The Green Forest tribune., 1908-12-18

rom her left arm, and showed an ugly wound in the arm where her husband had stabbed her with stiletto.
 The young teacher lost no time in taking the poor woman ito a surgeon, who dressed the already infected wound, and dealt with a case so diff cult that he barely saved the arm from amputation.
 The poor woman accepted the help stolidly, for suffering had wrought it's work in her embittered spirit. drunken, brutal husband, hard, inces- sant toll, and the care of three puny children weighed down her forlorn life. She lived in one basement room, and her washing supplied the chil- dren's food, when her husband did not succeed in getting the money first and spending it for drink.
 There is not dog upon the street whose lot is not happier than mine," she said. No. there is no God.'
 To the three children, Leonardo, Michael and Angelo, fourth was soon added, and to her was given the name Rosie; for the mother did not recall the names of any Italian artists that would have fitted a little girl. And when the little girl was born, the worthless father deserted the home, which was perhaps the only thing he had done to help it for long time.
 It was no argument that changed the creed of the poor immigrant wom- an. The simplest necessities of life were imperatively needed in that home, and they were supplied. Day by day visiting nurse came in and cared for her. Day by day the chil7 dren were tended in the day nursery. Frequent visits of the teachers brought simple comforts to the poor tenement, and life became a little brighter. But the sad look was there of a woman whose hopes were gone, and who had drunk to the dregs the cup of bitter experience.
 They had Christmas tree at the nursery, with simple gifts for the chil- dren. When the exercises were over, and the teachers were taking down the tree, one of them proposed that they should carry it over to home where one of the children was sick. The tree was too large, and had to be cut off, but it was still re- spectable tree. And its reception in the first home was so enthusiastic that they carried it to another, and yet another. Nor were gifts lacking; for a quantity of secondhand toys had been received, and there was second hand clothing for distribution as well.
 A few. of the children accompanied the tree to the first house, and the procession grew. First went the tree, upheld by two or twenty children; then came the basket of decorations, then basket of presents, and then the teachers and the throng. It was long after dinner time when they came to Mrs. Carrucio's one room.
 It was a dark room, with one court window, and that window was filled with children who could not get in. The table was still loaded with the remains of the Christmas feast, and Mrs. Caruccio was holding Rosie, while the three boys gathered about her Into the midst of the family group came the wonderful tree, for the eleventh time decorated with tin sel and glass balls, and lighted with candles.
 It bore wonderful fruit-a shawl for the mother, shoes for the boys, white clothing for baby Rosie, and an odd collection of secondhand toys.
 The light of the candles found a re- flection in the face of the poor wom- an. She had seen the Lord in the love of his children. She looked at the tree, now bare of presents, but still radiant with candles and orna- ments, and looked again at the faces of the teachers, and then at the face of her babe. Upon her knees she fell in front of the wonderful tree, and over her face, that had been too sad for weeping, the tears flowed freely as she knelt and uttered a prayer And her face became almost like the face of a Madonna, as she held her babe and sobbed her sad Magnificent in her native tongue.-Youth's Con- papiOp