The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1905-06-13

lllH2
II don't remember" said the dream.
er, considering little. ''that he ever
did"
tits worth doing, is it notY'
Y should say it was. Listen to the
little chaps
/ 1T seems to please you"
ut dees.''
why asked the cloaked anuAv,
did old Dexter never indulge in a
! pleasure so cheaply purchasedw
''Now yer mention it." replied the
dreamer, 81 suppose it is because lie
never thought of it,
''Not young man, this Dexter?'
s'Not at ALL"
SLOW old, should you sayY
ssOh. know, having. lived with I'm.
so long. He's fifty-fve."
"Fifty-fve! And never thought of
4 doing charitable action"
Perhaps he didn't have time" plead
| ed the dreamer.
"Not in all those ffty-fve years? a
large family Of his own to occupy him,
perhaps?"
sNo,o said the dreamer, with some-
thing like sigh, "he has no family"
mo wife,"
mo. Here, I sayw cried the dream
err, excitedly, as the phantom Of Polly
Cleaver glided past what are you
doing here? ! thought you was dead"
ITO whom are you speaking?"
seTo one who was my wife for about
month. There she is-no. she's
gonew
dead to you?"
dead to every one, SO far as I
know"
"And left no child behind herr"
"None that ever heard Of"
$50 you stand alone, without one hui
man link of love to bind you to the
world, without sympathy, without
charity without a spark of kind feel
ing for the suffering and helpless.
Farewell"
In the utterance of this word the
children and the birds faded from his
sight, and the dreamer found himself
alone with the figure in the gray cloak,
which was slowly moving away.
"But say, old boyv' cried the dream
er, you are rather hard on old Dex-
ter. He isn't at all bad sort of fell
low. Upon my soul, he isn't"
He caught hold of the cloak, which
fell from the figure, and the dreamer
saw before him the form Of man
shaped in ice, and on the region Of the
heart were inscribed the words, "Old
Dexter's Charity"
The dreamer laid his hand upon the
inscription, and shivered as he muir
INJURED:
precious cold, upon my soul!"
Then everything vanished and Thorn
as Dexter enjoyed dreanless sleep Of
several hours.
He was aroused to consciousness by
postman's knock at the street door.
He jumped out of bed and shufaed
into his shop. where he saw the letter
drop through a slit.
On the floor there were two or three
other letters and three copies Of daily
newspaper. which the postnan polxed
every morning under the door.
He gathered the newspapers and
looked at the dates.
why" he muttered in wonder, 1--WE
been asleep for three days and nights.
I've been i'll, suppose. I feel better
now, but still bit shaky. What's
that noise?'
1t was noise of voices in the street,
followed by cracking at the door,
which betokened that people were try
ing to force an entrance.
Hold hard!' he cried what do
yer want?"
In response he heard voices excIaim-
ing:
ats old Dexter's voicev'
at amt; it's his ghostsr'
"Its somebody robbing the placer
"Break it in, policeman; break it in!'
To avert the destruction Thomas
Dexter hastily unlocked the door and
threw it open.
And there he Stood clad only in his
shirt, confronting quite a number Of
persons. most of them neighbors. who,
alarmed at the shutters being up and
at Dexter not making his appearance
for three days, had prevailed upon the
policeman to effect an entrance into
the shop.
All of them fell back at his appear
ance, and few ran away as fast as
if Old Nick himself were at their heels,
and when they were at safe distance
spread report that Dexter was dead
and his ghost was coming that way.
Those who remained were soon con-
WINGED that Thomas Dexter was alive
by the abuse he hurled at them for
their kindly interest in his behalf.
Go be Continued.)