The Tucumcari news and Tucumcari times. [volume] (Tucumcari, N.M.) 1907-1921, 1908-05-16

little. He was firmly convinced
that there never was such a child,
but he vas too wise in the wavs OF
the world to say much about il.
He was not demonstrative natural.
ly, and he knew that other folks
might not see the marvellous per.
lection he did. The boy was out.
rageously spoiled, and whenever it
needed a threshing, as all healthy
boys do, he gave it the lamming,
was promptly called a brute by the
feminine chorus, and buried him.
self in a newspaper to hide the tears
he could not keep from rising to
his eyes. And still the dream Of
ohm smith went on, though none
realized it, not even Susan, whose
beauty as a matron seemed to him
incomparably greater thar the
sweet freshness OF girlhood Little
10y little the childish mind OF little
Ohm expanded, and it was the
proudest time OF the fathers life
when he realized that the baby's
mind was at last capable OF reas.
oning out things. He delighted
in taking the little chap 10y himself
when the opportunities OF the daily
grind permitted and giving simple
little problems of life for him to
unravel, planning all the while how
he would travel with him when the
world OF letters began to unfold.
BY easy stages they would go TO.
gether all OF the way from the let.
tered blocks to Shakespeare, touch.
ing Oliver Optic and Robinson
Crusoe ard all OF the rest OF the
immortals on the way. II the lad
was true to the stock, he would he
a yoracious reader, and able to
pick out the gold from the taillngs,
to tell the silk from shoddy, and
through it all build up a deep and
lasting reverence for the master
mind that made all OF it possible.
There was no hurry about it. lust
now there was nothing that could
equal the sight OF the boy as he
slept, or compare with the touches
OF those little arms around his neck,
or music that could equal the sound
OF that little treble in its first clum.
sy attempts at song .... Then one
day there came a cloud IN the sky.
At first II was small and OF little
moment, but day 10y day il grew,
until it covered all the heavens and
settled thickly upon the home OF
John Smith. The rosy glow faded
from the hills at eventide. and there
was no melody in the trill OF the
first spring birds. Death was
something John Smith had not
thought about in connection with
his boy. He knew it came To 9th.
ers, he had often felt deeply sorry
for those that wept, but tina, it
should come in and take his first
born had never entered his head.
He was stunned at first, and each
day while the struggle, that bitter.
ly uneven struggle, was going on,
and the flesh wasting from the
matchless little limbs, the light Of
intelligence fading from the bonny
brown eyes, the father sought to
solve the awful puzzle that has con.
fronted a million other fathers since
the world was new. His lips, un.
accustomed to PRAYER, prayed, but
there was no peace after the amen,
Tor his intelligence told him its use.
lessness, and that OF struggling
against natures supreme will.
There was nothing to do but take
his medicine, and John Smith took
It, Tor the cup would not be passed
by. As the boy died in his arms,
he realized tor the first time what
human misery really is And vet
filling all OF his heart through the
dreary days that came after was
the memory OF the fact that for a
brief time, a few years, there had
been held open before him the open
door OF Paradise itself. There
was little said in the home for DAYS
after that, for Susan saw through
the same portal, and both under.
stood the divine truth in that
philosophy which teaches that 1T
is better TO have loved and lost
than never to have loved at all. "
SO did the editor OF the Buzzer I'm.
derstand when he wrote the short
notice Of The Death OF a Child, "
and so did every other father and
mother in Buzztown who had pass.
ed through the same cloud. II was
the understanding and the promise
oil one who understood even better
than John Smith and Susan Smith
the meaning Of the parable that had
been spread out before them.