The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1902-02-04
BETWEEN THIEVES.
by JOHN H. RAFTERY.

Hdpplly, Dflel career OF lOnl 4NlleS. MotnerS
OF growing sons were glad that he had for
men who had known his stepfather before
agreed that Toms disagreeable conduct had
driven his mothers young husband to de-
| spondency and drink.
| Preachers, Sunday school teachers and
solicitous parents pointed to the vanished
| BLACKBOARD as a horrible example of tilial
ingratitude and youthful depravity. They
condoned the ''misfortunes" of the mothers
| second husband, his wastefulness OF her es-
| tate, his idleness, his perennial state of be-
sotted self-pity, and laid it all at the door
of the absent stepson.
tom Niles druv him to 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, pinchng poverty
and unspoken yearning for her absent son,
the women said that it was Toms disgrace
and desertion that had brought her gray
hairs in sorrow to the grave. Nobody knew
just what she really thought of Toms treat
ment of herself. They knew that she would
not tolerate abuse of him, and so his name
was never mentioned in her presence. If she
regretted having given her boy stepfather
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 stepfathsr, and, second, to get away
from the warrant 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, everybody in Hills
boro went to the funeral and everybody
pited and tried to comfort "pore Hiram
| Baxter" the widower, who appeared very
drunk, wept copiously upon the coffin and
insisted that as soon as things was tended
to he would drown hisself to death in Bran
BILE creek"
As matter Of fact, Silas Hepburn, who
combined the Office of sheriff with the bust
ness of selling furniture and the doleful
duties of undertaken, " tended to things
in such 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 before Hiram Baxter
"cut him out, /" and so they all admitted that
he had done hissef proud in the funeral
arrangements, 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 eX-
ceeded the wishes or the means of the BaX-
ters and they saw in it all Silas last gen
erous tribute to the woman he had twice
L., So.
undertakers say, and Silas was so interested
in completing his task that when the grave
was filled and banked with the frozen clay
when the flowers and wreaths were all
spread upon it and duly watered by the
lachrymose widower, when the last carriage
and buggy had creaked away over the snow
busted HILL he stayed behind in the fading
light to stake off the lot and measure the
space for tombstone
While he was standing there a slouching,
shambling stranger came along and stood
by the blossom covered mound opposite
Silas
rs this the grave?" asked the tramp.
What grave?" growled the undertaken.
Her grave; whose do you suppose! Don't
you know me-"
THAT you, Tom? Shore, now, is it you?"
Poor Silas measured the thin, tattered fig
ure before him, saw the pinched, blue fea-
lures that peered from the bearded face,
thought of the warrant, recognized his man
and sat down on a stone coping near by.
"Tom, why'd you come back? don't
want to run you in, exactly, but by jing. y
"You mean why didn't come back, said
the tramp, ignoring the voice of the law;
why didn't come back and square myself
before it came to this?" and he pointed help.
lessly at the grave.
well, then, why didn't your"
Il didn't know she was sick, Silas. l
knew you were looking for me, but any
way"
anyway what?"
81 never could stand for that sneak Bax-
ter, Silas. He's worse than l ever was He
stole those bonds from the bank when he
was chief clerk"
ooh, rats!" growled Silas, standing up.
"Ef he stoled 'em, how in hi was it you
sold emf
well, | stole them from him. l.
SIS that honest, Tom? Standing here by
her grave, is it?"
The honest truth, Silas."
They We're silent for five minutes, Tom
kicking his ill-clad feet to keep them warm
and Hepburn staring at the red after gov
in the west
Then the sheriff came over with his big
hand ungloved and said:
Lets shake hands, Tom. l got to &C
home now
eff you'll wait for me just over the hill. .
said Tom, shaking the warm, strong hani
III he along in minute. suppose you've
got to arrest me, and, mind, l don't blame
You. Only just want minute here by ny
, self"
ARREST nothin'!" grinned Silas "I'm a
undertaken to-day. Tomorrow III be sheriff
agin-maybe."
He walked up the hill with his hands be
hind him, and, pausng at the crest, loo led
back for moment. Down in the gray lnl
low where the grave lay he saw Tom yet
standing, watching him.
, Wonder eff the pore devil is a-goin' t
pary?" he thought, as he strobe away ever
the shoulder of the bleak hill-Chicago Rec
, ord Herald.
She Was Angry.
Now, the lady who had addressed the c,ul
on the preceding day came into the otSct