The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1906-10-12


said no more.
At last the winter of 1901 was upon
them. There had been little change in
the family or the father. True. the
world said: Hatch is drinking again,
what a pity?" Is there a minister or
layman in the city of his adoption
who can say, Il endeavored to save
him." Not one Still he lived under
the sound Of a minister's voice, and
could, from his own door, hear him,
from Sabbath to Sabbath, expound the
Word of God to his hearers, and with
out adding dessert or side dishes in the
form Of pastoral visitation, or kindly
interest through the week, gave them
until the next Sabbath to digest his
thoughts, or lay them on their souls
until they created moral dyspepsia.
One week ago today we saw our
neighbor as he passed our window, with
a plane and rule under his arm as he
went home to dinner. The wind blew
and howled; snow fell as though emp
tied by the basketful, instead of the
sleepy, lazy way it usually comes
down.
The children were all at home. There
was no pleasant converse at the table,
for these days the father was surly
and i'll natured Those little serpents
he drank into his stomach had ascend
ed to the brain and their writhing
made him irritable Today, as he
arose from the table, some strange ten
derness stole into his breast, for as he
passed the chair of his youngest child
he stopped and kissed her. This I'M
usual tenderness on his part embold-
ened her to say:
Father, want a geography"
The strong coffee was having a
counteracting effect; he was SOLDERING.
The son said, as he mufled himself to
go out in the raging elements;
where are you working today?"
Il have to go away up in the upper
part of town, to lCok after some men
| have on job up there"
Mrs. Hatch, so pleased to see him
once more himself, brought his big
fur mittens, then the scarf the girls
had made for his New Years gift She
wrapped this with tender hands around
his neck, and said:
please remember tea and sugar
WREN you come home tonight"
Eyes, tea, sugar and geography"
At one o'clock he went from home
leaving the inmates with a glad new
hope in their hearts
At three o'clock we looked from cur
window and saw a crowd of men bear
ing a heavy burden slowly and sol
emily along They stopped at our
neighbours door Clang went the door
bell We could plainly see our neigh
boris wife at a side window busily en-
gagged running her sewing machine.
Again the door bell is pulled vigorous
ly. This time she hears, steps to the
the glass, smoothes her hair, takes off
her house-apron, and hastens to the
door, She steps back when she sees
the crowd-steps farther back and
grasps the doorknob, when they push
forward with their burden. AS length
she gasps:
Gentlemen, you have made mis-
take. This is the wrong house"
Doesn't William Hatch live here?'
eyes. Who is it? What is it?"
They slowly raised the cover thai
concealed the form, and there was hel
husband-dead!
Did she faint? No; she grew strange.
ly white from lip to brow; not a teal
or sob. Passing her hand across hel
eyes, she asked:
"Where am L? Who killed him"
Has the romance of life faded out a.
fifty? No; here was the man she haC
loved and welded when a young mai
den, loved through all these bitter
years of trial, dead!-he who had lef
her only few hours before in seeming
good health. She remembered ever
then the little commonplace errand'
he was to do for the household. Could
he never attend to those things again
They laid him down. The children
came in from school, and were wilC
in their fright and grief. Then amid
this great sorrow the mothers love
asserted itself. She tried to comfor
her children.
How did it happen? Some little chill
dren, sliding their way down from
school, discovered near the abutment
of the old canal bridge, the dead bod!
Of man almost covered with snow
The alarm was given. People seem t.
spring from the very ground at sucl
times, and in few moments a won
dering, gaping crowd was looking on
At last some one identified him. HI
had walked off the old bridge, goinj
head foremost down upon the ice. From
appearances, he had struggled ava,
from the place where he first fell. ant
then. exhausted had laid down AM