The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1906-09-27
The EMPTY.
PREAMBULATOR

The uteer desolation of it all!
Emily Brentford sat before an I'M
tidy hearth staring at the ashes as
they fell from the CRATE.
why couldn't be let keep
him?" she moaned; she was just
everything to me-"
There was the pity of it. Her
child, the only one, had absorbed
all the love of her heart. 1t was
pitiful and human: the child that
should have been the link between
them kept them further apart each
day And death had refused to
spare it.
The day had been hard in the
mill. Jim Brentford looked at his
unlighted house, and his heart
sank within him.
Jim fitted his key into the latch.
LASS, are you there? he called
out. "Eh, but I'm tired"
There was no answewr, and he
stumbled along the unlighted pas
sage. Jim had caught the habit
lately of calling in at the Red
Lion on his wav home, and his
steps were not steady.
He knocked against child's per-
ambulator and with something like
an oath he sent it spinning towards
the kitchen door. Emily, with her
hair disheveled and her eyes red
with weeping, faced him, already
ashamed of his impotence.
I'm clumsy brute" he said.
Here, let me put this back"
She snatched the handle out Of
his hand and wheeled it to its ac-
customed place.
Don't touch it," said she to him.
at doesn't mean anything to you.
They looked at each other-the
mans eyes were sad. Love had
been with them such little time
ago.
There was just moment OF
silence, and then the little house
was shaken by the banging Of the
|
gone searching for forgetfulness
at the Red Lion.
! Six months had passed away,
and in the Brentford household
things had gone from bad to worse.
| 1t was July. On the moor above
Bartheldy the hyacinths carpeted
the turf-sweet blue flowers Of
hope. Emily had not found her
way to the moor this year. She
had gathered the hyacinths for 1T
tie chubby hands to hold once;
now her own arms were as empty
as her heart. The woman next
door came in sometimes to cheer
her up and to get her help with
her own sewing.
you've heard about Alice" she
said
"No, I haven't" said Emily.
whats got herr"
'"The river got her" said Mrs.
Lester tersely. "Her husband
went off with a lass from t'other
side O. the moor-and you know
what a silly Alice was over him.
Praise the Lord for a good hus-
band, I says; one as brings you his
wages regular. They found her
down by the mill pond, and the
inquests tomorrow-and what's to
| - Ii W
knows"
She gathered her sewing into a
bundle and Emily stood watching
her. A cotton reel had fallen to
the floor and she picked it up.
"Where did you say Alice's baby
was?" she said.
"At her mothers. There's enough
children in that house; they don't
want i'm there, poor little mite"
They weer working late at the
mill this week. Jim Brentford did
not find his way home until nearly
6 o'clock. Some one was singing
in the kitchen. There was a
laugh and an inarticulate murmur
ing Jim walked on tiptoe to the
door.
He looked in wcnderment at the
Transformation cf his home. The
kitchen was spotless. And Emily
with her hair brushed until 1t
shone again, walked up and down
the room grooming a baby song to
child in her arms.
She turned and saw him. There
was new light In her eyes.
She's only lent me for the after
noon" she said. "But, Jim, don't
wish she could stay!"
A mans lonely beart went out
to meet hers. Jim gathered his
wife and the tiny growing burden
of humanity in his arms
"Where did she come from?" he
said. "And why shouldn't she