The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-30

him. He had written for a time-at frs ! nearly every day and letters breathing | with love and loneliness. Then the let
 ters came less often and took on forma l note Then they came only occasionaii! and were perfunctory. Finally they ceased | entirely. They all heard of him occasion l ally back at the home town. He was get | ting on in the world and seemed to be or | the highway to a career. Several rathel choice piums fell to him and the homo | folks talked about him not a little. They | wondered out loud why he did not send | for her or come for her. After time | they took to pityfng her. This froze hel bleeding heart. But the earth had lost iti radiance and its sunshine; life had lost Its joy. The narrow life of the neighborhood became intolerable and the pity of the good
 folks became gall and wormwood. Then the old father died and she felt free to go away and bury her hurt heart, her wound ed pride and her broken life In the great
 world Where or how she cared not. And she had travelled the same old path along which she had swung so happily and hopefully and trustfully with him ten years before. to the edge of the world. An, but how bitter the thoughts, how different from those on that other walk: And the whistle of the locomotive sounded just as 1t did ten years before-and she. too. swung out into the great world to help feed its capacons nav. which demands ever and evey human hearts and hopes and ambi- '''ii' "" ~
 Ten years after the woman walked alone to the edge of the world, a man sat list lessy at a table in a concert hall in the great city toying with the mug of untast- ed beer before him. He heard not the crash and bang of the cheap little orches- tra and saw not the bedzened dancers on the tawdry stage for his eyes were turn ed inward and his were ringing with words and sounds of other days. He was ( hlvlyt yt,o tt tplxt nf failure. of disgrace. of misspent hours and years. of forgotten obligations and broken vows His face bore the evidences of dis sipation and his clothing the mark Of pow erty-not binding> grinding poverty. but shabby, genteel poverty.
 He thought of the hopes and ambitions and resolutions of his youth of his early successes and triumphs. of his first mad dip into the waters of forbidden and soul de- stroying pleasure, of the gradual transfer or his allegiance from the stern and upright God of Duty and Ambition to the frail and seductive Goddess of Pleasure and Folly. of his slipping just little here ana there in the faithfulness of his work and the rigidity of his integrity, of the stop ping of his upward climbing. of his long struggle to stand still and hold what he had attained. of his gradual slipping. slipping on the downward path of his loss of position. his acquiring of another his loss of that and ever and ever landing in poorer anu poorer anu yet pOoftT piaccS until now here he without work, with out money, without friends, without rep utation. his brain scared by dissipation and his hand unsteady to any task Failure, failure was the word which glow ed with electric brilliancy before his vis- ion and from the shadows all about pro- jected the horrid heads of the reptiles he had crushed out of sight all the years Reproaeh. Self accusation. Guilt. Remorse Shame With difficulty he stifled a cry of agony and brought hiwself back into the reality of the present. His eyes. again turned outward rested the stage
 A woman was singing in a cracked voice and dancing to the more less lively bars Of the music. She was painted and pow dered and padded and her scant clothes were tawdry and cheap and not of the freshest or cleanest. And yet there was something about the woman which arrested the mans attention and filled him with the scent of apple blossoms and new mown hay and green fields. He stared hard at her. then grabbed at the printed program which announced Song and Dance by Mile. Mad cline" He laughed harshiy and murmured to himself that he was seeing things" But he stared hard again al the stage and just then the singer made her bow and ran off into the wing.
 In her closing salute she made little gesture which sent the blood back on the mans heart and brought him to his feet. "Mattie" he gasped and hurried to the stage door, where he pushed by the pro testing keeper and fiercely demanded to see Mile. Madeline.
 There were two white faces in Mile. Mad eline's little box of room a moment later and later on there were confessions and self reproaches and long stories of sin and suffering and misery-yes and tears and repentance, which must have made the angels glad After all had been told, Cal win took Mattie's hand and said:
 We have both sinned and suffered and failed. It is my fault but you have had to bear a part of the burden. Youth has gone, but the years yet stretch out before us. Father Is dead and the old farm Is mine. although 1t Is mortgaged to the last
 limit the money-lenders will give. Let us go back and start over. No matter what people say We will live it down together We can never do 1t here in this accursec atmosphere of sin and sordidness"
 And so few days later a man and 6 woman of middle age, poorly clad. wan thin, white-faced. came over the line at the edge of the world and walked hand In hand back down the same board walk. back ur the same dusty road back over the same stile back through the same apple orch ard back across the same little footbridge over the same sparkling creek. back through the same clover and daisies. to tht same old farm house they had walked away from so happily and hopefully two decade: before. Their eyes did not shine with the ! hope and joy and courage of the other
 journey, but In the place of joy there wal content and in tho place of courage there was resolve
 A man might give his wife more spending money If she wouldn't spend so much of it on things for him that