The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-01-22

4
Nobody in Hillsboro could find any nit
igating circumstances in the rascally and,
happily, brief career of Tom Niles. Moth
ers OF growing sons were glad that he had
forever disappeared from the village.
Good men who had known his step
father before that hapless man had mar
RED Mrs. Niles agreed that Tom disa-
greeable conduct had driven his mother 5
young husband TO dependency and drink.
Preachers. Sunday school teachers and
soiicitous parents pointed TO the van
pushed blackguard as a horrible ex-
ample Of fIial ingratitude and youthful
depravity. They condoned the -'misfor-
! tunes" of the mothers second husband,
his wastefuiness OF her estate, his idle
ness, his perennial state Of besotted self
| pity, and laid 1t all at the door OF the
absent stepSon.
| Tom Niles druv him 10 drink" they
| would say; or Hiram Baxter never held
his head up sence Tom Niles was mixed
up in that bank robbery
When Mrs. Baxter. Toms mother. came
TO deaths door after six years of uncom-
planning disappointment. pinching po.erty
| and unspoken yearning for her absen.
son, the women said that it was Tom s
| disgrace and desertion that had brought
her gray hairs in sorrow 70 the grove.
! Nobody knew just what she really
thought of Toms treatment of herself
| They knew that she would no. tolerate
/ abuse of him. and so his name was never
! mentioned in her presence. II she re-
| GREETED having given her boy a step
/ father almost as young as himself, she
/ never said SO. If she yet believed that
under better conditions Tom might have
/ grown into goodly manhood, she made no
/ sign. 1t was too late. The boy had run
away, first TO escape the holier-than-thou
| tyranny of his model step-father, and,
- 81 .
which charged him with completely in
| robbing the village bank. In the old days.
| just after the wedding, his mother had
sided with Mr.. Baxter against Tom and
then
But it doesn't matter what she might
have done If Tom came back, for he
didn't come back Mrs. Baxter died, ev-
erybody in Hillsboro went to the fu-
| neral and everybody pitied and tried TO
comfort pore Hiram Baxter" the Wild
over, who appeared very drunk, wept
copiously upon the coffin and insisted
that as soon as things was tended to
he would drown hisself 10 death in Bran
bic Creek
AS a matter of fact, Silas Hepburn, who
combined the office OF sheriff with the
business of selling furniture and the
doleful duties OF undertaken, TENDED to
things" in such a mastery manner that
! everybody had a word of praise for him.
Most of the old women knew that Silas,
in his rude, old-fashioned way, had wooed
the fair Widow Niles in the old days be-
fore Hiram Baxter cut him out" and
so they all admitted that he had done
hisself proud IN the funeral arrange
ments, in the somber appurtenances for
coffin and tomb, IN his own decorous sad
ness of voice and bearing. They knew
that the cost of so much dreary panoply
far exceeded the wishes or the means of
the Bakers, and they saw in it all Silas'
last generous tribute TO the woman he
had twice lost. So it was a very nice
funeral" as the undertakers say, and
Silas was so interested in completing his
task that when tina grave was filed and
banked with the frozen clay, when the
flowers and wreaths were all spread up
on ii and duly watered by the lachry-
hose widower. when the last carriage
and buggy had creaked away over the
snow-dusted hill, he stayed behind in the
fading light to stake off the lot and
measure the space for tombstone.
While he was standing there siouch-
ing, stumbling stranger came along and
stood by the blossom covered mound OPP
posite Silas
rs this the grave7" asked the tramp.
What graye?" growied the undertaken.
Her grave; whose do you suppose?
Don't you know me?'
THAT you, Tom? Shore now, is it
your Poor Silas measured the thin. tat
tered figure before him, saw the pinched,
blue features that peered from the beard
ed face, thought of the warrant, recog-
nized his man and sat down on a stone
coping near by.
Tom. why'd you come back? I don't
want to run you in exactly. but by
jung
You mean why didn't 1 come back"
cold he -
law, why didn't l come back and
square myself before it came TO this?'
and he pointed heiplessly at the grave
We'll, then, why didn't you2'
4 didn't know she was sick, Silas.
knew you were looking for me, but any
way"
Anyway what?"
Baxter, Silas. He's worse than I ever
was. He stole those bonds from the
bank when he was chief clerk"
"Oh, rats" growled Silas, standing UP.
Eff he stoled EN-, how in hi was 1t you
sold emp"
well I stole them from him. L"
Is that honest. Tom? Standing here
by her grave, is it?'
The honest truth, Silas."
They were silent for FIVE minutes. Tom
kicking his ill-clad feet to keep them
warm and Hepburn staring at the red af-
terglow in the West.
Then the sheriff came over with his big
hand ungloved and said:
Let's shake hands. Tom. I got to go
home now
If you'll wait for me Just over the |
hill, said Tom, shaking the warm, strong
hand, IN be along in a minute. sup
pose you've got to arrest me. and mind /
L don't blame you. Only just want q /
minute here by myself"
Arrest nothin'" grinned Silas. I'm a |
undertaken today. Tomorrow I'll be /
sheriff agin-maybe.''
He walked up the hill with his hands /
behind him and pausing at the crest
looked back for a moment. Down in the 4
gray hollow where the grave lay he saw
Tom yet standing. watching him.
Wonder eff the pore devil is a-goin' Z
pray?' he thought, as he strobe away |
over the shoulder of the bleak hill
John II. Raftery.
'Lese Majestic"
" ~