The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1901-09-19

T aE Little Minister" everybody
| en- board the Lucretia called
d iaev.tably; he was so very little
] So obviously a minister And
Prybody, before the Lucretia was
lee DAYS out from Liverpool, was
ss;pin9 about the little ministers
lotion 10 one of the women passen-
.s-the woman with darkened eye
bws and hair a thought too golden.
erybody would have gossiped still
bre lad everybody heard and under
bod the whispered words which
bused the curiosity and wonder of
head stewardness on the evening
en- the little minister set everybody
og by escortiag the yellow-haired
oman down to the very door of her
lte-rooI.
'Courage. Courage! Do not de-
air" was the half-comprehended
hculation with which he babe her
leu.
And everybody, again, would have
en- nearly frantic with excitement
d the manner in which the two be-
me acquainted been publicly known.
THE yellow-haired woman was lean
Q over the rail Of the promenade
ok. well forward, upon the second
V of the voyage, when the fttIe
mister, who had been watching her
enlv from his unobserved seat be-
md a music room portfolio, strolled
silly to her side.
"I wouldn't! Don't think of it," he
id, softly. at really wouldn't be
birth while. Pluck up heart and take
urage. Your present sorrow will be
er in lifetime. anyway: you'll be
rry for all eternity if you jump over
bard, poor child"
"Whv do you speak to me like this?"
lied the woman, turning wide, des-
.rate eyes on his kindly face.
"Because I, too, have been very
ose to despair" he made gentle an
yer, land, perhaps, with far less
JASON than you have. | have known
Fspai4' for my own sins rather than
sins of others. You have sinned,
so doubtless, but you have been
nned against as we'll"
For a moment the woman looked as
|aougl she would kill him. Then, sud
+nly, she laid her weary head down
b the rail, and he could feel, rather
an see, that she was sobbing. Pres
billy he stepped little nearer, and,
.fecting to be deeply interested in
he tossing water, spoke to her again,
very low tone.
Don't give way here-and now he
|xhorted, tenderly. "Others are
|atching us: you don't want to at
Fact attention. Bear up little long
:; YOU have been silent so long, !
n sure. Let them think you are Ill
| it is only natural. Steward" to the
ne iacketed functionary of the lower
EEK, "some hot beef-tea for this lady,
Immediately
''Let me give You my arm to the up
Ter deck" he suggested, when, the
|eef-tea having been absorbed in a
|leltered corner, the task of screen
he her from the inquisitive glances
II casual deck-strollers became Il
little difficult And there ON the up
er deck-which was altogether too
Exposed and too windy TO be anything
hut deserted-the yellow-haired wom-
In related her story. She was moved
hereto partly by the knowledge of
lis cloth and his fatherly manner,
|artly because she looked through the
clergyman, and saw that he was a
an and a gentleman as well; more
nan all, perhaps. because she had
|aached the point where she could no
bnger contain the guiltburdened mis-
Try from which a womanly listener
hight have shrunk with repellant dis
lust.
| 1t was pitiful story, more pitiful,
wen, than the teller of it realized. A
|esolate child, fatherless, motherless,
he had never known a real home or
Election. Tossed and buffeted from
Inc unwilling, unloving relative to an
.ther, she had fouted them all, at
=, to fall in love with "a man many
ears her senior, and who had never
.orne a good name. She had gone
through the preliminary punishment
f the lost in order to be true to him,
4 his absence. When, year after he
|ad hidden her good-by until 81 can
ome back and marry YOU" he had
ent her money and directions tC
ross the ocean and become his wife
b Liverpool. she had sacrificed her all,
eeming it no sacrifice, but joyous
privilege, 70 obey him. Two years
ater, infiamed with the fire of a new
'assion, he had offered her a goodly
UNI of money to sign an agreement
Protecting him from any future de-
hands or embarrassments, and leav-
ng him free to marry the woman of
is later choice AS he had promised
marry her.
Stung to the quick of the sensitive
allure which had lately known love for
he first time, all but maddened, des-
erate. she had left him-but without
aking the money. Now, another year
ater, she was using the proceeds of
2 months of hard work and semi-dis-
ipation to go back to America. The
low passing of the long 14-days' voy-
ge, desirable for financial reasons,