The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1902-05-01
Hou Jim mi
Found q Prize
By EDWARD B. CLARK.

n 4
always calls him Japhet, in mem
ory of the old hero of Marryat's old
but ever new story of the boy who
went looking for his father. The lit
tie fellow was baptized James and he
was his mothers hearts joy. AS he
was but five years old, Jimmie" went
better than James," and goes bet
ter to-day, because he is less than 12
months to the better in point of years
than when he was five.
Jimmie's father had been dead for
three years. Jimmie didn't remember
him and Jimmie's mother felt no par
ticular sorrow over the fact. Seven
or eight years ago Ellen Deane had
thought there was no one from pole
TO pole and around again like Edward
Talbot. She subsequently became Mrs.
Edward Talbot and then she found that
her idol was not made out of clay, but
out of the veriest mud. Clay is clean.
Talbot wasn't. When he died, after
they had been married three years, she
wore her widows weeds dutifully, but
they didn't cover streaming eyes, nor
an aching heart, but that wasn't Ellen's
fault. There are some men who by
their actions can kill love, and when
Sardou wrote Daniel Rochat," he
knew what he was writing about, crit
les to the contrary Notwithstanding.
Perhaps it was with something like
a sigh that Ellen Talbot thought of
the old days and wondered why it was
that girls didn't always choose right.
There had been another who wanted
her, and whom she knew was worthy
But she had said no.
Things were going hard in the Tai
bot household. Ellen's little money
had dwindled away to nothing. She and
little Jimmie lived in two rooms, and it
didn't need the keen eye of district
visitor to tell that Poverty was guest
and that Perjury had his hand raised
TO rap at the door. Jimmie was old
enough to notice that his mother did
not eat as much as formerly. 1t was
with a smiling-a very smiling-state-
rment that she wasn't hungry that she
transferred things from her own plate
to Jimmie's. Jimmie knew that his
mother had something the matter with
her arm and wasn't working as she
used to. He also knew that the man in
the gray clothes who carried a bag
around and handed letters to people
never brought anything to their door.
He had asked one of the boys down
stairs one day who sent these things
that the man brought around, and was
told that it was grandfathers, grand
mothers, aunts and uncles. Jimmie
had never heard of this kind of people.
and had he been little older and a
little wiser, he would have known that
his mother never wrote any letters,
and for that very reason did not get
any herself.
One day Jimmie found his mother
crying. She gathered him up in her
arms and kissed him. She was look
Ing very white and ill. Just before
this Jimmie had heard a man talk
Ing at the door who had said some
thing about must have his money"
aud somehow he traced a connection
between his mothers tears and the
Rruff tone at the door.
Mamma" he said, sis money the
same thing as a prize?"
sometimes, my dear" she replied.
SWELL" said Jimmie, ''you want
money and I'll get it for you, be-
cause the boys downstairs told me
how to get a prize"
She kissed him tenderly and let
him slip out the door to play with
the tots below in the area, without
paying much heed to his prattle
about prizes and money. Jimmie
reached the killed and pinafored
gathering below, and, addressing one
member, said: Freddy, how many
do you have to see before you find
a prize?'
''Ten," replied Freddy, "and you
got to cross your finger each time
you see one"
''All right" said Jimmie, and with
Shat he toddled out through the arch
way into the street bent on finding
&sn white horses, after seeing the