad rites were
over, and the toiling mother lay at
rest in her narrow home, forevermore
indifferent to dust and decay.
The remorseful Jenny, listening to
the voice of inclination, was already
in thought planning her return to the
city.
81 must go back to my duties," she
said to her father, but her heart in
stead said: ''to him! / must go back
to him"
And with that resolve in her heart
she one day scanned their weekly pa
per.
The story of an absconded swindler.
noted forger, a ruined gambler; the
disappearance the same day of his
pretty typewriter; handsome Office
in which a mere pretense of business
had been ever done; an idle, non
commital office boy; weeping woman