The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-09-20

Joe Miller start. An angry light came
into his eyes.
Mother" he said slowly, will be
back soon. She had to go out
There was a long pause. The doctors
slipped out. Both nurses suddenly re-
membered that they had left some
thing in the adjoining room.
Did-did-did muvver dance with
the-Kiug?"
Il don't know and don't care!"
Even before this sick bed the man
was not quite master of his anger. He
had begged his wife not TO go to court.
In fit of temper, not an uncommon
occurrence between herself and the
man she had married almost solely for
his money, she went by herself to join
other friends at the palace. She had
been gone ten minutes when the child
had serious RELAPSE.
The fevered mind wandered. The
cause of Joe Miller's anger, and even
the anger itself, made no impression
upon this overweight brain of years
old
He was now with his toys. his only
playmates, for the Millers had but one
child. He wanted his rocking horse.
With imperious gesture Joe Miller
demanded that it be brought. Only the
earnest entreaty of the doctors pre-
vented him from bringing it himself.
"Fardie!"
to consciousness.
In an instant Joe Miller was at the
cot and held in his arms the one thing
in 10 Id III
neck and smooth, burning skin nestled
against his rough face.
Listen. fardie!''
1t was the confidential whisper. al
most into his ear, which comes so nat
urally between children and those they
love. The doctors and nurses were
standing near, anxiously waiting to re-
claim their patient.
You mustn't forget, fardie"-the lit
tie voice was quite weak-"buy me
that-that motor car-you promised
you remember-don't you, fardie-then
me be welly good boy-and get quite
we'll"
With that the nurses took him and
the delirium returned. Joe Miller kiss
ed the boy and went back to the study.
He threw open the window. The inn
passe of traffic had more or less dis
appeared, but the fog had thickened.
1t faced him like a gelatinous wall.
built up from the ground flush with
the house, Opaque, shutting out the
world, yet sensitively reflective.
AS figures creep out under the influ-
ence of chemicals from the white blur
of a Photographic plate in course of
developing, so there slowly developed
in this fogscape, with the window for
a frame, shadowy figures not hard for
Joe Miller to recognize. memories bit
ter for him to recall. He shut the win
dow. hastily
An overweight brain, nervous ten
sicl and the cry of a child had I'M
manned him. 1t was absurd. Half in
consistently, half in bravado. he re-
opened the window. And again his
thoughts and memories silhouetted
themselves in the fog.
A boy is dancing with a girl in the
reckless abandon BETTING a dancing
resort in the Barbary Coast of San
Francisco The eyes and mouth of the
girl tell their own tale: the boy is
handsome, too.
1t is no picture of youth and inno-
cence; the surroundings forbid any
such illusion. Yet neither the girl nor
the boy is half so bad as the COMPANY
they keep.
The film in the fog changes. The Pa
cific Ocean now beats up against a
rough shore. Near by an old mission.
half hidden with tall palm and cacti.
the same boy and girl are walking.
The girl is saying: Il never thought
you cared enough to come all this way
to see me. Oh Joel I've cared foY
a lot of men, but never, never like
cared for YOU
The boy smiles with conscious pleas
ure and conceit. He kisses the lips
put up so longingly to his.
Joe Miller watching all this picture in
the fog. groans.
The film changes again. Once more
the scene is San Francisco. This time
at night in a deserted side street. The
same boy and girl are talking earnest
ly. In her arms the girl carries a small
bundle.
"Joe," she says, I've had him chris
tened Joaquin, after you. Don't be
angry, Joe. I'm not a good woman
but it does break my heart to leave
! it on a stoop.
With blunt frankness the boy tells
her he cannot marry her. They are
both almost penniless. It's best foI
the child to be left as the founding
of people who can care for it. She had
agreed to that before: why all this
fuss now? She herself had said that
she would not be fit mother to any
child.
The girl steals forward to the porch
of large house. For minutes, which
evidently seem hours to the boy, the
bundle is pressed convulsively 10 heI
breast. She puts it down in a safe
corner and silently rejoins the boy il
the shadow of another house.
The faint cry of a child feeling for its
mother is heard above the steady croak-
ing of the frogs. The girl mother
starts to go back. With almost a
rough movement the boy pulls hel
away He leads her. now a woman
numbered, to their former haunts.
You and t. he says, cannot at
ford to be bothered with children"
San Francisco. the girl and her bun
die vanish from the fogscape as eff
fectually as during all these thirty
intervening years they have disappear
ed from Joe Millers life and recol-
lection. There only remain these
words:
4