The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1903-09-12
MOURNFULLY LATE.

Wnen Judge G1lrOy, his only son; re-
ceived the telegram, he could do moth
ing but go up to the farm for his
funeral. It was difficult to do even
that, for the Judge was the leading
lawyer In --, and every hour was
worth many dollars to him.
AS he sat with bent head in the
grimy little train which numbered
through the farms, he could not keep
the details of his cases out Of his mind.
He had been a good respectful son.
He had never given his father heart
ache; and the old man died full of
years and virtues, "a shock Of corn
fully ripe" The phrase pleased him.
II wish to tell you," said the doctor,
gravely, that your fathers thoughts
were all of you. He was i'll but an
hour, but his cry was for John! John!'
INCREASINGLY.
IF could have been with him!" said
the Judge.
"He was greatly disappointed that
you missed your half yearly visit last
spring. Your visits were the events Of
his life" said the doctor.
Last spring? Oh, yes; took my
family then to California;
Il urged him to run down and see
CO."
mo, he never felt at home in the
city"
The Judge remembered that he had
not asked his father to come down.
Ted was ashamed Of his grandfather's
wide collars; and Jessie, who was
fine musician, scowled when she was
asked to sing the Portuguese Hymn"
every night. The Judge humored his
children, and had ceased to ask his
father to the house.
The farmhouse was in order and
scrupulously clean; but its baroness
gave chill to the Judge, whose own
home was luxurious. The deaf old
woman who had been his fathers SER
want sat grim and fearless by the side
of the coffin.
Martha was faithful" whispered the
doctor, "she- she's deaf. His life was
very solitary. The neighbors are
young. He belonged to another gen.
eration.'
He reverently uncovered the coffin.
and then with Martha went out and
closed the door. The Judge was alone
with his dead.
Strange enough, his thought was still
on the cold baroness Of the room.
Those hacked wooden chairs were there
when he was a boy. It would have
so easy for him to have made the
house comfortable-to have hung some
pictures on the wall! How his father
ho 1a1Sr nh ~, L.
poured over them!
Looking now into the kind old face.
with the white hair lying motionless
on it, he found something in it which
he had never taken time to notice be-
fore-a sagacity, nature fine and sem
sitive. He was the friend, the COM
rade, whom he had needed 50 often.
He had left him with deaf old Martha
for his sole co1npanion!
There hung upon the wall the photo-
graph Of a young man with an eager.
strong face, looking proudly at a
chubby boy on his knee. The judge
saw the strength in the face.
my father should have PLAYED q
high part in. lfe," he thought. .'There
is more promise in his face than in
NINE" -
In the desk was bundle of old ac-
count books with records Of years of
hard drudgery on the farm; of work
in winter and summer and often late
at night, to pay Johns school bills, and
to send him to Harvard. One patch
Of ground after another was sold while
he waited for practice, to give him
clothes and luxuries which other young
men in town had, until but a meager
portion Of the farm was left.
John Gilroy suddenly closed the
book. And this is the end!" he said.
"The boy for whom he lived and
worked, won fortune and position-and
how did he repay hina?'' ="
The man knelt on the bare floor and
shed bitter ~tearsaon the quiet old face.
20 father! father!'',, he cried Il But
there 81 was no smile on the quiet face.
FieS$Was too; Yout III s, Comp nipn,
$3.50 sec llres 81