Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1900-02-22


baby than to have him become man
like you. am going to pray for you
while you are giving my baby q ride
wish you would pray for yourself. II
you will ask tod He will make you as
clean and pure as you were when your
mother held you In her arms. Go now,
and take good care OF my darling
"Altho was so awkward In starting
that the parsons wife laughed like a
schoolgirl ut my clumsiness. ! managed
to get going without upsetting the car
rage. / found every man In town on
the lookout. went up one street and
down another. i found crowds every
where. Everybody was happy. Some
shouted and cheered and some bitterly
cried. The toughest toughs In town
seemed to be the heartiest In their
cheers, and some of them cried the
hardest. One bloated old hummer,
who hardly ever drew a sober breath,
got right down on his knees and took
the hem of the carriage robe in his
trembling hands and kissed 1t and
wept like a whipped schOolboy. He
sobbed out:
~ had a baby like that once. 1t
died and its mother died; broke her
heart. / wish | had died before i had
ever come to this.
Il had listened to many sermons by
the parson and had laughed at the lit
tie talks of the parsons wife, but /
could not get away from the Scent
preaching of that baby. AS 1 pushed
the carriage along l saw my own
sweet mother as she held me in her
arms and rocked me and sang lullabies
to me. saw her face as plainly as Ii
it had been but yesterday that had
rested my head upon her breast. l
heard her voice as she sang to me.
The words all came back to me, and
the tune. and found myself hum
ming:
Hush, my dear, lie still and slumber,
Holy angels guard thy bed
II was so blinded with tears that l
had TO stop and wipe my eyes and TO
conceal my weakness / pretended to
tuck the clothes ABOUT the little one.
The baby looked up into my face and
cooed and gurgled and caught my fin
ger in its chubby little fist The touch
of the little hand and the trustful look
from the baby eyes did more for me
than all the preaching and praying as
| wheeled the carriage. / became 4
new man while giving the baby its first
ride When | took il back to its
mother, | said:
MADAME, your prayers have been
answered. Your baby has done for
me what neither you nor the parson
have been able to do. / am going to
begin new life
I'VE had some kind of a celebration
in the Methodist Church, and the par
sons wife and baby made their first
public appearance. AS the little wo-
man walked in the men cheered and
clapped their hands. She smiled and
blushed. but did not seem to be Of
Tended. During the exercises the brass
band played Il selection. They had
hardly begun when the baby, frighten-
ed Mt the blare of the horns and the
crash OF the drums, broke out into n
shrill cry of terror. 1t could not be
quoted. The horns blew louder and
the drums pounded harder and the
baby tried to cry louder and louder.
At last one big fellow jumped up,
marched down the aisle and seizing
the leader of the band by the collar,
gave him a savage jerk and shouted:
"'Stop the racket of this band and
give "our baby" a chance
"The band stopped instantly, but the
baby kept right on. 1t cried for min
ute at the very top of its voice. When
it ceased. round after round of ap-
plause filed the house and scores of
voices shouted, Encore. Encorer The
man who had stopped the band stood
up on n seat and cried:
Three cheers for the parsons wife,
and "A tiger for ''our baby
THAT let pandemonium loose for sew
eral minutes The baby had got over
its scare and seemed TO like the roar of
the crowd. 1t crowed and cooed and
tried TO clap its little chubby hands.
The cheering only ceased when the
crowd was exhausted. The leader in
the interruption of the programme now
shouted:
"'You can go on with this show now,
unless "our baby wants another
chance. New York Independent.
HIS IDEAL WOMAN.