Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1907-08-16
" FRANK BARRETT

firm of solicitors in London. When ]
heard from .hem that the girl You had
found was the child / had tried to muir,
der, l lost my head, and Peter Beamisf
coming to me at that very moment fol
money, and with his usual threats oil
exposure, / defied him to produce thu
girl, and SO like a fool put him on tbs
scent. He had told me that the child wa
a stout, healthy wench in service. / e1.
pected to find her vulgar, coarse and ro'
bust. YOU can imagine the shock when
| heard the truth, and found the sweet,
frail little thing, whose wasted life ]
lad to answar for. Heaven knows, ! die
not mean to bury her alive. You ash
Why l tried TO kill the child. / have
brought you here to tell. Not that ]
may excuse myself, but that it may lessen
10. child's shame when the truth ID
known. I married in direct defiance to
my fathers wish. He disinherited me.
l. a ~spendthrift, a ne'er-do-well, who had
never occupied myself with one serious
consideration, found myself unable To
earn a living. My wife died. Ethel wa
sick. My last guinea was paid for the
advice of a physician. He declared that
Ethel could lie saved by being taken to
Madeira for a time, but could never live
through the winter in this climate. AT
that juncture my father died, leaving
everything to an adopted inf MT, for he,
like me, was a friendiess, uniovabie man.
BY a strange coincidence the adopted
child was wsak--not expected to outlive
childhood. My father knew this, and left
Lis fortune to her with a reversion to me,
simply as a means Of prolonging my pun.
- fN.EN 49, 1~~-.p A~l
row this question was presented to me
when I might FAVE her life by destroying
the child who wal<not expected to live
I did not hesitate. an instant. Ny child
was everything to me, the other was moth
ing to anybody. I stole the child, and
SIS I believed took her life away with
an opiate. believed that she was dead
when I gave her into the hands of Better
Beamish. May heaven deny me mercy II
this ID untrue" He paused. and then.
in a softened tone, he said Il do not
wish to exonerate myself. Time will
show that / have paid the penalty for
the woe I brought upon poor unhappy
Psyche"
He did not return to the Chase. Ethel
tried to believe that her father was Sc
curing relief from physical su6erings
abroad. A month passed, and we heard
no tidings of him. One day my grand
father came to me with a scared look
on his face. Sonny" he said, in the
hectoring tone he had learned from his
father you've got to come along of me.
You've got to put on your hat and ask
no questions, but just hear what I've got
to give you as we goes along9S
/ put on, my hat and went with him.
We turned in the direction Of the Half
way House
II don't see much good in reforming"
he began, az we trudged along. Seems
to me if you go a bit out o. your right
course at the first start, not all the
tracts or total disseminating in life amt
going to put ysu straight again."
whats the mattery- / asked.
You speak when you're spoke to and
not before, sonny, or you'll 60 wrong like
the rest OF the family
Having walked on some distance to let
this warning sink, he recommended.
II don't see what's the use on it.
Here's father been out on the loose over
month and never come anigh me,
You've got to 60 down in that cave again,
sonny.
I stopped short, chilled to the heart
at the very thought Of revisiting the scene
Of my poor Psyche's captivity.
"Come on-you've got to co." he said.
doggedly. ..I'd 60 myself If I'd got the
strength, and it ain't the fear OF not
comm up agen stops me, neither. I'd
know what's the good of an old fellow
like me Arranging on in this world"
"Who is-down thero?" asked, the
truth flashing upon me.
Hes down there-SJr Henry Dun7
can
"How long has he been there"
IA month, sonny. He came to me and
told me I should lave the old cottage
as long as / lived il l served him as I
served the young 'un. And SEEM it was
kinder right and pious he should do by
hisself as others had bean lone by
through him, I agreed to it. Day by day,
I've whistled to him, we'll, as near az I
could like l whistled to her; but there
he .emptied the basket all right; but with
never a sound, till it come yesterday,
and all day long ! was a-calling him and
morning the victuals is in the basket just
~ l AcAC GIL. ~ yOu w 8VI - 10 UOWu,
sonny, and see what's amiss."
I went down sick with apprehension
and the dull pain of awakened uneasi-
ness. Once more l 1T q candle and o
ed along the passage. into che 4hadowy
cave. l found him stretched and dead
Psyche's bed, with che evidence Of
Psyche's life about him. In The alcoyS
over his head hung strips Of the cololsd
rags she had hung there Tor ornament:
in the wall the scroll she cutI in the
sand 4 print Of her little foot What
place, what means, could he have found
more fitting for his terrible expiaeion.
The clouds have lifted: the sun shines
now. Ethel Is my wife, and when I
hold her hand in mine I feel that I pos
sess all the happiness heaven can give.
Last night we fingered long in the gar
den after the afterglow faded away the
heavens filed with stars, and we watch
them in silent happiness.
flush mnrmured Ethel, stopping.
did You hear it,"
A faint sound fa7 away rose and fell,
and ~ died away imperceptibly.
There it is again" she Whispered
low. rs the first nightingale.
II sounded to my ear like the lose
voice Of Psyche singing Of the new hap
piness Of a new world.
(The Tnd.)
sOmethinE. Fine.
.say. Weary, wot's ccn&asnp' ef