Middletown transcript., 1908-07-11
J. REPENTANCE :. !.
BY KARL BAERMANM

in the instant that he sat wonder.
ing aud locking. Then he flung
himself into the loving arms, and
at last the tears that had denied
him burst their gates, and he
cried his little heart out against
his fathers breast.
Presently he raised his face
and looked in his fathers eyes.
They told me you would never
come back, he sobbed.
They thought that | never
would, his father replied gently,
but they did not know. They
did not understand that love, true
love, is the strongest thing in all
the world ; stronger than bolts
or bars or life or death or shame
and disgrace. And oh! my boy,
he went on, his voice trembling
strangely, I love you very dearly.
| have wronged you Tommy,
very deeply have wronged you.
Just how you are too young to
understand now, but when you
are older you will remember what
I say and think what my repen-
tance must be when I know that
the thing I love must suffer for
my sin. Only those we love can
wrong US past all help; but oh !!
believe that from their shame
may spring the noblest and the
purest love in all the world.
Tommy could not understand
all this. Indeed, the only thing
he gathered was that his father
still loved him, more perhaps
than ever, and it made him very
happy. So he clung to him the
more closely and began to weep
afresh. Tho father let him cry
for a time, and then stopped over
him.
There, there. he said with
something of his old soothing
manner - there, there You
must brace up now, Tommy, for
I've come to take you away.
Oh! are we going to mama? cried
Tommy, frightening.
A shade crossed the mans face
No, he said, not yet-not quite.
But we are going far away, just
you and !, and we are going to
be together for a time; until l
I know thai you are cared for.
They could not hold me unless l
knew that.
You'll never leave me again,
said Tommy promptly, taking
the mans hand but he did not
see the look of pain that shot
momentarily across his face.
Then the man told the boy that
they would steal away quietly,
so that none might know the way
they had gone or could follow
them and interrupt them. They
were going to be entirely alone.
The boy clapped his hands as he
heard the plan. They made him
very happy.
At last they started. They
left the house 10y an unfrequented
way, and, lodging through alleys
and vacant spaces, gained the
open country. Once there, they
did not follow the main travelled
roads, as Tommy would have done
but climbed fences and walked
through fields and over steep
hills or through thickets. When
night fell the city lay far behind
them, and they were in u grove
through which there flowed a
stream of clear, cool water. Then
the father made a fire and cooked
some bacon and coffee. When
they had eaten they went to sleep
upon the bare ground, clasped in
each others arms.
For many days they lived like
this-Gipsy life, tramping OYER
the country, avoiding houses and
settlements, and resting beneath
the open sky. The boy thrived
in the new life. The natural
savage and nomad within sprang
to meet the call. Those rowing
days were his happiest. With
the man it was different. Older
and more settled, the exposure
told upon him. Each day he
grew more weary and more wan,
until at last, after a harder tramp
| than usual, he lay down upon the
grass and said, | can go nc
farther.
In the distance there was a
farm house. The boy pointed il
out to his father. You can rest
there, father, he said.
The father assented with an
oddly submissive gesture, an ac
ton that seemed TO indicate the
powerlessness Of man against
| fate. and thew aDproached the