The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1900-07-31
ESTABLISHED 1879.

proud anger, ana ner mourn was
hard. The glow fell upon her withered
face and revealed its dark and stern
nobility. Presently her eyes narrowed
and went away, and she seemed to be
musing. Then a strange smile that
was not pleasant to look at appeared
about the corners Of her mouth. But
she did not speak.
The light became more unearthly.
Il declare" said Mrs. Goudie sud
denly, with a false shrillness of voice
that made Janet vince; Il declare. it's
like the day O. judgment, this" The
smile never left her lips.
Again was appalling silence. The
clock seemed to be ticking more and
more loudly. AS Janet listened to its
slow metallic beat her heart sank low
er in her breast. Where could her ia
Their be? He was so seldom out of the
kitchen at the cleaning She turned
her head to see what O'clock 1t was.
The old yellow dial was shining with
eerie yividness.
All this time her mother had given
no sign either of pity or resentment
But
sWell," she said at last, always with
that ironic edge on her voice; well, we
had better gang butt the hose, dye no
thinkY'
Janet rose passively without speak
ing Now that her ordeal had come
she was too feeble to be sharply afraid.
She felt herself borne onward like a
creature in the clutch of fate. She
was going to meet her father. A bare
lobby with whitewashed walls ran
from the front door between the kitch-
en- and the parlor. A shaft of yellow
light struck in through an oblong slit
of glass above the door, falling straight
upon row of pegs. On one of these
was the farmers everyday hat
square hard felt, green gilt at the sides
with age. The level rays revealed~a
thick coating of dust on it.
The mother opened the room door,
which fell to the right, and then stop
ped, speaking over her shoulder.
"We've made changes here" she said
shrilly, as If showing alterations to a
stranger She pointed to a bed. the
curtained head of which was close to
the door on the left. Janet had begun
to tremble.
She followed her mother into the
room. At first she could see nothing
because of the invading glory.
There's your fetherp said Mrs.
Goudie.
Janet turned her eyes from the light,
and there lay her father in his shroud
beneath the full glow Of sunset.
The clock licked. loudly in the
kitchen.
A fringe of sandy whiskers stuck
out from the tight jaw bandage. There
were vivid hairs in it, redly cleaning.
Janet's knees were water below her.
She sank by the bed.
"Fetherp she painted, with open
mouth and unstrung lips. "FetherF
and then with shrill scream of an
guish: ooh, God; My fether! My fe-
Their! My fether!"
"A-hey," said her mother, that's
what We brocht your fether tin~ On
an April morning three and twenty
years ago this woman had felt thou
sand pulses leap and throb within her
when feeble little cry told that from
her body living soul had come into
the world-ah, mystic wonder!-a new
born soul and from her body and the
child Of the man she loved. But that
child had broken the heart of the man
she loved, and she was merciless.
Suddenly a blatant low from the
great empty byre echoed through the
silence hollowly, and again there was
silence.
The somber radiance deepened In the
room. The brass knobs at the head Of
the bed cleaned mournfully.
Speak to me, fetherw whispered
Janet Speak to me, fetherl Speak
to me-
But he lay with closed eyes in the
lonely light, and ii seemed to Janet
that his shut lips smiled-smiled with
the quiet irony of the dead, who know
the secrets of all things and will tell
us nothing.-Speaker