Middletown transcript., 1908-06-20

WiAC . hbbNot h0 o"u lV W COul
fort her, Whispering that therer
where other poorhouses, and Tim
need never know.
Oh, my good, kind dear lady!
pleaded Martha, I know you will
forgive two useless old bodies
like we be for intruding here
upon you ; for we were told that
This was the poorhouse-weren't
we, John ?-and we were SO
happy a moment ago to think
to think-oh, thou kind Heavenly
Father, broke off the poor old
soul, clasping her hands in de.
spair, Tim must never know! 1t
would break his heart!
Tim! Who is Tim? questioned
the woman.
Tins our boy, said John Lang
ton simply.
Do you mean to say that you
have a son, and he has allowed
you to come to this =?
No, no, you mustn't think that
of Tim! Tim amt that kind of a
boy! Why, Tins been the sole
support of John and me for now
going on most ten years-hasn't
he, John?-and Tins got only
one arm. He lost his other arm
helping the tiremen when the
paper.mill burned down. Why,
Tim thinks we've gone off to live
at d rich relatives.
There was d mystery here that
concerned her charitable spirit
to solve, and the woman begged
them to tell her more about them
selves and Tim.
Little by little, skillfully led on
by their sympathetic horses, John
and Martha Langton told how
they had given their little all to
a lawyer to represent himself to
be the agent of long missing
brother of Johns, who wished
John and his wife to come and
live with him in a distant county;
and how Tim had been deceived
into believing that they, John
and Martha, were going off to u
pleasant home among their kin,
never dreaming that they were
going away to a poorhouse; how
Tim would now marry Alice, and
make a little home for himself
and wife, as they had fifty years
before how they had been de-
ceived and deserted by their law.
yer, and now knew not what to do.
Profoundly moved, the woman
listened to their simple, pathetic,
heroic story, and when, with
infinite pride and love, Martha
| took a little package from her
bosom and disclosed a photo
graph of Tim, she examined the
likeness with the deepest interest
The picture was that of a young
man of four-and-twenty, a broad,
shouldered, clean cut young fel-
low. He is a son to be proud of,
said the woman, returning the
photograph, with a deep sigh.
He is, indeed! was Martha's
proud response.
From the little bundle lying in
Martha's lap "a small object fell
to the floor. Her hostess stopped
and picked it, up and was about
to return it, whena sudden change
came over her, and she stared at
the trinket in her hand with di-
lated eyes.
Oh, John, she's fainting! Mar
tha cried in great agitation, as
the woman swayed.
John hurriedly leaped forward,
and with Martha's aid supported
their hostess until they could
place chair under her She
had nearly tainted, indeed ; but
now revived, and holding out the
trinket clasped in her haud-a
string of coral beads-demauded;
Where did you get these:
They were our boy Tins, when
he was a baby.
Your boy ! the woman repeated
a spasm of pain shooting across
her face. Is he your boy, or an
adopted son?
Martha was suddenly silent,
and it was her husband who an.
swered.
We adopted Tim when he was
a little thing of two years, or
thereabout. We found him, Mar
tha and me, sitting one morning
a-laughin' and CROWN on our
steps, playin' with big bunch OF
timothy, and no one comm for
him, we took him in and raised
him. Those beads were about
the little ones neck the mornin'