The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-04

came back presently her step was alert and her manner resolute. She set the bucket down on the bottom step and mounted toward him. T wouldn't take the milk without payin' for 1t" she said, the sharp little voice mounting higher with every de- termined word. Sarah Jane ain't no oesgar-an even If 'tain't but a little. you can put 1t away an keen 1t. Maybe it'll come in handy some day" There had been sudden motion of the little bird-claw hand toward the book that was lying open and unread on his knee. and she was gone. When he looked down presently. there on the open page lay copper cent. It had been mere disgusted impulse | to throw 1t away, but he saw where if | fell. in a flower bed. He went out after | while, and sought for it. groping anx- iously among the violets and found 1t. | When he sat down again in the easy | chair the copper cent was in his hand. An old memory tugged and pulled at his heart strings-a memory of a tiny boy who used to take delight In a little bank like house, with copper cents shining through it's specks of windows. How much had he forgotten as the years passed. while this foolish old memory clung to him still
 1 He arose and wandered about the beautiful lawn, and among the flowers, and through the house, from room to room. What a strange thing memory was! He could see his wife coming down | those stairs now, as plainly as he had ever seen her bodily presence: and the boy was everywhere-a childish babbIe | in the nursery--a little lad. bursting in from school-a tall youth, his hand | some face pale. going out of that door with only a "Good-by. fatherr And then the long years.
 When the man was conscious of the present again he found himself look ing mournfully at little copper coin in his hand.
 Willis" he said. awkwardly. a little later, to the astonished cook, i've have | a great deal of milk, believe-more than we really need. Would you mind | taking enough for two-or more, per
 haps-a little more there's the cat down to that cottage at the corner every day. Willis. pleaseT'
 Willis watched him out of the kitch-
 en. and then leaned her fat arms on
 the window sill, and watched him go-
 ing down the street under the arc
 lights.
 Blessed ber was Willis amazed re-
 mark.
 l As the days passed Mir. Lawler sat in
 the great portico every evening. feeling the loneliness of the house enveioping
 him like a cloud. He sat facing the
 little cottage now. He felt sure that
 the child would suddenly start up be- side him some evening when he least expected 1t: but she did not. Then he arose and walked slowly past the cot tage, determined that if he should see her he would ask her to come up and sit
 on the steps; but she was not to be seen. Sometimes he fingered a common little coin in his vest pocket, as though it had been some kind of magic talis- man; and the magic of it was this. that the merest touch of 1t brought back the little lad who had gone out of his life.
 At last one morning, he went out at the gate. and looked down the street to the corner at which he always caught the car; and then turned to go past the row of cottages, which was much the longer way; and as he passed a scream and the wailing of a woman sounded from within. He was there in a mo- ment-through the gate, bursting in at the door. The weeping mother was down on her knees, gathering up the insensible child from the floor where she had fallen. It was MT. Lawler who 1 took the little form away and laid 1t on the bed.
 "oh, ye've come after the rentl" cried the mother wringing her hands. ''Oh don't ye be comin' after the rent. when I'm that distracted, with Katie ailin | all this week, an now took like this-' "Be quiet. woman! Does a man think of nothing but rent?' he said sternly searching with a trembling finger fol
 the pulse in the thin wrist Have yol had a doctor?"
 An how could 1 have a doctor2' l sobbed the woman, 'an' me with nc